Make Poverty a Business
Craig Wilson and Peter Wilson
Greenleaf Publishing
31 October 2006
www.makepovertybusiness.squarespace.com
'Make Poverty Business' sees the poor as more than mere consumers at C K Prahalad's "bottom of the pyrami" and instead takes a strategic view of all the ways in which a multinational company can interact with and influence the lives of the poor. The poor face poverty traps when they seek to deal with an international company. Based on sound economic theory and emerging good business practice the book recommends low-cost ways to overcome these traps and gain access to a larger and cheaper pool of employees and suppliers. The poor can also become a threat – to reputation and security – if relationships are badly managed. The book integrates concerns over political risk, legal failure and physical security into a business case for reducing poverty. It argues that country risk is something that can be actively reduced through economic development rather than passively managed with lawyers and guards.
'Make Poverty Business' argues that doing business with the poor can be profitably integrated into the core operations of all multinational companies, not only in those consumer manufacturers who see a marketing opportunity or those major corporations who feel under PR pressure to do some cosmetic corporate social responsibility. The book examines the successes, failures and missed opportunities of a wide range of global companies including Wal-Mart, BP, Unilever, Shell and HSBC when dealing with the poor and with development advocates in the media, NGOs, governments and international organisations. It includes a discussion on how to use a poverty perspective to provoke profitable innovation not only to create new products and services but also to find new sources of competitive advantage in the supply chain and to develop more sustainable, lower-cost business models in developing countries.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction
Asserts that business managers would be able do business more profitably (lower cost, less risks) if they understand the dynamics of income, opportunity and wealth within their host country.
Chapter 2 What Business Can and Cant do
This chapter argues that it is the core business not the csr add-ons that create real developmental value. It outlines the emerging developmental criticisms of CSR and emphasizes that businesses cannot do everything in development; and describes the fundamentals of what businesses can do.
Chapter 3 What is Poverty
Chapter 4 Poverty and Inefficiency Traps
This chapter discusses the poverty traps what traps the poor people into unemployment, lack of business opportunities, insufficient credit to operate at efficient scale; and inefficiency traps systems that prevent companies from doing business efficiently with poor people.
Chapter 5 Security and the Poor
This chapter argues that there is huge potential for business to influence how the security sector reform agenda develops and secure development support for those business initiatives that contribute to stability and human security.
Chapter 6 Partnering and Cooperating
This chapter discusses the ways of how companies could partner with NGOs in extending their business to areas or people that are currently non-profitable.
Chapter 7 Innovation for Poverty Alleviation
This chapter talks about what innovation means in the specific context of poverty reduction what do we want to be innovative about? Whats the relevance to the core business? what are the structures and methods for achieving innovation.
Chapter 8 Making the Changes
This chapter highlights the need for country managers and expatriates to be cleverer about the way they engage their host country.
Chapter 9 Reputation and Country Risk
This chapter discusses how international corporations could cooperate with host governments and civil society to manage political risks.
