Assessing social impact vs financial sustainability for BoP business models
Insights from the South African low income market (BoP) opportunity
I came across this article from South Africa titled “Why companies should care about the low-income market” which has some excellent insights about this demographic and opportunity space. Also called the ‘BoP or Bottom of the Pyramid’, it is the mass majority segment in the emerging middle class in Sub Sahara today (per recent reports.) […]
Invention vs Innovation from the customer’s perspective
An invention is not an innovation until it is adopted by the users ~ John Heskett We think that technology has all the answers or can provide that magic silver bullet. If we can simply build that shiny, new widget or make an app for the service, customers are bound to flock […]
Going solar as mainstream consumer choice
This shelf of alternate power supply equipment displayed in a Nairobi department store caught my eye. It was in the consumer product section along with fridges, washing machines, TVs and a host of small appliances. It was the first time I’d seen such a wide variety – batteries, solar panels, lamps – so casually displayed […]
Cracking the informal markets in Sub Saharan Africa: the need for strategic improvisation
Ernst & Young’s Consumer Products division released a report for global consumer product companies interested in growing in Africa where they highlight the challenge of cracking the informal markets, described thus: The informal economy is a key feature of life in Africa — estimated to account for around 42% of GDP in 2000 with the […]
Should you launch in emerging markets first? Some examples of an Africa first strategy
That is the question posed by Prof. Vijay Govindarajan in Harvard Business Review. A short piece, co-authored with an undergraduate student, its basic premise is that for medical devices and other impedimenta of the health care industry such as diagnostic tests, there are benefits to launching in emerging markets first before entering the advanced first […]
Tradeoffs made in purchasing decisions influence product and marketing strategy
This snippet from the Business Daily caught my attention: With the inflation rate at 15.93 per cent in the month of July, product sales have come under pressure as consumers put aside non-essential commodities like refreshment drinks from their budget lists. “Right now, the market is very sensitive to price. Coke is competing with other […]
Five years is not a very long time in which to change the world.
Today’s news has not been unexpected. Jobs announces his resignation as CEO of Apple. The subsequent discussion on the ramifications and impact of this news on Apple, its future and its products – given Mr Jobs reputation as a single minded visionary who understood the interplay of business strategy, industrial design and quality engineering – […]
The mobile, the media and the money: empowering Kenyans for Kenya
If I were to go by the majority of the mainstream global media articles on the subject of the drought in East Africa, I would think that only citizens in the USA and across Europe were contributing assistance for food aid. Yet my twitter feed is full of stories of how much Kenyans have raised […]
Visible sign of market creation for a product designed for social impact
It struck me when I saw this Moneymaker pump by Kickstart on a street corner matatu stand in Nairobi while wandering around a market with Muchiri who was shopping for shoes. I’m giving this level of detail so you can see the context in which we spotted this classic and oft quoted example of a […]
