Putting numbers to the story of the emerging global middle classes
The top 1% of the global income distribution has seen its real income (adjusted for inflation) rise by more than 60% over those two decades. What is far less known is that an even greater increase in incomes was realized by those parts of the global income distribution that now lie around the median. They […]
Over Scandinavian skies…
This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
Barcelona and informality
The ancient Roman town of Barsino, or Barcelona, the Catalan capital in Spain, was the location for the recently concluded symposium on the Informal Economy. Short overview of the conference is here, while on Flickr you’ll find my overdose on Antoni Gaudi as well as just the myriads of eyecatching details of the city. I’ve […]
Reflecting on The Informal Economy, October 2012
John Keith Hart, who first saw the economic activity of the “unemployed” in Accra, Ghana back in the beginning of the 1970’s, almost exactly 40 years ago, opened the symposium with the statement that the informal economy had gone mainstream. After all, he said, here was a gathering of folks from around the world, ready […]
The Africans are not beneficiaries anymore
Innovating without knowing your customer is like being lost in the dark with your eyes closed: you’ll never know if you hit the light switch ~ @bdoorn My colleague on my current project in The Netherlands, Bart Doorneweert, tweeted that insight after our next to last user interview today (tomorrow is our last). While I’ve […]
Tilting at windmills – inevitably renewable
Windmills, Holland October 1st, 2012 Why was it so hard for people to massively change energy infrastructure? There are parts of the world where as little as 10% of the population has access to energy. Innovative solutions and business models can be tested very easily. The latest we hear is MKopa from Kenya, attempting to […]
Reflecting on my work here in rural Holland
Wageningen is not your average small town of pop. 30,000 in rural Holland. It has a very well known research university in the Biological Sciences, particularly the needs of agriculture and food. This changes the character of the town’s thinking, being far more aware of the world and what chaos’ butterfly wing in another part […]
Risk mitigation strategies in the uncertainty of the informal economy
What is the role of flexibility as an inherent design principle for transactions in the informal economy? Why is it so critical to the success or failure of business models in this operating environment? What does flexibility primarily tend to mean in this context? Uncertainty is the primary differentiator between the developed world’s systems that […]
Amsterdam Street View
September 21st 2012 This post was written by niti bhan and rss originates from www.nitibhan.com
Market creation is built on a foundation of communications
Strategic conversations is a concept I learnt from Dina Mehta, over the phone, recently and I just recognized a clear cut case of it. The World Bank has just launched a platform for conversations to happen around the wicked problems of the day. Re-aligning the flow between intent and action is much easier with a […]
