#base of pyramid

[uvm-si-mba]

Cool innovation at work at the Base of the Pyramid. The Hippo Water Roller is used to gather water in developing countries. It was designed by two South Africans who grew up in rural areas.

[uvm-si-mba]

Today we welcomed to class our advisory board member the inspiring ‪#‎IqbalQuadir‬ as our guest entrepreneur-in-residence. He talked about his personal journey and work as a pioneer in creating inclusive business ventures in low-income countries.

[uvm-si-mba]

What is the future of the corporation? Paul Polak's vision challenges your view of what's possible through capitalism and may change the way current organizations view their business models. His talk details the tremendous shared value that lies within product and system designs for the bottom 90% of the income pyramid.

[uvm-si-mba]

Please join us to change the world July 16-17

[kristineangell]

Fit the proposition to the customer

9/15/11 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/business/with-no-amazon-as-a-rival-flipkart-moves-fast-in-india.html?ref=world

Western business models don't fit everywhere—transplanted ideas need to be localized. 

[unsungindia-blog]

Arunachalam Muruganantham created a low cost sanitary napkin. Instead of creating a for profit entity, he started distributing his technology to rural self help groups generating employment for many thousand rural women. 

Unsung India at its best!

[malariaman]

We found this ad for NetMark fairly effective because of the emphasis that the commercial places on not only improving health by protecting individuals from getting malaria but also on the economic benefits of the net. The ad does not depict disparate villages but rather homes and temples that seem to be quite modern but still distinctly African. Furthermore, the ad emphasizes that, although previous generations suffered from malaria, the current and next generations do not have to and explains specifically why. The ad also does not place emphasis on one particular age group, depicting both adults and children, thus, widening its appeal. Additionally, the people in the ad that directly espouse the idea that malaria nets our the "new way to live" are those that seem to be educated and, thus, probably respected within the community, specifically nurses, religious figures, and teachers. Because of this, the viewers of this ad may want to emulate what they see and buy the net to not only protect their own families but to buy into the idea of a new African future.

As far as other BoP products or services directed towards developing world customers that could benefit from an online video campaign, we believe that water purification systems that can be bought in Latin America, in particular, could benefit from such. Because access to the internet is on the rise in Latin America via internet cafes or even at home seemingly faster than infrastructure development in many countries, campaigns that are able to show how the product works and how it could possibly help improve the overall health or future of a particular region might be successful, especially if these messages are being sent by individuals that would typically be respected in the community.