Multiple examples of social enterprise and “BOP” opportunities from India are presented in the recent J.P. Morgan publication on Impact Investments as an emerging asset class.
This week saw the release of two pieces of literature that advance the knowledge on market-based approaches to poverty alleviation. We’ll make sure to update our BoP 101piece accordingly.
The first one, Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid, offers a series of reflections on how the concept and practice of “Base of the Pyramid” business have has evolved since the term was first introduced by the late CK Prahalad. It is co-edited by BoP academics and NextBillion advisors Ted London and Stuart Hart, and includes writings of several practitioners and thought leaders in the BoP domain.
From the press release:
(…) Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid, offers a new approach to business with the BoP domain by analyzing the experiences and lessons learned by successful innovators over the last 10 years.
In the initial BoP framing, businesses approached the market with the philosophy of “finding a fortune at the base of the pyramid.” Next Generation Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid urges readers to reconsider this conception, and instead view the market with the perspective of “creating a fortune with the base of the pyramid.”
Staring next week, NextBillion will publish a series of interviews and reviews of the different chapters. For now, consider placing an order and adding it to your holiday list to start the new year afresh in your Base of the Pyramid knowledge.
The second piece is Impact Investments: An Emerging Asset Class, a report authored by J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller Foundation and the Global Impact Investing Network. I had a chance to read through most of it this week. It ties together insights from previous important pieces, like Monitor’s and WRI’s, along with survey responses and actual market data provided by impact investors around the world. The result, and the main argument made by the report is that impact investing is now an asset class in and of itself. This assertion merits a closer look and we’ll be sure to add it to our list of upcoming topics.
http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/2010/12/03/friday-roundup-next-generation-strategies-for-the-bop