Business at the Base of the Pyramid

Hey everyone,

last week I had the chance to assist at an event organized by Compromiso Empresarial that brought together researchers and case studies from companies that are working with the "Base of the Pyramid" - BOP (yes, there's lots of acronyms also outside of AIESEC :-)). The BOP is being constituted of 4 billion people all over the world who earn less than 4 Dollars a day. This huge amount of people usually encounters the following obstacles if they want to buy basic goods and services:

• Price: prices are artificially high, for example because there exists a monopoly and not a competitive market
• Quality: Companies don't produce products of a high quality for "poor" people
• Access: low-income consumers usually don't have access to the same range of products as high-income consumers

Different companies that are doing business in the BOP presented their cases, they were:

• Adopem, a microfinance bank from the Dominican Republic
  
• Procter and Gamble, manufacturing products for the BOP market since 5 years, presenting it's challenges and solutions in Colombia.
  
• Codensa, an energy retailer which presented its activities in Colombia
• TIA-Multiahorro, an Equatorian retailer
  

"All these four presenters offered their insights into what had been the most important factors for their respective businesses in allowing them to succeed. Factors common to all four cases are well-known to NextBillion.net readers: knowing the customer, accessible products, products and services adapted to meet BoP needs and with a pricing structure that allows purchasing by BoP customers."

source: thenext4billion.net

If you're interested in the statistics, where do these people live, what do they spend their money on, etc. you might be interested in a publication by the World Resource Institute called "The Next 4 Billion". On the website you can find more information around the concept of the Base of the Pyramid as well as interesting articles on other topics related to the concept and especially around Social Entrepreneurship.

Saludos, Sarah