The Base of the Pyramid Protocol: Beyond 'Basic Needs' Business Strategies
| Autor: | Erik Simanis, Stuart L. Hart, Duncan Duke |
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| Rok vydání: | 2008 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. 3:57-84 |
| ISSN: | 1558-2485 1558-2477 |
| Popis: | Looking back over the half-dozen years since the publication of “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” we are reminded of the adage, “your greatest strength is your greatest weakness.” Arguably the greatest strength of that seminal paper was the simplicity with which the authors communicated an altogether complex and audacious vision: Corporations, by thinking of and engaging the world’s four billion poor as they would any other market segment, could address the material deprivation of the poor while generating significant profits for the firm. The paper rendered the complex, even intimidating, language and discourse of poverty and development into one to which managers could relate and, more importantly, one on which managers could act. Doing development was a question of doing business with a different customer. The result has been nothing short of catalytic: the number of conferences, initiatives, and papers on the subject matter has exploded, corporations across the globe have launched BOP, or Bottom of the Pyramid, ventures, and Peace Corps graduates are seeking out top MBA programs as a means to channel the passion that brought them to the Peace Corps in the first place. “BOP” has emerged as one of the most powerful management buzzwords of this decade. Simplicity and clarity, however, have come at a price. Reducing the complex meaning of “poverty alleviation” and “development” to the managerially accepted language of “customer needs” and “product development” gave managers a way to get their arms around the challenge, but it also led them to adopt a strongly “economistic” notion of poverty. This mental image has been further reinforced and validated by corporations’ traditional skill sets and capabilities. The lackluster development impacts of initial BOP ventures have led the nonprofit and public sectors, which initially extended cautious support for the concept, to voice increasing dissatisfaction. Some almost seem to feel they were duped, and that the BOP is little |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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