The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid

A RADICAL APPROACH THAT DELIVERS ON TWO BOTTOM LINES : FINANCIAL AND SOCIAL

• Globally, 1,8 billion people lack access to electricity, keeping them from the fuel and connectivity necessary for modern life. How does low cost, clean and fast sustainable energy - solar power - now reach into the hinterlands of Nicaragua through local entrepreneurship where the average per capita income is less than $300? And, can this example be copied?

• The world's leading cause of mental disorders and retardation is Iodine Deficiency Disorder (IDD). In India alone there are 70 million people who have IDD and another 200 million are at risk. This rampant disease can be found in Kenya, the Ivory Coast, and Nigeria. How did Hindustan Lever Ltd, a branch of a multinational company, solve the problem and make a profit at the same time?

• Because 24 million poor Mexicans earn less than $5 a day, they have been unable to get access to credit. How did this change so that the Mexicans could build affordable housing for themselves while the third largest cement manufacturer in the world, Cemex, continues to reap the financial rewards?

• Blindness affects 12 million people in India. Since 80% of blindness would be avoided with medical treatment, could a clinic serve more than a million patients and do it mostly for free, yet continue to be highly profitable? Can this local solution be replicated elsewhere?

These are four examples of the provocative 12 in-depth case stories from India, Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Nicaragua that illustrate the world's most exciting, fastest growing and perhaps most lucrative market-the bottom of the pyramid (BOP). First discussed in a Harvard Business Review article and then in Foreign Affairs, this transformative business idea is the mission of C.K. Prahalad, who has been called one of the top 20 business thinkers today. He brings this radical concept to life in his book that launches the new imprint of Wharton School Publishing, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits. Accompanying the book is a 25-minute CD that shows first-hand how real people have dramatically improved their lives when companies engage the BOP.

The market for goods and services at the bottom of the pyramid is enormous and underutilized. Prahalad shows that the 18 largest emerging countries have 680 million households with an annual income of about $6,000 or less per household. Those numbers translate into a huge, untapped market of approximately $1.7 billion-waiting to be recognized and served.

Largely ignored by most traditional companies because they only have a small, often fixed amount of money, the poor are an invisible market, but only because we've been socialized to think that way. Prahalad believes the business community has had blinders on. They haven't been able to imagine how to sell something when money isn't readily available. Growth has been misguidedly focused on ownership rather than access, on the luxury market or on copying "best practices." These strategies can only account for a portion of revenue and efficiency over time. On the other hand, the BOP is enormous with almost limitless growth potential. C.K. Prahalad says serving the bottom of the pyramid is the "next practice," the challenge that will lead to a radical leap forward.

What hasn't been understood properly until The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid is that the future will develop from serving the poor-not only because it is profitable, but because the innovations that are developed in the process are crucial. Only innovations that are top quality, low price, high volume and world-scale will work for those in poverty, while creating the most growth and profitability for businesses. New products and services that improve the lives of people aspiring to the middle class and also make the world a safer place, while protecting and conserving the earth's resources.

The case studies, based on research done by Mr. Prahalad and his graduate student whose biographies appear at the back of the book, cover a wide variety of industries: retail, housing, food, agriculture, healthcare, financial services, wireless technology, renewable energy, e-governance, and infectious diseases. The new solutions come from multinational corporations, local businesses, and newly developed local entrepreneurs, including such unusual examples as groups of women selling time on their cellphones.

The ramifications of this book are just beginning. Globally, this is a movement in the making that will affect everyone and the life of the planet. After all, what company or individual entrepreneur wouldn't everyone want to make money, create successful products and services that no one else has thought of, and saves lives and our earth at the same time?