The concept of The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid originally appeared as an article by C. K. Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart in the business journal Strategy+Business . [1] [2] The article was followed by a book with the same title that discusses new business models targeted at providing goods and services to the poorest people in the world. It makes a case for the fastest growing new markets and entrepreneurial opportunities being found among the billions of poor people 'at the bottom of the [financial] pyramid'. According to Bill Gates, it "offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability." [3]
The book consists of a number of case studies, one to a chapter, about businesses that have thrived with such models. These include the businesses Casas Bahia, Patrimonio Hoy, Bank of Madura, Aravind Eye Hospital, Jaipur rugs and Project Shakti and how they were founded.
In January 2019, C.K. Prahalad's daughter Deepa Prahalad published an update to the piece in strategy+business, asserting that profound changes are closing the gap between the world’s poorest consumers and others, offering an unprecedented opportunity for businesses to create—and share in—prosperity. [4]
A core competency is a concept in management theory introduced by C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel. It can be defined as "a harmonized combination of multiple resources and skills that distinguish a firm in the marketplace" and therefore are the foundation of companies' competitiveness.
Gary P. Hamel is an American management consultant. He is a founder of Strategos, an international management consulting firm based in Chicago.
The poverty penalty describes the phenomenon that poor people tend to pay more to eat, buy, and borrow than the rich. The term became widely known through a 2005 book by C. K. Prahalad, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) is a general management magazine published by Harvard Business Publishing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Harvard University. HBR is published six times a year and is headquartered in Brighton, Massachusetts.
Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad was a corporate and social strategist, educator and author. He was the Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Corporate Strategy at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
Poverty reduction, poverty relief, or poverty alleviation, is a set of measures, both economic and humanitarian, that are intended to permanently lift people out of poverty.
The bottom of the pyramid, bottom of the wealth pyramid or the bottom of the income pyramid is the largest, but poorest socio-economic group. In global terms, this is the 2.7 billion people who live on less than $2.50 a day.
Blue Ocean Strategy is a book published in 2004 written by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD, and the name of the marketing theory detailed on the book.
Co-creation, in the context of a business, refers to a product or service design process in which input from consumers plays a central role from beginning to end. Less specifically, the term is also used for any way in which a business allows consumers to submit ideas, designs or content. This way, the firm will not run out of ideas regarding the design to be created and at the same time, it will further strengthen the business relationship between the firm and its customers. Another meaning is the creation of value by ordinary people, whether for a company or not.
Multi-level marketing (MLM), also called network marketing or pyramid selling, is a controversial marketing strategy for the sale of products or services where the revenue of the MLM company is derived from a non-salaried workforce selling the company's products or services, while the earnings of the participants are derived from a pyramid-shaped or binary compensation commission system. An MLM strategy may be an illegal pyramid scheme.
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three — the world’s three largest and most prestigious management consulting firms — along with Bain & Company and McKinsey & Company.
Inclusive capitalism is a theoretical concept and policy movement that seeks to address the growing income and wealth inequality within Western capitalism following the financial crisis of 2007–2008 to improve business and society.
The New Age of Innovation: Driving Cocreated Value Through Global Networks (ISBN 9780071598286) is a book by University of Michigan Ross School of Business Professors C. K. Prahalad and M. S. Krishnan published in April 2008.
Creating shared value (CSV) is a business concept first introduced in Harvard Business Review article Strategy & Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. The concept was further expanded in the January 2011 follow-up piece entitled "Creating Shared Value: Redefining Capitalism and the Role of the Corporation in Society". Written by Michael E. Porter, a leading authority on competitive strategy and head of the Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness at Harvard Business School, and Mark R. Kramer, Kennedy School at Harvard University and co-founder of FSG, the article provides insights and relevant examples of companies that have developed deep links between their business strategies and corporate social responsibility (CSR). In 2012, Kramer and Porter, with the help of the global not-for-profit advisory firm FSG, founded the Shared Value Initiative to enhance knowledge sharing and practice surrounding creating shared value, globally.
Stuart L. Hart is an American academic, writer and theorist and the founder of Enterprise for a Sustainable World, a non-profit dedicated to helping businesses make the transition to sustainability.
Jaipur Rugs is one of India's largest manufacturers of hand knotted rugs. Headquartered in Jaipur, India, the company's operations encompass more than branches, operating in six states and 600 villages in India with distribution to over 40 countries with its independent base of over 40,000 artisans. The company also has a large distribution base in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
Nand Kishore Chaudhary is an Indian social entrepreneur. He currently serves as the Chairman and Managing Director of the social enterprise Jaipur Rugs, which he founded in 1978.
An inclusive business model is a type of business model that seeks to create value for low-income communities by integrating them into a company's value chain on the demand side as clients and consumers, and/or on the supply side as producers, entrepreneurs or employees in a sustainable way.
Yves Doz is a French academic. He is a professor of strategic management at INSEAD, where he holds the Solvay Chaired Professorship of Technological Innovation, and is a Fellow of CEDEP. His research interests focus on innovation, the strategy and organization of multinational corporations, strategic alliances, and on how business organizations can develop the capability to adapt quickly to changes in competitive environments. More recently, he has been working with a number of national governments on strategic adaptability and agility. He is the author of numerous books and articles, which include the first comprehensive book on strategic alliances, co-authored with Gary Hamel, and the Multinational Mission, co-authored with CK Prahalad.
Hannah Jones is the founder and President of Nike Valiant Labs.
