La Solidaridad

Learning about the Make Trade Fair campaign of Oxfam was an epochal event for me where I received enlightenment regarding the difference between aid and trade, the latter being a more effective approach on eradicating poverty. (Read this post.) 

The implications are tremendous, knowing that trade is a concept that should entail the cooperation of governments, and for me this sounds too remote if not too utopic. I am looking for something a little bit more on a close proximity, which individuals and organizations can embrace to spin economic development and social transformation, in their own small way. I found the answer in the book "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," a book that I think every company or boss should have.

Written by of CK Prahalad and Stuart L. Hart,  both Wharton professors,  "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" offers a groundbreaking philosophy that poverty could be eradicated through profits. This goes beyond corporate responsibility because big companies do not only offer a helping hand by funding projects for the poor (which is simply called aid) but by redirecting their businesses towards low-income consumers.

And let´s first take a look at the numbers. To date, there are 4 billion people who are (aspiring) poor on this planet . And since market profitability of wealthy and middle class consumers has been long proven as a myth,  by offering services to a low-end market, companies which have the right resources and technology, can make profit and at the same time help give these people some quality of life. 

"Investment means lifting bilions of people out of poverty and deseparation, averting social decay, political chaos, terrorism, and environmental meltdown that is certain to continue if the gap between rich and poor countries continues to widen."