The Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid - Review

Innovation is engine of growth that is fueled by consumer demands. Profits can be definitely made by tapping the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ and elevating the people at the bottom of the pyramid at same time . The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid – Eradicating Poverty Through Profits, a book by C.K. Prahalad, is an interesting take on the current purchasing power and living standards of the poor and how they can be benefitted via “Bottom of the Pyramid” approach of marketing. The book explores how MNCs can exploit this broad part of the pyramid to earn profits and simultaneously help alleviate poverty.

The ‘bottom of the pyramid’ here refers to the section of society that is not wealthy. Most of the individuals belonging to BOP(bottom of the pyramid) are usually the ones who earn just sufficient to meet the most basic of the basic needs. Instead of pitying the BOP junta, one can turn them into assets. These are the people that are the fortune that author talks about.

For several decades efforts have been made to alleviate poverty, but these have not yielded desired results. The key factor for this failure can be attributed to putting efforts in wrong direction. The new BOP approach of marketing is capable of dealing with the problem efficiently. It views the BOP population as a potential capital. Author tries to convince that these people don’t lack assets. What they lack is capital. These are the human resources, if utilized properly can yield profits as well as alleviate the problem of poverty. Instead of providing traditional funding, the suggested solution is entrepreneurship i.e. to enable BOP population to become entrepreneurs and consumers. This will not only help to deal with the issue in hand, but also provide sense of dignity and being respected among the BOP people.

The book also deals with the need of innovation in the product so that they can be afforded by BOP population and has value for money.

In nutshell, book successfully convinces one to see the Bottom of the Pyramid not as a problem but as potential capital. When resources will be made available to them, their potential will translate into actual capital required to alleviate poverty. Also, it can be concluded that corporate goals and betterment of human assets can go hand in hand. Overall, a good read for someone interested in understanding approaches to marketing.