The Hindu Business Line : To prosperity through poverty

Poverty can be the means of creating prosperity, if Prof. C. K. Prahalad, the management guru, is to be taken at his word. He has built a whole bestseller, Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profit, on the theme that businesses could create wealth for themselves.through poverty alleviation", provided they stop looking on the world's five billion poor "as victims or as a burden and start recognising them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers", and deserving as well as desiring world class products and services."

Prof. Prahalad's penchant to come out time and again with attention- riveting formulations is in tune with his mode of intellectual pursuit of new ideas which he strongly urges upon fellow academics. He wants Indian academics, in particular, to think boldly and creatively: "Our problems have no precedent since they are huge in scale, so let's invent our own concepts," he says.

Fine, but being outlandish is not the same as being inventive. Calling the poor the bottom of the pyramid does not by itself break new ground and inspire new initiatives. The write-ups on his book on the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) give no indication of what precisely are the tangible, concrete steps whereby Prof. Prahalad feels the poor can be positioned at the centre of profit-making strategies of the corporates.

He calls for converting them into `resilient and creative entrepreneurs from whom he expects "a clear vision of their goal" towards which they can take small steps since both speed and stamina are required to succeed. The goal itself, in his view, should be "broken up into smaller milestones that need to be pursued with the vigour of a Cheetah".

Making imageries a substitute for specifics does not help in translating the amorphous consummation devoutly wished for into a reality. Is there really enough money to be spent by the poor at the BOP so as to make it a sound business proposition relating to a viable market?

BOTTOM OF THE RAINBOW

Essentially, the onus for creating opportunities and developing entrepreneurship will fall on the private sector. With its plate full of obligations it is statutorily and otherwise bound to discharge to its traditional investors and customers, holding the hands of entrepreneurs at the BOP will prove an unaffordable distraction militating against efficient and effective management of its human, material, technical and financial resources.

Even assuming that some wellmeaning combine formed for the purpose of tapping the potential of the BOP has the time and the inclination, it has to come up with revolutionary solutions along entirely new directions to implant the entrepreneurial spirit in a context riddled with uncertainties.

For instance, there is no way one can take for granted the major assumption made by Prof Prahalad that the denizens of the BOP "even if they live in shanty towns, want to consume like wealthier people.

This factor potentially can create surges in consumption". He comes to this conclusion merely by noting that "in urban slums, it is commonplace to find homes that are cramped and surrounded by squalor but have TV sets, refrigerators and pressure cookers. Often, at least one family member will possess the latest cell phone".

The task is not something that can be lightly taken up as an outgrowth of corporate social responsibility, since it will involve thorough-going and intense efforts directing something akin to a mass movement.

In any case, it is unlikely to bear fruit unless it becomes an integral part of the work and core competence of the enterprise. In the light of the above, the promised fortune at the bottom of the pyramid seems no different from the treasure at the end of the rainbow!

B. S. RAGHAVAN