This book presents many innovative approaches to reducing povertythrough business commitment involvement, and leadership. Some of
these approaches may look promising now at their current level of
success but will turn out to be limited in their scalability or in their
ability to sustain themselves and endure over time. However, all of
them offer fruitful grounds for inquiry and learning. It is our intention
that sharing the learning from these projects and initiatives from
around the world will be useful to others committed to assisting the
poor in escaping from poverty - especially by bringing the poor into
productive business activities. It is also our intention that these
experiences stimulate ideas for new directions that build upon and go
beyond the rich variety of projects and successes described by the
authors in this book.
The book supports C K. Prahalad's work made available in a number
of ways including his very influential book The Fortune at the Bottom
ofthe Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits (Wharton, 2004).
Prahalad's work has called attention to creative ways to think about
the question ofpoverty and how it might be reduced and eventually
eliminated. He suggests ways. ofthinking and acting that break many
ofthe traditional rigidities that occur in how we think about markets
and business practices. Although one theme ofPrahalad's work relates
to the benefits of marketing to the poor by supplying products better
fitting the needs of low income individuals and groups, his work also
emphasizes ways in which the poor can produce innovatively conceived
and designed products for themselves and for others. This
emphasis on enabling the poor to become productive is also presented
forcefhuly in Craig and Peter Wilson' s, Make Poverty Business:
IncreaSe Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor Greenleaf
2OQ6. Like Drucker, they see the real challenge to be helping the
poor find work that is productive and sustainable. One of their contributions
is their emphasis on the importance of creating access to credit
and insurance as an important part of enabling people to achieve productive
livelihoods.