05/27/2010

The Bottom of the Pyramid

One of the reasons I was extremely excited to be attending the 2010 Milken Institute Global Conference this year was that I would finally get to attend a presentation by a person I draw great inspiration from — C.K. Prahalad.  Regular ExchangeEveryDay readers will note that I frequently cite advice from his column in Harvard Business Review. Unfortunately, when I showed up at his session it was announced that he had died the week before.  I was saddened some by my missed opportunity, but more so by the fact that the world needs to be continually influenced by great thinkers, great persons, such as C.K.  

He will most be remembered for his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid (New York: Pearson Education, 2010) in which he addressed his nagging concern, "Why is it that with all our technology, managerial know-how, and investment capacity, we cannot make even make a minor contribution to the problem of pervasive global poverty and disenfranchisement?"

In his book, C.K. observed that decades of efforts by governments,  NGOs, and the philanthropic side of corporations have done little to solve the problems at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) — those 4 billion people, the 80% of humanity, who live on less than $2 a day.  He proposed we abandon our old paternalistic views of the poor — seeing the poor as wards of the state, as helpless, hopeless, objects of charity.  Instead he proposes a new solution:

"For sustaining energy, resources, and innovation, the BOP must become a key element of the central mission for large private-sector firms.  The poor must become active, informed, and involved consumers.  Poverty reduction can result from co-creating a market around the needs of the poor."

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