Innovation and Entrepreneurship

I am a convert! -after the BAWB Global Forum in Cleveland, I've been researching more and more about this so-called 'Bottom of the Pyramid' concept -that it is in business's own interest to help society, and the best way to do so is, through doing more business. Sometimes known as 'doing business with the poor', this is not necessarily a new concept: indeed the poor have been integrated into (and benefited) from global supply chains for a while -and will continue to do so.

The 'new' trend (by that I mean a trend that only recently academic studies have discovered is happening and started researching, though i am sure inspired individuals and business throughout time has been involved in this trend for centuries) is basically about how important innovation and entrepreneurship is to doing business with the poor -and therefore I am convinced that entrepreneurs have been doing this for years. It's great that Multinationals are getting more involved, since they can scale-up and mainstream.

The fundamental learning point is very much about understanding the market. The market might for your business yet, but if you can provide a useful service, the market will buy it. The product or service does not necessarily have to benefit society per se; but by creating a successful product or service, it will provide some benefit in its use and in knock-on wealth creation (jobs, distribution etc). There is 1 caveat though, in that these products or services should not be harmful. Writing this, it is clear that the best example of BOP is the illegal drugs market -where there are incredible innovations in supply chain, distribution, marketing and so on -and huge buyers of poor people some how become buyers (unfortunately often through crime).

Now companies are listening more, engaging more and experimenting more: another example of CSR just being good business -a logical evolution of what had been happening previously. Often serving this market requires a new product or service, and often it requires rethinking the associated business functions entirely. Thus businesses need to encourage more entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, give their employees free-rain, flexibility, and take a long-term approach to profit making. Society needs to encourage innovation more; it needs to encourage entrepreneurship in its educational systems, in its economic frameworks, in its recognition and status socially and so on. Much more needs to be done about this urgently. We need more leaders with more ideas to solve the many challenges we face.