A few years ago I was swept up in a wave six-degrees-of-separation invitations from the professional networking site Linked In, most of the invitations coming from old b-school classmates at UNC.  As a good little networking MBA, I sent out as many invitations as I could too, feeling a certain thrill in seeing the breadth of my professional and social network. However after that initial rush I pretty much forgot all about it.  “Who actually uses this thing?” I remember thinking.

Then a week ago I got another invitation from an old colleague of mine at Rockwell International who wanted to reconnect and to share the news that a patent application of ours had finally been accepted (I have two patents in my name, officially making me an “inventor”, albeit the kind that doesn’t make any money for his inventions).  This old colleague wrote, “I always wondered what happened to you after you went back to school, sounds like you’re doing some interesting things!”

Those words sent me back into the Linked In universe, searching for other old colleagues that I had missed.  And after the excitement of reaching out to old acquaintances had passed, I decided to go poking around my Linked In network. It didn’t take long before I started looking for other people who also worked in the Base of the Pyramid. About 65 connections came up, interestingly enough most of them at 2 least degrees away or more: meaning I have few direct connections working in my own field.  

However, I was thrilled to find so many interesting people working in the BoP. Five year ago when I started working on BoP projects with Stu Hart and crew it was hard to find anyone that knew anything about it, but today there are numerous consulting organizations, start-ups, corporations and universities employing people to focus on the BoP. I even found a life coach! Many of these positions have been created in the last year or so, and it’s nice to see so many people branching out on there own.

Beyond the link I have listed some of the interesting people and organizations I found on my BoP traipse through Linked In. If you’re already a Linked In member, try clicking on the “badge” in the top right of this article and seeing which “Base of the Pyramid” folk are in your own network. To make future searches for BoP compatriots on Linked In easier, I’ve also asked Linked In to create a BoP Group for professionals working in the BoP. Stay tuned for the launch of that group (you can always join the BoP Working Group on Yahoo in the meanwhile).

Patrick

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Reviews and discussions of books and their lessons for working in the BoP

“All learning integrates thinking and doing. All learning is about how we interact in the world and the types of capacities that develop from our interactions.” - Presence, Peter Senge et al

One of the benefits of working in the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) has been the opportunity to take deep dives into experiences that were once totally foreign to me. Another benefit has been the long travel times between and across continents; plane flights, bus rides, and boat trips where I can immerse myself in books and articles covering a wide range of topics. [It’s a sad fact that in these information-at-the-speed-of-thought days I actually have to be unplugged and forced to sit down before I pick up a good book!] Over the past several years both those benefits have twirled around my head – like a pair of ballroom dancers continuously exchanging leading and following roles. I’ve never had a learning experience like my work in the BoP: this combination of thinking & doing and the knowledge that both have created.

This new section here at BRINQ is to discuss that thinking/doing interaction: interesting books and what implications and lessons they offer for someone working on-the-ground at this particular intersection of business, poverty, and innovation. Most of the time the discussion will be about books read recently, but sometimes it will be about books read long ago that new experiences in the BoP brought back to light. On the surface, not all of the books that will be discussed offer obvious connections to the BoP - and some of the books are old to the world but new to me - but these books and articles have demonstrated their relevance during several years of work with companies and communities in the BoP.

And please, if you have your own knowledge of the books discussed here, or if you have your own experiences working in the BoP, please join the discussion. The goal of this section is to generate dialogue about thinking and doing in the BoP, which would ultimately lead to new learning and action!

Book Reviews to date:

• Preserving the local soil - Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice - Mark J Plotkin - May, 2007

Old BRINQ reviews:

• Why Not? A guide for ingenuity - Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres - March 2005
• Capitalism at the Crossroads - Stuart L. Hart - March 2005
• The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - CK Prahalad - February, 2005
• Poor People’s Knowledge - editors J. Michael Finger, Philip Schuler - February, 2005

Well, after yet another long, long absence finally an update. Old friends of BRINQ may have already noticed that there have been a few changes around here. BRINQ.com is now sporting an updated look (for the technically minded, I dumped html tables in favor of stylesheets… and forever hereafter say phooey to Microsoft and IE 6). There’s an updated front page, a new Photo Gallery, content tags for articles on the BRINQ Bloq, as well as updated content on the information pages: the About BRINQ and What is the BoP? pages in particular.

The About BRINQ page describes what may have been obvious for some time now, BRINQ’s change in focus. Although I started this site around my attempts to create business models to promote toy innovation in the BoP, I haven’t been pursuing that effort for well over a year now. And although I originally intended BRINQ to become a company, most of the BoP consulting work I do is through Enterprise for a Sustainable World. So BRINQ.com has instead become more of a site to talk about my own work (and the work of my friends) in the BoP. As now described in the About BRINQ page:

BRINQ focuses on the role of business in the so-called Base of the Pyramid - the world’s four billion poor - developing and writing about on-the ground methodologies and knowledge needed to re-imagine this intersection of business, poverty and innovation. BRINQ has three main focus areas:

• Partnering - creating and enacting partnerships between poor communities and business
• Play - the role of education and play (and toys!) in entrepreneurship and innovation
• Innovation - Re-imagining technology (particulary IT) for, with, and by people in the BoP

Most of my recent efforts have been on the first bullet, Partnering, but I’m exploring ways to focus more on the other two. Play, because I still believe it’s critical and that’s where this all started, and Innovation and IT because that’s where I personally started. The stories here on BRINQ focus on experiences and lessons from on-the-ground activities in the BoP

Be on the look out tomorrow for a new section here on BRINQ, BoP Book Discussions, as well as new stories about experiences here in Rio, in the Amazon and in India, and more lessons and strategies for working with MNCs and poor communities.

abraços,
Patrick Donohue

p.s. Yes, the BRINQ blog is now called the BRINQ Blog… the BRINQ Workshop didn’t make sense after the move away from toy innovation (and it’s questionable if anyone picked up the toy workshop reference even back then). The web address will stay the same though, http://BRINQ.com/workshop/

About a year ago Ted London, Director of the Base of the Pyramid research initiative at the William Davidson Institute (WDI), kindly asked me to come out to the University of Michigan Business School to do a guest lecture in his MBA class Business Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid. Ted was previously a professor and Director of the BoP Learning Lab at UNC while I was a student there and we had worked together on project to explore innovative business models for renewable energy technologies in the BoP. During my visit to Michigan - which also included a guest lecture for Mike Gordon’s Social Enterprise: Innovation in the Information Society course - Ted also interviewed me about my experiences working in the BoP and with the BoP Protocol in Kenya.

The interview was part of WDI’s Global Impact Speaker series, which includes interviews with Stuart Hart of Cornell University, Jesse Moore of CARE, Dr. Jordan Kassalow of the Scojo Foundation, Somshankar Das of e4e, and a number of others. I came across the video for the interview recently and you can see the video via the link below.

I also had lunch with a number of students to discuss career options in the BoP and was thrilled to meet up with one of the students several months later in India, where she was working on a BoP initiative of her own!

WDI Links:

• Donohue Delivers BoP Career Advice (Article)
• Ted London (Director of Base of the Pyramid at WDI) talks to Patrick Donohue of BRINQ (Video)
  (Windows Media format)
  

The interview is a little under an hour.

-Patrick

Everyone knows what it’s like… you’ve got stack of postcards, a head full of great experiences and even with all your best intentions, you just get too caught up in what you’re doing to write it all down and pop them in the mail. Well writing posts can be the same way, so here’s a belated summary of the last six months in India and Brazil. India and the BoP Protocol In April, my colleague Erik Simanis (of Cornell) and I headed out to India to guide the Solae Company in its implementation of the Base of the Pyramid Protocol. The initiative is being run by Enterprise for a Sustainable World (for whom I’m a senior consultant) and Cornell University’s SGE (with Stu Hart, Duncan Duke, et al.) The project is in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India and we are conducting implementations of the Protocol in two different sites, the Indiramma Nagar slums of Hyderabad and in villages in the Parvathagiri mandal of Warangal District. The initial phase of the implementation involved a seven member team and was conducted over a 16 week period from April 16 to July 30, 2006, which included an 11 week in-field immersion period and a 5 week data gathering and business concept development period. This is the second implementation of the BoP Protocol, the first being the 2005 pilot with SC Johnson in Kenya (also involving me, Erik, and others from Cornell). Highlights of the India immersion include: weeks of 45+ degree C weather followed by weeks of monsoon rains; working with close to 100 different community members (90% women) across the two sites; a week-long homestay with a generous Muslim family (of 8) in their one room house in the Indiramma Nagar slum cluster; weeks living in Parvathagiri village and dining on spicy local cuisine (lots of burning ears and teary eyes); eating a lifetime’s worth of rice and then a lifetime’s more; learning to eat rice, dal, curry, and all sorts of sloppy tasty things with my right hand; playing homemade games with the kids (which I always lost) and cruising around (by rickshaw, car, or foot) with the local youths; teaching English idioms to a generous and self-taught Muslim youth and friend; running 15 Participatory Rural Appraisal sessions, 17 entrepreneurship and business development workshops, and dozens of meetings and interviews with community groups; mangling both Hindi and Telegu - Urdu too; attending both Hindu and Muslim weddings; discovering ancient temples, trees that ooze the local brew (toddy), and the simple yet engrossing joy of lightbulbs, insect hatches, and hungry geckos; being irate at controlling husbands, furious with self-appointed elites, frustrated by saviour-type mentalities, and humbled by too-wise children; “mexican” mariachi bands singing Simon & Garfunkel, Donald Duck ventriloquists at the Buddha, karaoke dancing, and daytime coffee shops that are more like night clubs… recognizing what a local weirdo I am for not getting any of it; being simultaneously overwhelmed and awed by the sheer press of India’s culture and populace, catching a glimpse of the weight of a world full with people. These projects are intense, no two ways about it, but they’re transformational too. My thanks to Padma, Ravi, Shweta, Sonika, Paul, Srini, Murali, Nanda, Padmaja, Indira, Klavathi, Muneer and so many more who made the project a success and at times a true joy. And of course to Erik, who’s not only the brains behind the Protocol, but its driving energy as well… the man doesn’t need sleep. Finally, I will always remember the final night in the home of Sheik Baba and Sultana, when I had just presented my host family with a few packs of crayons and coloring books. An early monsoon rain had come and the alleys in the slum were flooded, water was leaking through the corrugated steel roof, yet everyone in the family was coloring - father, mother, grandmother, sons, daughters and nieces - everyone was intent, everyone was smiling. It was beautiful. The Protocol work with Solae in India is continuing, with several business concepts having come out of the immersion. Erik has already returned once to India and I’ll be going back in December, while a team on the ground is being assembled to pilot the businesses. Brazil e BRINQ I’ve been back in Rio de Janeiro since August and although I continue to assist the Protocol projects in India, my focus is turning once more back to Brazil. I have been working as a Development Advisor for Catalytic Communities (of whom much has been written on this site) while also pitching proposals for the BoP Protocol to companies here in Brazil. BRINQ as a business concept, to assist and support local innovators of toys and play, is still being thought through, but little practically is being done as I focus on other opportunies. However BRINQ as a place to share stories and promote local stories is still very much alive. Look for more of that to come from the BRINQ Workshop once again - there is a backlog of stories from India and elsewhere. In late January I’ll be going on a trip to the Amazon with Projeto Bagagem visiting communities along the river over a week-long tour. Since I first started in this line of work, I’ve always dreamed of visiting the Amazon and getting to know more of the communities in the interior of Brazil. Realizing a dream is a beautiful thing. I’m so lucky to get to do what I do. -Patrick A few links: Project Brief on the Solae BoP Protocol implementation India photosets on Flickr BoP Protocol in India Set 1 BoP Protocol in India Set 2 BoP Protocol in India Set 3 BoP Protocol in India Set 4

Here’s an opportunity to help me support an incredible organization that we’re working with here in Rio, one that is helping local communities throughout the world solve their own problems. I have agreed to become a CatComm Champion, pledging $500 to support Catalytic Communities’ unique work with community leaders around the world, but only if I can inspire at least 50 of my friends and colleagues to each contribute $50 or more to match my pledge (for a total of at least $3000).

Catalytic Communities (CatComm) creates networks of community champions who are working to better their own communities - often marginalized squatter areas - throughout the world.  A Washington, DC and Rio de Janeiro based non-profit, CatComm is building a world where community-generated solutions are just a mouse-click away, where anyone, anywhere, confronting a local problem, can find the inspiration and tools they need to implement the solution, learning from their peers.  In November I will attend the Tech Museum Awards with CatComm founder Theresa Williamson where CatComm is being honored as a Tech Museum Laureate for its development of technology that benefits humanity (see more further below).

By joining me in this pledge, you not only magnify the financial support of hundreds of other pledges, you also become a part of this growing network of people who are helping the world to help itself.  Only when 50 friends and colleagues sign up to donate at least $50 will I make my donation of $500.  I am counting on colleagues like you to join me to meet this pledge!

To sign my pledge please go to http://catcomm.pledgebank.com/stanfordcarolina, fill in your name and email address and click “sign pledge”.  When the pledge completes in December, CatComm will contact you about how you can contribute your $50.

Thank you,
Patrick

Did you know? CatComm is currently supporting over 130 community led projects in 9 countries. Dozens of community programs would not have survived were it not for CatComm’s outreach on their behalf. CatComm runs a unique community center for over 950 squatter and community leaders across Rio de Janeiro. Communities from Khartoum to Rio de Janeiro have attracted press attention for their projects through our site. Our online database exists in English, Spanish and Portuguese. To learn more about Catalytic Communities visit: http://www.catcomm.org Past BRINQ articles about CatComm: Learning to Swim - Back in Brazil Side Effects - A Day in the Community The Power of Peer Networks - CatComm and PledgeBank

October, 2006 Catalytic Communities Awarded Prestigious Tech Museum Award “The Tech Museum Awards are an incredibly important way to call attention to some of the most meaningful innovations in science and technology in the world, and to the often unsung heroes behind them,” said Peter Friess, President of The Tech [Musuem]. “The Laureates who we honor serve as great role models to future generations of inventors and engineers, and their work reminds us that innovation can be applied in profound ways to benefit humanity and the world.” “Catalytic Communities represents the ‘best of the best’ technologists whose innovations benefit humanity, and we are thrilled to welcome them into our community of Tech Laureates,” said Amanda Reilly from The Tech Museum of Innovation. “We aim to raise public awareness on how technology can significantly alleviate many of the critical issues facing our planet and champion those innovators who are leveraging technology to provide resolution to both local and global problems.” http://www.techawards.org

By Patrick Donohue, August 2005 “In Nairobi, stay away from the shanty towns, especially at night.” The door closes, Kibera opens, and East Africa’s largest shantytown swallows us into the night. It’s dark near Edwin’s place, a sight sapping blackness that is darker with the knowledge of the trenches and trips that lie ahead, a misstep can send you rolling down make shift steps to soak in the flowing runoff, Kibera’s sewage system. Edwin can see well enough in the dark and navigates the pitfalls without hesitation; I make a joke about mzungu eyes and then switch on my torch. I notice as we walk that the only other people using torches are the mzee, the old men or women. We walk through small alleys and walkways, passing row after row of mud houses with radios blaring, stray light seeping through cracks around the doors and below the roofs. I can’t shake the feeling that I’m walking across somebody’s front porch but I soon realize that’s exactly what we’re doing. The passing people are dark African shadows; it’s a surreal experience and I fancifully imagine that I can slip by without notice, achieving that anonymity I find impossible during the day. A mzungu in the dark, does he finally become a mtu, a person? To the young children I’m just a another mzungu, a white person, but the kids old enough to have seen kung-fu movies will shout out “Chinese”, “Jackie Chan”, or that distinctive “hi-ya” cry, matched with chopping hands and a comically fierce look. Onush, my colleague Erik’s host, later tells me that the children are probably afraid of me, fearing that I’ll open up some karate on them if they’re not careful. My fleeting hopes that my sun-browning skin will help me escape notice are dashed when I learn that some older Kenyans think I might be Indian, the much maligned minority of Kenya, disliked because they’re said to run all the businesses and pay Kenyans little. It’s too hard to stop and explain that I represent the Vietnamese-Irish people, a difficult mixture to appreciate in a land where your tribe is supposed to explain so much about you. For all that I wear my winter hat - not so much for the cool night, which for the bundled-up Kenyans is a biting cold - no, I wear my winter hat to hide my hair, too long to ever be mistaken as Kenyan. I think it might be working, the children aren’t shouting their mzungu bird call, their sing-song “how are you?”, and there are no sudden looks; but perhaps the night just offers a different pace and people keep their notice to themselves. Edwin jokes that people are probably too surprised to say anything. What would a mzungu be doing in Kibera after dark?

* * *

[Download the full “Kibera Nights” (PDF) here]

The above is the beginning of a story I wrote almost a year ago, about the time I spent living and working in Kibera, a slum in Nairobi Kenya that is considered by some to be one of the world’s most dangerous slums. I was there as part of the BoP Protocol pilot test in Kenya. Kibera is the slum that Fernando Meirelles’ film the The Constant Gardner is set in and also was featured in Sarah McLachlan’s video World on Fire. Enjoy! - Patrick

This weekend I’m heading out to join another Base of the Pyramid Protocol project, the second ever actually, this time working with the Solae Company in India. You may recall that the first implementation of the BoP Protocol was last year with SC Johnson in Kenya, of which you can see many past articles here on BRINQ.com. The Solae Protocol project is via a partnership between Solae, Cornell University, and Enterprise for a Sustainable World (ESW). ESW has hired me to join up with Protocol co-director Erik Simanis and BoP consultant Tatiana Thieme (both who I worked with on the Kenya Protocol pilot) to facilitate Solae’s implementation in low income communities in Mumbai and Hyderabad. This will be my first trip to India, and besides being personally excited for the experience, I believe the project will be a great boon for the continuing development of the Protocol. Not only are the target region and sponsoring company quite different than the last time around, but the structure of the project itself is an evolution of what we did in Kenya… most significant is the inclusion of local professionals and students on the core Protocol team. I’ll be reporting from the field every chance I get, both here and on other upcoming sites I’ll be listing links to. And of course, I’ll always be on the look out for cool innovations and toys too! Additional links:

• BoP-Protocol.org - the re-launched home for the Base of the Pyramid Protocol and the group that created it.
• e4sw.org - the home of Enterprise for a Sustainable World.
• The Solae Company - Solae is a soy and nutrition company (now majority-owned by DuPont)
• How we’re involved - how BRINQ.com is (and is not) involved in the BoP Protocol
• Little Toys - don’t forget our tribute to Arvind Gupta in India, the magic man who teaches kids to turn trash into toys!

Things have been pretty quiet around the BRINQ Workshop, only a few posts in the last six months, so what have we been up to? Well, besides trying to get things started in Brazil again, I’ve been doing a lot of work for other folks, most particularly Enterprise for a Sustainable World (ESW), a new organization started up by Cornell University professor and Sustainability guru Stuart Hart, whose book “Capitalism at the Crossroads” we covered here before. Stuart Hart was an old professor of mine at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School (before he headed north to Ithaca) and along with CK Prahalad is one the founders of business strategy in the Base of the Pyramid. Stu’s approach to the BoP is one of deep listening and participation; he advocates that by looking beyond poor communities as just places to “sell more stuff” companies will gain access to greater benefits: disruptive innovation, strong market relationships, better reputations, and yes, market growth. Stu is also one of the people who invited me to particpate in the Base of the Pyramid Protocol pilot in Kenya… and of course to hire me to work at ESW and to join the new Protocol team in India. I’ve also been working with Stu & co. designing the web sites for ESW and the BoP Protocol, in addition to a Drupal-based project management site to support Protocol teams in the field. You can also browse a web-version of the BoP Protocol, previously only available as a PDF. Check them out!

BoP-Protocol.org	e4sw.org

[For the technically inclined, BRINQ.com has also switched hosting providers (twice) and the Workshop has been upgraded to Wordpress 2.0!]

Yes, things have been quiet around here for a while, and expect a few more updates in the near future about what’s been going on. But for the moment we need to clear a few things up. Please take a look at the updated FAQ on the About BRINQ page. The most important question is answered in more detail below: Q: “Who wrote the BoP Protocol?” A: “Not BRINQ.” The BoP Protocol is the work of the BoP Protocol Working Group, which is directed out of Cornell University. So although you see a lot of stories about the Base of the Pyramid Protocol here on BRINQ.com, BRINQ is not in any way institutionally involved in the Protocol. We didn’t write it, we don’t run it, we don’t decide how it’s being developed. As the only web site that had been actively writing about the Protocol for some time, there was a lot of confusion over the question of authorship in the past. We have to apologize for not having made that more clear. Stuart Hart, Erik Simanis, Gordon Enk, and Duncan Duke (the four Protocol directors at Cornell) have guided a ground-breaking piece of work, check out more at the newly designed BoP-Protocol.org. With that all being said, both people here have been integrally involved with the Protocol as individuals, you can read more detail about Patrick and Sheri’s involvement here. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

Another story about one of the BoP Protocol Pilot’s most important partners: Carolina for Kibera (CFK) last week was honored as one of Time Magazine’s “Heroes of Global Health” and Acting President Kim Chapman was featured at the Global Health Conference in New York. CFK is an incredible community-based organization in Kibera: one of the world’s largest slums on the outskirts of Nairobi Kenya. The organization’s programs target issues of ethnic violence, health care, safe spaces for girls, and environmental sanitation and income generation. All their work follows a common theme of participatory development and the organization’s operations in Kenya are run by Kiberans. CFK and its staff were critical to the Base of the Pyramid Protocol Pilot in Kenya and the resulting pilot venture between SC Johnson and the local community groups continues to be advised by CFK staff. Congratulations to everyone at CFK and keep up the great work! Carolina for Kibera Resources:

• Carolina for Kibera - web site at the University of North Carolina
• Interview with Kim Chapman - the News & Observer
• Heroes of the 2005 Global Health Summit - including Kim Chapman and Carolina for Kibera
• BRINQ Photos from Kenya & Kibera - including many photos of Carolina for Kibera staff, activities, and partners
• Base of the Samosa - an article on BRINQ.com and the World Resources NextBillion.net about the BoP and CFK

We’ve added a few new sections and pages here at BRINQ. The BRINQ Network: Friends, partners and mentors at BRINQ, there are a lot of great people and organizations who have helped make BRINQ possible and who continue to influence our work everyday. Come read about the organizations and individuals who help guide BRINQ, including Stuart Hart, Mark Milstein, Salim Mohamed, Alan Hassenfeld and many more! Discussion about BRINQ and the BoP: We’ve been getting a number of emails and calls about BRINQ and the BoP, so we started a discussion thread of our responses on the BRINQ Forums. Come take a look or chime in! [Edit: Forums are no longer available] BRINQ’s New Front Door: We’ve finally replaced our old front page with something a little more dynamic. Check it out! What’s Up Next - Updating the Base of the Pyramid Protocol: Patrick’s heading out this weekend to Racine, WI and the Wingspread Conference Center with the rest of the BoP Protocol Pilot team to report on their work in Kenya and to help design the next version of the Base of the Pyramid Protocol. A diverse set of forty professionals, business leaders, and social entrepreneurs will be participating in the intense 3-day workshop, including representatives from SC Johnson, Tetrapak, Dupont Solae, Natura, CARE, WRI, Carolina for Kibera, Ashoka and more.