C K Prahlad is very well know personality in Corporate America with his work in Corporate strategy and leadership. I have read some of his articles on the same topic that you have mentioned Smartie in my MBA class and he makes really great arguments about serving the world's poor profitably. I would highly recommend his reading. Cheers, Sameer
Smarter boy Boy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi All A book given to me as gift was fascinating in its theory and the possibilities it unfolds. Dr C K Prahalad's "Fortune at the bottom of the pyramid". He tries to argue that the vast populace in the underdeveloped world is a huge market potential to multinationals also provided they innovate and come out with products and processes which provide value at the price these markets can afford. He argues that this is possible and quotes the live examples of such experiments and successful ones in India and South America mainly Brazil. As he is arguing for multinationals to enter and gain from this market he gives prominence to examples of HLL and ITC - Wheel detergent, sachets and e-choupal of ITC (to make the farmer know the market for his produce before venturing out to sell). ICICI bank's ability to project itself has made their Self Help Group effort borrowed from Bank of Madura and developed essentially to achieve prority sector targets as a "pioneering effort" on micro financing while the credit for that lies in Bangladesh and later in NABARD for copying it. SBI has more SHGs than ICICI but as he is concentrating on private sector attempt at poverty alleviation it does not matter. What I felt bad about the whole exercise was not giving as much prominence to the Amul experiment as it deserves especially when it literally transformed the fortunes of the nation through its milk revolution. Again co-operatives are not multinationals. But what is commendable about the book is the writing style and the arguments to make MNCs see this as a great busines opportunity with the help of NGOs by building up new markets altogether and then emulating that experience elsewhere to create newer ones. Will be of interest to Jagan and others who are into microfinancing in a big way to get private sector initiatives into this vast area which will also make political sense and not cause characters like Chandrababu Naidu to be sidelined as urban biased before they could take forward the e revolution to rural areas in a big way. Happy Reading.The case studies portion is yet to be read. The book also carries CD on some case studies. A brand new experience for me who is accustomed to old time academics. Smartie ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Take a look at donorschoose.org, an excellent charitable web site for anyone who cares about public education! http://us.click.yahoo.com/O.5XsA/8WnJAA/E2hLAA/WfTolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Group Site: http://www.gaybombay.info ========================== NEW CLASSIFIEDS SECTION SEEKING FRIENDS? VISIT www.gaybombay.info click on classified section and type your message in the post section once the link opens This message was posted to the gay_bombay Yahoo! Group. Responses to messages (by clicking "Reply") will also be posted on the eGroup and sent to all members. If you'd like to respond privately to the author of any message then please compose and send a new email message to the author's email address. For Parties and events go to: http://calendar.yahoo.com/YYY,04497/srt,0/gaybombaygroup/?v=42&POS= Post:- gay_bombay@yahoogroups.com Subscribe:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Digest Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] No Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Individual Mail Mode:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Contact Us:- [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives are at http://www.mail-archive.com/gay_bombay%40yahoogroups.com/maillist.html Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gay_bombay/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
