Selling Beneficial Goods to the Poor

Aneel Karnani

Chapter Chapter 5 in Fighting Poverty Together, 2011, pp 113-143 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The poor, of course, have many unmet needs.1 It would be a painless solution to the problem of poverty if business could satisfy all (or most of) these needs and make a profit in the bargain. That, as we saw in Chapters 3 and 4, is the seductive appeal of the BOP proposition. However, while the BOP proposition is not the solution, and while there are too many examples of businesses that profit by exploiting the poor, some opportunities do exist for firms to make profits and simultaneously help alleviate poverty. We need profitable businesses that sell products and services that benefit the poor and genuinely improve the quality of their lives, at prices they can afford. After an extensive survey, Monitor Group, a consulting firm, concluded that there are very few examples of profitable large- scale businesses that market truly beneficial goods in low-income markets.2 The challenge is to design creative market-based solutions for alleviating poverty.

Keywords: Mobile Phone; Business Model; Purchase Power Parity; Social Business; Corporate Social Respon (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-12023-5_5

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230120235_5

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