The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid – C.K. Prahalad

Book Review Chapter 6:

Development as Social Transformation

Library Reference: N/A

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Fortune-Bottom-Pyramid-Eradicating-Publishing/dp/0131877291/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234441981&sr=1-1

Quote:  “The capabilities to solve the perennial problem of poverty through profitable businesses at the BOP are now available to most nations. However, converting the poor into a market will require innovations.”

    It is very nice to hear and learn hat most of the perennial problems of poverty through profitable businesses at the BOP are now available in most nations. It is a great achievement I think and we must continue to do things like this. Although, making the poor into a market is difficult because it is not as simple as perennial problems. The poor are more difficult to help I guess. That is why it requires innovation to be able for the poor to get better and not become poor. But of course they also have to work their bottoms up if they wish not to be poor because they merely can’t rely on people who are already helping them.

Learning Expectation:

    What I expect to learn in this chapter is that how will we do the Social Transformation. It is very difficult I think to come up with such solution but as the saying goes, nothing is impossible if you put your heads into it. So, I want to learn more about Social Transformation and what are the steps or phases required to be able to have such social transformation.

Review:

    As we have discussed in the previous chapters and learned from it, we have looked at the Bottom of the Pyramid as a viable and profitable growth market. We have learned that treating the Bottom of the Pyramid as a market can lead to poverty reduction, particularly if NGOs and community groups can join with MNCs and local companies as business partners. The development of markets and effective business models at the Bottom of the Pyramid can transform the poverty alleviation task from one of the most constant struggle with subsidies and aid to entrepreneurship and the generation of wealth.

It is said that when the poor at the Bottom of the Pyramid are treated as consumers, they can reap the benefits of respect, choice, and self-esteem and have an opportunity to climb out of the poverty trap, which is basically great.

National and local governments have an important role to play in this process. They have to create the enabling conditions for active private-sector involvement in creating this Bottom of the Pyramid market opportunity. As we have discussed in the quote “The capabilities to solve the perennial problem of poverty through profitable businesses at the BOP are now available to most nations. However, converting the poor into a market will require innovations”. The methodologies for innovation at the BOP are different from and more demanding than the traditional approach, but is the opportunity for significant profitable growth.

So basically, this chapter is the final phase, which completes the development for improvements. This is where the development for social transformation occurs.

What I’ve learned:

    I have learned that if we treated the people at the Bottom of the Pyramid as consumers, we would be able to actually prevent poverty and also help them at the same time in their poverty trap. So the biggest challenge now is to develop the social transformation for the world to be free from poverty.

Questions:

1.    Can the world actually be poverty free?

2.    How long will this take?

3.    What are the hindrances that may occur in making the world poverty free?

4.    Do all people agree to make the BOP people consumers?

5.    Can social transformation happen soon?

Citation: (C.K. Prahalad, 2006)