The Base of the Pyramid Promise: Building Businesses with Impact and Scale

by Ted London

As economic growth slows in the developed world, the base of the pyramid (BoP) represents perhaps the last great, untapped market. Of the world's 7 billion inhabitants, around 4 billion live in low-income markets in the developing world. These 4 billion people deserve—and, increasingly, are demanding—better lives. At the same time, the business community seeks new opportunities for growth, and the development community is striving to increase its impact. With these forces converging, the potential for mutual value creation is tremendous. This book provides a roadmap for realizing that potential.

Drawing on over 25 years of experience across some eighty countries, Ted London offers concrete guidelines for how to build better enterprises while simultaneously alleviating poverty. He outlines three key components that must be integrated to achieve the lived experiences of enterprises to date—both successes and failures; the development of an ecosystem that is conducive to market creation; and the voices of the poor, so that entrants can truly understand what poverty alleviation is about. London provides aspiring market leaders and their stakeholders with the tools and techniques needed to succeed in the unique, opportunity-rich BoP.

Genres: Nonfiction, Economics, Business

233 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 23, 2015

Reviews

[Andrew Westphal · Rating 1 out of 5]

Prof. London is an engaging lecturer and clearly a leader in this field. Unfortunately, without being concurrently enrolled in his course, I found it impossible to become engaged with the book. Part of the problem might be its format as a vague mix between memoir, case study, textbook, and lecture notes. I appreciated the frameworks for approaching BoP issues, but without pre-existing experience in this field, I failed to gain an appreciation for how meaningful these models can be in real applications. Overall, I was hoping for a solid, introductory text about engagement with the BoP, and this book does not fit that need.