fortune at the bottom of the pyramid

1. C.K. PRAHALAD – THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMID
C.K. Prahalad is best known for creating the concept of core
competencies and is widely acknowledged as one of the world's most
significant forces in corporate thinking.
Prahalad’s focus is the 'bottom of the pyramid' as the foundation for
future business success. The poorest people in the world, numbering 4
billion, could be worth up to $13.75 trillion annually when corporations
understand how to tap their potential.
This market, he says, could be co-created by multinationals, NGOs and
the poor themselves, who he believes will become the middle classes of
tomorrow.
Prahalad claims that poor nations are incubating new business models
and innovative uses of technology that will begin to transform entire
global industries within the next decade, whether they are in the financial
sector or telecom services, through to healthcare and engineering.
This change will be accelerated by globalisation, outsourcing, the Internet
and the spread of cheap wireless telecom. In contrast, few Western
corporations are truly using these tools to their full extent, which will put
them in danger of being swamped by a new breed of cross-border
companies currently operating outside their radar.
With Gary Hamel, Prahalad sparked a management revolution in 1994
with the publication of their book, Competing for the Future, which says
that companies must identify and focus on their core competencies. A
decade later he co-wrote The Future of Competition, and his book The
Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid has been hailed as one of the most
important business books in recent years.