Newsroom

Over the years, it has become fashionable to talk about the business opportunity offered by those at the bottom of the (economic) pyramid. Many national and international seminars have been conducted to highlight this hitherto undiscovered gold-mine. Any challenge to the business rationale for pursuing such a market is considered heretical and almost blasphemous.

Continue reading this news entry

For those at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ (BoP), the four billion people or so living on less than two dollars a day, life is hard. Although collectively they have considerable combined purchasing power, they have up to now been traditionally overlooked by businesses. However, major multinational corporations (MNCs) are now seeing opportunities in developing products for the BoP markets, while making a difference to the lives of the poor people.

Continue reading this news entry

By Harvey S. Keh

Renato Mercado had worked as an assistant architect for 15 years in Saudi Arabia. Last year, he got a one-month leave and was finally able to visit his family in Laguna province after four years.

Upon arrival, he was shocked to know his family was in disarray. His wife was not able to save a single centavo from the remittances he had been making; his eldest son was a drug addict.

For Renato, all the sacrifices and years of hard work was for nothing.

This story is a familiar refrain for many families of overseas Filipinos workers. The social consequence of this continuing migration of Filipinos has been broken families and problematic children who grow up without the proper guidance of parents.

Mai Añonuevo, together with other overseas Filipino worker (OFW) returnees, decided to form Atikha, a nonprofit organization that aims to provide economic and social services to overseas Filipinos and their families. Atikha is currently active in supporting families of OFWs in the provinces of Batangas and Laguna.

Continue reading this news entry

By Uwe Buse

Microloans were invented to help the poorest of the poor help themselves. Now major banks and pension funds are getting into the business, as they discover that the interest paid by the poor can produce high returns. Is it aid or exploitation?

Yunus has an opinion on almost everything, and he is quick to express it. But when it comes to Shafiqual Haque Choudhury, Yunus suddenly becomes a man of few words, barely able to choke out "we'll see."Like Yunus, Shafiqual Haque Choudhury is also involved in the business of eliminating poverty. Choudhury, too, is eloquent, and clearly loves speaking to large audiences, but when he is asked about Yunus, he says, tersely: "He has his achievements."

Yunus and Choudhury both live in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, a densely packed metropolis that expands farther into the surrounding countryside everyday. Both Yunus and Choudhury have built skyscrapers among the city's run-down shacks. And there is another similarity: Both manage banks. Yunus is permitted to use the word bank to refer to his organization, Grameen Bank. But for legal reasons Choudhury's organization, ASA, cannot call itself a bank. It is formally a non-governmental organization (NGO).

Continue reading this news entry

India obviously has barely touched its potential, still faced with vast poverty, corruption, and infrastructure needs. University of Michigan global management expert C. K. Prahalad this spring told Indian business leaders that if India, which is already producing 3 million college graduates a year, can educate the poor, it will have the world's largest pool of trained people power by 2022.

Continue reading this news entry

The Mexican micro-finance entity that raised $400 million from an IPO comes under fire for becoming the moneylender the micro-finance institutions were supposed to protect the poor from.

A crimson and red screen lights up and a clutch of golden fish stream left and then right. This is the home page of the website of Compartamos Banco, the Mexican entity that became the first micro-finance institution (MFI) in Latin America to raise equity capital, as much as $400 million, through an initial public offer last year. The MFI, formerly an NGO, which turned into a for-profit entity and then into a bank, decided to turn to the market to reach out to more poor. So what is wrong?

Today, Compartamos is the biggest success story/controversy in the micro-finance world, depending on which side you are.

Continue reading this news entry

Studies conducted by economists at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) have deduced that rising global food prices can actually help improve the conditions of the majority of the poor and alleviate poverty in the country.

Continue reading this news entry

It’s a rural resurgence of sorts and has got companies revisiting their bottom of the pyramid strategies. Rural offtake across select categories such as shampoos, toothpastes and hair oils has grown faster than consumption in urban markets this year.

ACNielsen data for the January-July 2008 period shows that growth has been higher in rural markets across each of the categories by value and volume. The growth is being attributed to factors like higher prices of farm produce and farm loan write-offs, resulting in consumers upgrading to branded products.

Continue reading this news entry

VisionSpring is pleased to announce the appointment of Peter Eliassen as Vice President of Sales and Operations, a position responsible for the leadership and management of VisionSpring’s global operations team and the achievement of operational and sales objectives.

Continue reading this news entry

New Delhi: Marketers often fail to realise that every brand is in a continuous state of launch, says veteran ad-man and marketer Alyque Padamsee, who is also chairman of the London Institute of Corporate Training, at the two-day CII Marketing Summit on the theme, "Marketing to the bottom of the pyramid- How relevant and in what measure achievable in the Indian context."

Continue reading this news entry