Ted London

The Base of the Pyramid Promise (eBook, ePUB)

Building Businesses with Impact and Scale

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

As economic growth slows in the developed world, the base of the pyramid (BoP) represents perhaps the last great, untapped market. Of the world's 7 billion inhabitants, around 4 billion live in low-income markets in the developing world. These 4 billion people deserve-and, increasingly, are demanding-better lives. At the same time, the business community seeks new opportunities for growth, and the development community is striving to increase its impact. With these forces converging, the potential for mutual value creation is tremendous. This book provides a roadmap for realizing that potential.

Drawing on over 25 years of experience across some eighty countries, Ted London offers concrete guidelines for how to build better enterprises while simultaneously alleviating poverty. He outlines three key components that must be integrated to achieve results: the lived experiences of enterprises to date-both successes and failures; the development of an ecosystem that is conducive to market creation; and the voices of the poor, so that entrants can truly understand what poverty alleviation is about. London provides aspiring market leaders and their stakeholders with the tools and techniques needed to succeed in the unique, opportunity-rich BoP.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 240
• Erscheinungstermin: 6. Januar 2016
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780804797337
• Artikelnr.: 48416074

Autorenporträt

Ted London is an internationally-recognized expert on enterprise strategy and poverty alleviation. He is Vice President of the William Davidson Institute and a faculty member at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
This chapter introduces the author and establishes his credentials as a
researcher and business practitioner in a number of global settings,
including base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) contexts. It asserts that the focus in
BoP business is, increasingly, "How can we do this better?" It promises
that this book will provide practically oriented tools, frameworks and
guidelines that can help move BoP enterprises forward, and help them
achieve two key goals: an adequate return on investments, and a substantial
degree of poverty alleviation. It concludes by describing three foundations
on which the book has been constructed: understanding how to build better
enterprises, creating value with the BoP by truly understanding the poverty
alleviation opportunity, and establishing an ecosystem of partners to
sustain those ventures.
1Impact Enterprise for the Base of the Pyramid
chapter abstract
Interest in BoP impact enterprise has been expanding in recent years, both
in terms of the literature and the number of enterprises that have been
launched. Unfortunately, few such enterprises have achieved sustainability
at scale, which is necessary to assure economic viability and alleviate
poverty on a large enough scale: here referred to as "impact enterprises."
One reason for this is that the learnings of successful impact enterprises
have not been widely shared. The chapter differentiates between
"fortune-finding" and "fortune-creating," and asserts that the latter
strategy is far more effective. Both business leaders and development
professionals have good reason to work together to build impact
enterprises-but this is far from easy. Obstacles include challenges of
value creation, value capture, and the successful bringing-together of two
realms that have traditionally eyed each other skeptically. The chapter
concludes with a summary of the book's key prescriptions.
2Enabling Business Model Innovation
chapter abstract
This chapter opens the discussion of the first of the three foundations of
the book described in the preface: understanding how to build better BoP
enterprises. It stresses the importance of innovation, as opposed to an
overriding focus on execution, with an emphasis on "business model
R&D-i.e., efforts to invent appropriate business models for specific and
demanding contexts. The chapter draws upon a multiyear analysis of 18 BoP
initiatives to explore key design variables that should be considered in
BoP business-model invention, whether alone or in combination. The
"Business Model Innovation (BMI) Framework" is introduced, which captures
the four design variables-resources, metrics, structure, and problem
solving-that tend to have an outsized effect. The chapter includes case
studies of companies that launched significant BoP initiatives-Nike, CEMEX,
and "Mondophysic" (a pseudonym)-to show these variables in action, and to
explore which innovation processes succeeded, and why.
3Building for Scale
chapter abstract
This chapter addresses the challenge of scaling: that is, moving from the
pilot phase to an impact enterprise. A framework called the "C-I-E scaling
strategies" is introduced, focusing on co-creation, innovation, and
embedding. Each of these strategies is divided into component parts.
Co-creation involves crafting solutions with the BOP and "finding the
positive." Innovation involves orchestrating effective experiments and
building market opportunities. Embedding involves building
collaboration-based competitive advantage and developing social
embeddedness. Case studies explore scaling's challenges: the collaboration
between two NGOs (CARE and Peace) and a for-profit (Pioneer Hi-Bred
International) to bring new kinds of seeds to India; and ITC's efforts to
transform rural agriculture. Secondary case studies focus on Honey Care
Africa's efforts to scale up Kenya's honey production, and Movirtu's
initiative to build a sustainable business based on offering a mobile
identity that wasn't tied to a particular mobile device.
4Mutual Value Creation
chapter abstract
This chapter focuses on the second of the book's three foundations:
creating value with the BoP by understanding the poverty alleviation
opportunity. Alleviating poverty is critical, because it sits at the heart
of the BoP impact enterprise's value proposition. The more value that
enterprise creates for the BoP, the more value it can capture for itself.
Unfortunately, most impact enterprises have a hard time defining their
value added, and instead resort to either anecdotes or output measures. A
more effective approach begins with an understanding of the
multidimensional nature of poverty, which includes economic, capability,
and relationship well-being.
5Creating a Partnership Ecosystem
chapter abstract
This chapter begins the discussion of the book's third foundation:
establishing an ecosystem of partners. These partners are defined as
"scaling facilitators": i.e., the collaborators who will help the impact
enterprise scale up through the use of different implementation models.
These collaborating organizations can provide support at the enterprise
level (enterprise development) and at the macroeconomic level (market
creation). The chapter introduces a tool called the Partnership Ecosystem
Framework (PEF), which helps the impact enterprise.
6Collaborative Interdependence
chapter abstract
This chapter looks at how an ecosystem of scaling-facilitation partners is
developed and managed over time. It advocates for the creation of a "chief
ecosystem director" (CED) position within the impact enterprise-or, at the
least, incorporating this role with the existing top management team-to
accomplish these important ecosystem-management tasks. It describes the
three major challenges faced by the CED-overcoming biases about seeking
subsidized support, dealing with internal resistance to partnerships, and
responding to cross-organizational tensions-and suggests strategies for
dealing with those challenges. A case study of CEMEX's Patrimonio Hoy
initiative illustrates the importance of a CED. The concept of
"collaborative interdependence", an approach to framing partnership
relevant to BoP impact enterprises, is then explained and discussed,
emphasizing the CED's responsibility for bringing together
independent-but-complementary organizations.
7Making the Promise a Reality
chapter abstract
The closing chapter recapitulates some of the lessons learned in previous
chapters, and looks forward at next steps in the evolution of BoP impact
enterprise. The hard-won wisdom of the last decade or so is that BoP impact
enterprise is more about fortune-creating than fortune-finding-which means
that the would-be impact enterprise has to innovate, as well as execute.
That innovation takes place in a complex context of potential scaling
facilitators, who have to be identified, selected, recruited, and managed.
Most informed observers agree that the alleviation of poverty along its
many dimensions can be enhanced through the creation of impact enterprises.
It is certainly not the only solution; NGOs will continue their good work,
and governments will do their part. But it has to be part of the solution.
We have to fulfill the promise of building BoP impact enterprises that are
sustainable at scale.