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THE METAMORPHOSISROTARIANS CAN DO MORE TO HELP THOSE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
By Ernie Delfin I just finished reading "*The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid*", an international best-seller authored by C. K. Prahalad. I love the book so much that I ordered a dozen copies to give as gifts to some of my business friends who are also engaged in some kind of community action work, like the Rotarians, in their own communities. The book has kept me both engrossed and intrigued by the many revolutionary ideas that the author, with his dozens of researchers-collaborators, has scholarly presented with success case stories along the way. No less than Bill Gates, a great benefactor to Rotary International, wrote: "C.K.Prahalad argues that companies must revolutionize how they do business in developing countries if both sides of the economic equation are to prosper. Drawing on wealth of case studies, The *Fortune at the Bottom of* *the Pyramid* offers an intriguing blueprint for how to fight poverty with profitability." Visiting a developing country, (Why they call such countries "Third World" puzzles me?) like Zambia, Mexico, India or the Philippines is quite different than touring progressive countries like the United States. If you only shop in malls like Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive or Newport Beach Fashion Island, you will definitely experience some degree kind of culture shock when you go to undeveloped countries' market places. The face of (material) poverty is present almost everywhere, yet people like ants go on their daily life as the residents probably do not even realize that they are "poor" by Western standards. Ironically, however, people seem happy and content with the little material possessions they have often to the amazement of many first time North American tourists. Doing business with the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) requires patience, innovation and complete understanding of the BOP practices and culture. The typical way of doing business in advanced countries normally does not work in the BOP environment. A new paradigm in conducting business in this massive BOP society is a must just to survive and succeed The priorities and cultural tendencies of these BOP customers are uniquely different as they often buy only the things that they need for a day or two. As the poor spend most of their time in quest for their family's basic needs like food, shelter and clothing, there is almost no time nor money left for education, a great equalizer or tool to extricate themselves from the web of poverty that they were in since they were born. Hence, the lives of those in the BOP become a vicious circle: no education means almost no chance to unshackle the bondage of poverty that they have inherited from previous generations.. The book describes this unique environment where many businesses fail and thereby also fail to help the community to rise up to another level of progress. However, the few innovative businesses, like Casas Bahia in Brazil, Hindustan Level Limited in India or CEMEX in Mexico that accept and understand the peculiarities of this BOP market are now thriving and giving rays of hope to millions of people to have a better future. We Rotarians and educated leaders, if we are called "the salt of the earth", must also learn how to innovate and make our noble efforts magnified to achieve wider and greater impact. In future district conferences or assemblies, probably we can hold workshops with any of these businessmen applying these revolutionary practices to be able to empower more poor people to become more self-sufficient in many undeveloped or developing nations where Rotary is already present. Empowering the poor by training them to have livelihood projects is quite noble, but hardly enough to change the economic landscape of the BOP. Teaching a person how to fish, that will probably make him not go hungry for a day is OK, but that is barely enough. Teaching people how to fish and then helping a few good fishermen to acquire a boat and educating them with the rudiments of being a business owner so they can hire others to fish for them is a far better goal. The Western world must continue to innovate and understand the underlying culture why millions of people remain poor to this day. Often, due to their being exploited and subjugated for centuries, these people of undeveloped countries (BOP) just do not have the means, opportunity nor capital to venture into any business undertaking that gives them sustainable profits in order to progress. Often the poor live day by day, exposed daily to natural calamities as well as man-made disasters, like war, that make the plight of the poor much worse. Rotarians can help more people more deeply if we find pragmatic solutions to dismantle the infrastructure of many countries' (feudal) system of social injustice, the root cause of untold poverty of their people. A philosopher once said: "No charity work can substitute the lack of social justice in any society". Yes, fellow Rotarians that is the greatest challenge that our world faces today as we do our best to "MAKE DREAMS REAL" every year. Email writer: ernie.delfin@gmail.com or drbannatiran@yahoo.com |
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