If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity can open up.
What we need is a better approach to help the poor, an approach that involves partnering with them to innovate and achieve sustainable win-win scenarios where the poor are actively engaged and, at the same time, the companies providing products and services to them are profitable. This collaboration between the poor, civil society organizations, governments, and large firms can create the largest and fastest-growing markets in the world. Large-scale and wide-spread entrepreneurship is at the heart of the business solution to poverty.
Such an approach exists and has, in several instances, gone well past the idea stage as a private enterprises, both large and small, have begun to successfully build markets at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) as a way of eradicating poverty. There are banks adapting to the financial needs of the poor, power companies reaching out to meet the energy needs, and construction companies doing what they can to house the poor in affordable ways that allow for pride.
The strength of these innovative approaches, as you will come to appreciate, is that they tend to create opportunities for the poor by offering them choices and encouraging self-esteem.
Source: The Fortune at The Bottom of The Pyramid
JAN
About the Author:
Joshua D. Mosshart has spent more than 15 years in the financial industry customizing nonproprietary strategies to help his clients pursue their personal financial goals. Having spent over a decade studying different aspects of the economy, Joshua has mastered inter-market analysis, the study of how global and domestic markets react with one another. Joshua received his Masters of Science in Financial Services degree. Joshua is a Certified Estate Advisor through the National Association of Financial and Estate Planning (N.A.F.E.P.). He completed the Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) Certification Curriculum through the American College and completed "The Industry's Most Complete Financial Planning Program" the CHFC designation and the CASL retirement coaching designation as a leading credential in the senior/retirement area. Also he was awarded the Chartered Life Underwriter designation the highest level designation available in the life insurance profession. He is also a designated Certified Annuity Specialist ® which is only held by 1% of licensed advisors. He was awarded the Certified Funds Specialist ®, Certified Income Specialist ™, Board Certified in Estate Planning ™and the Certified Tax Specialist™ designations. Joshua D. Mosshart is series 7, 63, 66 & 24 securities registrations through LPL Financial. Joshua was born in Sandpoint, Idaho, where he became an avid skier and rugged outdoorsman. At the age of 12, he and his family relocated to California. Upon graduation he moved to Hawaii where he joined the Merchant Marines. While in Hawaii, Joshua co-founded a non-profit organization raising huge sums of money for endangered species. His non-profit organization later became the first non-profit organization to ever set up in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. He completed 5 years of graduate level courses at The Institute of Business and Finance and The American College in Pennsylvania. He currently lives in Malibu with his wife Arlene and four children.