One of the books I am currently reading is C.K. Prahalads, Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The book lays out a convincing argument for how profits and western capitalism can have a meaningful, postive and impactful difference on ridding the world of poverty.
In many ways, this book captures many of the same themes and ideas that I seek to act on when it comes to my view of the relation between international development and entrepreneurship.
One of the themes that especially struck me was the idea of the poverty premium. Counter intuitively in developing countries, it is often the case where the poor pay more while the rich pay less for the same products.
I remember realizing this for the first time after a recent visit to Port au Prince, Haiti. For the research I was conducting, I wanted to buy juice for the individuals participating in the study and to my surprise, I realized that money I had allocated for the expense scarcely covered the costs of half the juice I wanted to purchase. When I asked why the juice was expensive, a local responded that this was just how it was "Things are expensive in Haiti".
Prahalad enumerates several reasons for the poverty premium including the role of local intermediaries and inefficiencies in the distribution system.
I believe that one of the hopes of the book is that by empowering local entrepreneurs in developing economies, the poverty premium can eventually be eliminated.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment