The great leap: Driving innovation from the base of the pyramid

As multinationals unrelentingly seek new growth to satisfy shareholders, they increasingly hear concerns from many quarters about environmental degradation, labor exploitation, cultural hegemony and local autonomy. What is to be done? Companies can generate growth and satisfy social and environmenta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMIT Sloan management review Vol. 44; no. 1; p. 51
Main Authors Hart, Stuart L, Christensen, Clayton M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Cambridge Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 2002
Subjects
Business models
Competition
Competitive advantage
Corporate growth
Developing countries
Disruptive innovation
Economic growth
Growth industries
Industrialized nations
Information storage
Innovations
International
LDCs
Low income groups
Market potential
Multinational corporations
Profit margins
Social responsibility
Strategic management
Success
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Summary:As multinationals unrelentingly seek new growth to satisfy shareholders, they increasingly hear concerns from many quarters about environmental degradation, labor exploitation, cultural hegemony and local autonomy. What is to be done? Companies can generate growth and satisfy social and environmental stakeholders through a "great leap" to the base of the economic pyramid, where 4 billion people aspire to join the market economy for the first time. This is not a question of simply doing the right thing in order to lift people out of poverty. From a senior executive's point of view, it is a matter of finding the most exciting growth markets of the future. It is also where the technologies that are needed to address the social and environmental challenges associated with economic growth can best be developed. This is illustrated with examples of companies that are already profitably disrupting such industries as telecommunications, consumer electronics and energy production.
ISSN:1532-9194