bottom of the pyramid strategy
CK Prahalad has made a brilliant point about the bottom the pyramid, which is that the 4 billion poorest people of the world who live for less that 2$ a day should not be seen as victims. Look instead at them as tomorrows middleclass.
This argues for business in the developed world to work on innovation from the point of view of aiming at third world needs. Obviously, looking to new and emerging global markets is attractive. But where is the gateway? And what are the steps to adressing these kind of markets? Today, the best answer is still CSR or CSI, using for instance UN’s Global Compact program.
The CareCubicle program looks at the whole of this topic pragmatically from a very different point of view. The CareCubicle team is really looking forward to show you how it works, which should be sometime next year.
What we want to show is how you can make a web based program that asks the people with the need to state the needs. Most likely through NGO’s or other help organizations.
Then have ordinary people and specialists called upon to build amazing social innovations right there on the internet! This has not been seen before.
And through a whole new micro-investment model; have the design of the innovations listed in such a way that businesses can pitch in with tangible resources to bring those innovations into reality.
Now, when the local population is involved in implementing those innovations, we have a bottom of the pyramid strategy. But why stop there with something good when we can something that can be astonishing.
The thing is that this kind of thinking is of a world that is evaporating before our very eyes. It is the idea of capitalism 1.0 and the idea of “us” versus “them. Today, things are different. I’ll save that discription for a later post. Here, I’ll just note that they have knowledge and knowhow that so far has been just as inaccessible as ours has been to them.
Business wise, the question from the developed question has always been how to argue bottom line for such a strategy. I wont say that it has been left unanswered because that is simply not true. The consequence for business venture is a “fend and figure it out for yourself” situation.
This is where CareCubicle is really interesting. We argue that once a social innovation has been delivered by a combined effort of businesses, organisations and network of individuals – the same innovations can be re-designed to address premium markets. And the network that helped innovate the social innovation is still there to co-design and turn that social innovation into products and services.
A quick example. Let’s say someone comes up with a whole new tent/habitat for refugees. Energy producing, water preserving etc. Now let’s re-design it; We could aim at traditional campers. We could also aim at wilderness campers and certainly extreme exploreres (mountain climbers or trips to the north pole etc).
This is just the beginning. We have many many many very practicle ideas we think will make heads spin. What we would like to say now is that Bottom of the Pyramid strategies are no longer about THEM buying our stuff. They are about all of us combining efforts to create a whole new level of social innovations.