Make Poverty Business: Increase Profits and Reduce Risks by Engaging with the Poor [Hardcover]

Entertaining, well written and refreshingly free of management jargon, this is an engaging contribution to the debate on development. William Keegan, Senior Economics Commentator, The Observer --The Observer

Make Poverty Business will revolutionise how people think about corporate social responsibility. No CEO should be without this book. Alex Singleton, Director-General, The Globalisation Institute --The Globalisation Institute

This is a savvy, eminently useful book that should be in the hands of global business managers and development agency staff alike. Craig Wilson and Peter Wilson go beyond the anecdotal evidence for tapping the consumer and outsourcing potential of the poor. In clear, no-nonsense language, they provide a roadmap of new angles, hidden pitfalls, and profitable shortcuts. They blend their first-hand, hard-won experience in developing nations with nuanced research by some of the world's leading development thinkers. Page for page, this book represents a very good deal - both for the poor harried managers in today's globalizing enterprises, and for the poor themselves, who will benefit from its impact. Joseph S. O'Keefe, writer in residence, The Brookings Institution --Brookings Institution

"Entertaining, well-written and refreshingly free of management jargon, this is an engaging contribution to the debate on development" William Keegan, Senior Economics Commentator, The Observer "Make Poverty Business will revolutionise how people think about corporate social responsibility. No CEO should be without this book." Alex Singleton, Director-General, The Globalisation Institute "Make Poverty Business will be read by business leaders, but it should be read by everyone who cares about global poverty. Michael Strong, CEO, FLOW, Inc

Poor people in developing countries could make excellent suppliers, employees and customers but are often ignored by major businesses. This omission leads to increased risk, higher costs and lower sales. Meanwhile, businesses are asked by governments and poverty activists to do more for economic development, but their exhortations are rarely based on a proper business case. Make Poverty Business bridges the gap by constructing a rigorous profit-making argument for multinational corporations to do more business with the poor. It takes economic development out of the corporate social responsibility ghetto and places it firmly in the core business interests of the corporation, and argues that to see the poor only as potential consumers at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) misses half of the story. Make Poverty Business examines the successes, failures and missed opportunities of a wide range of global companies including Wal-Mart, BP, Unilever, Shell and HSBC when dealing with the poor and with development advocates in the media, NGOs, governments and international organisations. It includes a discussion on how to use a poverty perspective to provoke profitable innovation - not only to create new products and services but also to find new sources of competitive advantage in the supply chain and to develop more sustainable, lower-cost business models in developing countries. Make Poverty Business will be essential reading for international business managers seeking to increase profits and decrease risks in developing countries, development advocates who seek to harness the profit motive to achieve reductions in poverty, and academics looking for practical strategies on how business can implement BOP initiatives in developing countries.

We wrote Make Poverty Business because we saw no shortage of
books exhorting business to contribute more to society, but very few books
making a rigorous profit-making case and suggesting practical ways to do
it. C K Prahalad's "Bottom of the Pyramid" made a good start but saw the
poor only as consumers whereas we also see them as potential employees,
partners, distributors and suppliers.

Drawing on business strategy, economic theory, long experience and common
sense we try to identify the "inefficiency traps" that stop multinational
companies doing mutually-beneficial business with the poor and we suggest
low-cost, low-risk ways of overcoming the barriers.

Our book has captured some people's imagination already. Michael Strong,
Chief Executive of Flow, described it as "wonderful" and added: "Make
Poverty Business will be read by business leaders, but it should be read by
everyone who cares about global poverty. It contains dozens of specific,
practical suggestions for corporate managers interested in increasing the
stability and profitability of their operations in poor nations - and,
quite remarkably - the authors make a solid, level-headed case that their
suggested business practices will reduce global poverty and improve the
reputation of global business. A must read for corporate managers and NGO
leaders who realize that ethical business can serve the best interests of
all."

William Keegan, Senior Economics Commentator at the Observer, describes
Make Poverty Business as: "Entertaining, well-written and refreshingly free
of management jargon, this is an engaging contribution to the debate on
development".

Craig Wilson, an economist, works for the International Finance Corporation, part of the World Bank Group. He has extensive economic policy and business experience in developing countries. He is currently based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is managing a program which seeks to improve investment climates in South Asia and will shortly be taking up a post as Executive Director of the Foundation for Development Cooperation, an independent think tank based in Brisbane, Australia. He has worked for numerous international organizations and for five years from 2000 he consulted to the World Bank. Throughout the 1990s he served in the Australian diplomatic service. He has a BA in economics from Griffith University, and a master's degree in economic policy from Columbia University. Along with Professor Emeritus George C. Lodge of Harvard Business School, he recently co-authored A Corporate Solution to Global Poverty: How Multinationals Can Help the Poor and Invigorate Their Own Legitimacy, published by Princeton University Press in March 2006. Peter Wilson is a director of Libra Advisory Group Ltd, which advises Governments and businesses on strategy and reform. He has worked in a wide range of developing countries including Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iraq and Yemen. He is a former consultant with Strategos and McKinsey and has worked with a wide range of multinational clients including Danone, Masterfoods, Shell and two international banks. Throughout the 1990s he served in the British Diplomatic Service. He was, very briefly, UK press adviser for the boxing promoter Don King. He has a Masters in Business Administration from INSEAD in France and a Masters in Economics from the University of Oxford, where his research focused on the role of foreign direct investment in economic development.

This book is about using an understanding of poverty to develop
profitable business opportunities. There is no new paradigm here, no
re-definition of the corporation, no need for a business revolution.
Business people can go on serving their managers and their shareholders in
the same way, seeking to make maximum profits at minimum risk. We follow
Adam Smith when he says: `It is not from the benevolence of the butcher,
the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard
to their own interest', but we also argue that by actively seeking to be
benevolent we can sometimes identify new routes to satisfying our
self-interest.

We make the simple claim that you will be a better international
manager if you understand the dynamics of income, opportunity and wealth
within your host country. Just as you would want to understand something
about local law before signing a joint venture contract or something about
local culture before you approve an advertising campaign, we believe that
you should understand more about the lives of your customers, suppliers and
employees before you do business with them. We assume you do not want to
become an economist or a development guru, just as you don't want to be a
lawyer or a marketing expert. But you might feel that, if you know a bit
more about these subjects, you'll understand better where your business is
now, what risks it faces and what it could do to spend less and earn more
in the future.

This is predominantly a book for business managers who want to
increase their profits and reduce their risk. But we are not totally
cold-hearted. We've written this book because we believe that, if we can
incentivise you to think about the poor, then the poor will benefit. If you
think the same, if you sometimes look through the plate glass windows of
your hotel to the people beyond and you wonder what you can do for them,
then so much the better. We hope this book will reassure you that you're
already doing a lot, just by doing business, and give you some ideas for
doing even more.

We're also writing this for people starting from the converse
position, who want to help the poor and hope to use business as a tool to
do so. If you work for a development organisation or a government and want
to involve business in reducing poverty, we hope this book will help you to
make the case to companies and to develop practical partnerships. If you
can understand the concerns of business people and make cases for
co-operation based on real-life examples and clear business incentives
rather than moral exhortations, then surely you will be better at your job.
With all the talk of corporate social responsibility, licences to operate
and the moral responsibilities of business, it is easy to forget that
business people don't have total freedom to follow your ideas and indeed
have a legal responsibility to serve the best interests of their
shareholders before anyone else. But we believe there are some areas where
their interests and yours converge, and this book is about identifying and
developing them.