Design for the next billion 2012: What’s missing?
An upcoming project’s requirements led to the realization that there is a huge gap in design for the next billion (and more). The subsequent domino effect has left a lack in tools, methods, frameworks and thus, disciplines themselves, from the perspective of addressing the challenge of serving the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) population segment. […]
Aspiring changes; inspiring futures
I’ve been in New Delhi this past week for some work and its been interesting to see the shift in thinking and aspirations. The first few visits in the early 2000s showed the dramatic surface changes of a noisy market opening up to the rest of the world. Today it struck me that many of […]
Fool’s gold and cornflakes
@syamant pointed me to an interesting article on HBR yesterday “Are you targeting a phantom market?” which was at once amusing and yet quite sad in the spectacle that Kellogg’s Cornflakes has made of itself in India. How is it possible that Kellogg could envision building a $3 billion business in India, invest $65 million […]
Cookstoves matter less than the ladies who must use them
Photo credit: Goverdhan Meena, village Rawal, India Jan 2009 The Wonkblog covers findings from a randomized control trial on the impact of cookstoves in a blogpost titled “What cookstoves tell us about the limits of technology” where they share such insights as: So what went wrong? Basically, none of the earlier evaluations of the clean […]
Putting some real numbers to the world changing on the mobile
VentureBeat writes last week on How tech companies are waking up to global responsibilities, opportunities and shares this oft quoted example of world changing, As investment in social enterprise becomes more common, major brands and venture capitalists alike are learning how to make a difference without sacrificing their profit-driven missions.Nokia is a prime example. With […]
Cracking the code for sustainable “BoP” business models
Unlearn the past to create the future ~ C K Prahalad In the half decade or more since I increasingly began to focus on the challenge of the emerging consumer opportunities among the lower income demographic of the developing world, I’ve yet to hear of an unconditionally successful business model specifically designed for this segment […]
Out of touch, out of sync: The future of American Design
Since I’m still in the mood to look back at the progress of the design industry in this past decade, let me bring up another article I’d spotted in FastCo as well. This one is from September 2011, titled “American Firms Now Embrace Design, But They’re Aging Fast. What’s Next?” written by FrogDesign’s Robert Fabricant. […]
Going nowhere fast: Looking back at a decade of design thinking
“He who doesn’t know where he came from doesn’t know where he is going” ~ African proverb Today, I came across an article in FastCo written by one of Monitor/Doblin’s people, Melissa Quinn, whose bio seems to imply she is responsible for selecting the right mix of professionals from both business and design. Reading What […]
Nielson puts the African opportunity in perspective
Nielson have released a new report called The Diverse Peoples of Africa covering 7 countries. While they focus on urban and peri-urban consumers, mostly earning USD200 a month and above, there is some fascinating information available in there nonetheless. This is one of them – the visual puts the facts in context, the emerging consumer […]
Financial Inclusion survey and the informal economy
Gallup conducted the survey on behalf of the World Bank and their comprehensive synopsis available online (with links to the full report) offers a few more charts in addition to the map above. These look at bank account ownership among adults in different regions comparing rural to urban, genders as well as the reasons stated […]
