This document summarizes business models for engaging the base of the pyramid (BOP) population as consumers, distributors/retailers, employees, and suppliers. It provides descriptions and examples of different models including selling basic or customized products and services to BOP consumers, using BOP members as last mile distributors or sales agents, outsourcing or upskilling BOP workers, and sourcing directly from BOP producers or through cooperatives and aggregators. The examples are drawn from companies operating in various industries and countries that engage the BOP through their core business operations.

1. The Corporate Leaders Program:
Base of the Pyramid Modeling Workshop
Business Models and Examples for Engaging the BOP
July 2010

2. BOP AS CONSUMERS: BUSINESS MODELS AND EXAMPLES
Consumer Models Description Examples
• No frills or simplified • Amanco (Mexico): Standardized small-scale irrigation systems sold through social
BASIC version of an existing entrepreneurs
PRODUCT OR product or service
SERVICE • LifeSpring Hospitals (India): No frills hospital with narrow focus on maternal and
child health care
NEW OR • Product created or • BCI (Chile): Microloans for entrepreneurs based on credit profiles that utilize
CUSTOMIZED customized to meet a need information from other organizations (e.g. suppliers)
PRODUCT specific to the BOP • Mibanco (Peru): Loans for women microentrepreneurs to invest in productive
assets or improved locales, coupled with financial and management training
• Fonavipo (El Salvador): Housing fund that provides loans to nonregulated MFI’s
that provide credit for low-income housing
• Safaricom M-PESA (Kenya): Money transfer and payment services using mobile
phones and an extensive network of kiosks
PURCHASE • Loans to individuals or • CEMEX (Mexico): Microloans for communities to pave roads in partnership with
FINANCING groups to finance local municipalities
purchases • EPM (Colombia): Bill payment information from EPM used to create credit
profiles and offer credit lines at a network of retail stores
PAY-PER-USE • Customers pay for each use • Sunlabob (Laos): Rental solar-recharging stations and lanterns for villages
SERVICE instead of owning asset without electricity
• Union Fenosa (Colombia): Payment collection and customer service through
local BOP enterprises in order to reduce payment losses
SMALL UNIT • Product sold at more • Procter & Gamble (Venezuela): Bulk sales of shampoo, diapers, and detergent to
SIZE PRODUCT affordable unit size buyers’ clubs who can sell to BOP in smaller unit quantities
• Danone (Senegal): 50-gram portions of drinkable yogurt sold at a lower price
Source: Examples in BOLD are OMJ clients for which additional details can be found in the attached full- 1
length case studies. All other examples are from public sources reviewed in Dalberg research.

3. BOP AS DISTRIBUTORS/RETAILERS AND EMPLOYEES: BUSINESS MODELS
AND EXAMPLES
Distributor/
Retailer Models Description Examples
• Distribute products and • MiTienda (Mexico): Provide warehousing and supply chain technical assistance
LAST MILE TO services to hard-to-reach to small grocery stores which are owned by the BOP and which reach BOP
BOP BOP consumers consumers
• Holcim Apasco (Mexico): Construction material depots located closer to BOP
households
• Coca-Cola (East Africa): BOP manual distribution centers used to distribute
beverages to dense urban and peri-urban centers
INCREASING • BOP used to create new • Nestlé (Brazil): BOP used as local direct sales agents and micro-retailers who sell
POINTS OF points of sale (e.g. sales products in smaller package quantities to BOP consumers in favelas
SALE agents, micro-retailers) • Lydec (Morocco): Local extension workers provide technical support and ensure
customer satisfaction/retention
Employee Models Description Examples
OUTSOURCING • Outsourcing work to BOP • LabourNet (India): Database established to match unorganized workers and
employees, often through companies with staffing needs
an intermediary • TeamLease (India): Service that identifies and contracts temporary workers for
service sector companies
UPSKILLING • Training the BOP to fill • Guangsha Construction (China): Free required training courses for construction
PEOPLE staffing needs workers in order to reduce the number of on-site accidents
DESKILLING • Operations disaggregated • Aravind EyeCare (India): Increased operations performed by less-skilled workers
TASKS into discrete tasks that can in order to optimize utilization of doctors and increase throughput
be performed by BOP
employees
Source: Examples in BOLD are OMJ clients for which additional details can be found in the attached full- 2
length case studies. All other examples are from public sources reviewed in Dalberg research.

4. BOP AS SUPPLIERS: BUSINESS MODELS AND EXAMPLES
Supplier Models Description Examples
• Direct purchase from BOP • Colineal (Ecuador): Technical assistance provided to woodworkers to produce
DIRECT
suppliers, who may or may furniture according to specifications
PURCHASE
not have aggregated their • Mundo Verde (Brazil): Small local suppliers used to increase diversity and
production improve marketing of wellness products
• Natura (Brazil): Traditional farmers used to supply materials for a new
environmentally-friendly cosmetics line
• Pronaca (Ecuador): Support local farmers with training, access to credit, and
new technology to stabilize maize supply
• Starbucks (Latin America): Purchase coffee from suppliers who meet standards
for sustainable coffee production
BOP-OWNED • Purchase from cooperative • Wal-Mart (Latin America): Purchases from local cooperatives of small farmers
COOPERATIVE or other organization that are used to diversify supply chain
is owned by BOP suppliers • Amul (India): Multi-layer cooperative structure that collects milk from
fragmented dairy farmers
• Fabindia (India): Co-owned cooperatives that utilize craft artisans in the
production of clothing and home furnishings
THIRD PARTY • Purchase from • InterfaceFLOR (India): Partnership with a social enterprise that works with
AGGREGATOR intermediary that local artisans to produce traditional floor tiles
aggregates production • SABMiller (India): Provide barley farmers with certified seeds and training, but
from BOP suppliers purchase from a third party contractor that aggregates production
Source: Examples in BOLD are OMJ clients for which additional details can be found in the attached full- 3
length case studies. All other examples are from public sources reviewed in Dalberg research.