Workshop archives for May, 2005

Articles about business, poverty, and innovation in the the Base of the Pyramid (BOP), the 4+ billion people living in the base of the world's economic pyramid. Suggest an article or story.

Off to Find New FriendsÂ…

Posted Sat, 05/28/2005 - 06:09 by Patrick@BRINQ


And so it begins…

In just two days ways we arrive in Kenya, to begin the pilot test of the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Protocol.

So you may be wondering, with Sheri Willoughby busy consulting on another BoP project for Johnson and Johnson, and Patrick and the BoP Protocol team in Africa, will the the Workshop get pretty empty?

Actually, it may get more crowded than ever in here! I can't tell you how eager we are to invite some smiling new faces in here. Toys to discover, games to learn, stories to share, dreams to awake. Stay tuned for regular updates from the field.

And please, wish us luck and learning.

Create often, play always.

-your friends at BRINQ.

WRI Officially launches NextBillion.net

Posted Sat, 05/28/2005 - 05:43 by Patrick@BRINQ

The World Resources Institute has officially launched NextBillion.net, an online community focused on the intersection of business, innovation and poverty. We were lucky enough to get an early look at NextBillion, and WRI was kind enough to quote our impressions in their press release. See for yourself!

New WRI Blog Targets 'Next Billion' Consumers Dollars

WASHINGTON, May 27, 2006 - The World Resources Institute has launched an interactive blog focusing on business's role in eradicating world poverty. The organization hopes to position its new "NextBillion.net -- Development through Enterprise" blog as "the world's premiere online water cooler and conference room" for socially responsible business development.

Previously, there have been e-mail lists for such business developers, but NextBillion.net allows development and poverty reduction to reach a new level by offering a bottom-up educational resource and threaded-discussion tool for everyone from multinational executives to small-business entrepreneurs.

Representatives of companies such as Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Pitney Bowes, DuPont and SC Johnson (as well as many innovative individuals) have already begun posting comments and discussions on the blog. For instance, noted author Stuart Hart posted exclusive content this week detailing issues highlighted in his new book, Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World's Most Difficult Problems. Additionally, with today's official launch, NextBillion.net's creators expect to quickly establish the site as the top news feed and content resource for corporations, foundations, the business-school community, poverty NGOs, development organizations, and many others.

Innovating a Business Icon

Posted Mon, 05/23/2005 - 21:53 by Patrick@BRINQ

In less than a week we hit the ground in Kenya, to begin the pilot test for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Protocol, a multinational, NGO, and university sponsored effort to find innovation and business opportunities among the world’s poor.  Sure, we’ll spend time at corporate offices, with NGOs and government officials, but most of the time we’ll be visiting and living with people who don’t have easy access to running water or electricity, probably not phones or computers either.  So, being an MBA, I fixated right away on the most important question.

Should we bring business cards?

Kenya bound - Piloting the BoP Protocol

Posted Thu, 05/19/2005 - 17:06 by Patrick@BRINQ

The BoP Protocol
Regular BRINQ readers may have noticed a lack of posting the last couple of weeks, this is because we've been working overtime getting ready for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Protocol pilot in Kenya, where we'll be hitting the ground in just two weeks. For a quick summary of the Protocol, it answers the following question:

Innovation, Ignorance, and Coming off the Mountain

Posted Thu, 05/05/2005 - 21:59 by Patrick@BRINQ

"I could use a hundred people who don't know there is such a word as impossible"
- Henry Ford, Sr.

We admit having a bit of a fascination with Henry Ford, a man, who in our minds, was one of the world's greatest social entrepreneurs and enablers of the common man, who also happened to become insanely wealthy to boot. How could you not be fascinated with him? When people tell us we're nuts trying to make money working with today's version of the comman man, the 4+ billion "poor" living in the Base of the Pyramid, we point at Henry Ford and say, "He was nuts too,"and then a moment later add, "and I'm with stupid."

However, it was Ford's notorious dislike for "experts" that we find the most compelling: