The continued curse of Cargo Cult marketing in emerging markets
The concept of Cargo Cult marketing is not unknown yet its impact and influence in the emerging markets in which I operate, can be and is, much worse. The so called “Bottom of the Pyramid” (AKA the BoP) markets have conditions that are even more likely to give rise to this blind adherence to conventional […]
The ubiquitious rural computer
Bargaining for bananas in rural Rwandan market could not have been completed without the use of the mobile phone’s calculator function. While a combination of broken Swahili, Kinyarwanda and English was used by the customer and the shopkeeper, the transaction’s clarity was increased by piling goods on the table and then using the clear numerals […]
Grassroots innovators and the “build-test-learn” loop
Afrigadgeteers exemplify the customer centric principles of such high tech processes as the Lean Startup (r) method, or so it emerged from an insightful conversation with my Tallinn based friend Siim Esko recently, on Skype of course. He made the connection between the need to experiment and test prototypes for market viability – rapidly and […]
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 […]
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 […]
