Putting the Poor First

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To progress toward the UN Millennium Development Goals, particularly in poverty alleviation, businesses play a crucial role through core operations, such as employing the poor and providing affordable products and services. Serving the global population of 4 billion at the economic base—known as the Base of the Pyramid (BoP)—is an emerging field in research and practice. Initially, the focus was on tapping into this vast market by developing distribution channels and technological solutions. These early strategies, termed "business to four billion," have evolved into a new paradigm of "business with four billion," emphasizing co-creation and "fortune-creating" initiatives. This shift encourages collaboration with target groups to develop innovative business models and solutions, integrating them into the innovation process. This approach mirrors a prior shift in development research, advocating for the poor as partners and assets in the development process. Despite some BoP researchers acknowledging bottom-up development concepts, comprehensive studies examining BoP ventures from this perspective are lacking. This book seeks to address that gap by analyzing the applicability of bottom-up development elements to BoP innovation. Through in-depth case studies and surveys of companies in Latin America and the Caribbean, it identifies drivers, circumstances, and success factors for adopting a bottom-up perspective in BoP ventures.