Business Solutions for the Global Poor: Creating Social and Economic Value (Hardcover)

~ V. Kasturi Rangan (Editor), John A. Quelch (Editor), Gustavo Herrero (Editor), Brooke Barton (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This excellent collection including business contributions from 11 countries, demonstrates how creating shared value—for shareholders and society-s the basis for a long-term successful business."
—Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and CEO, Nestlé

"It is the rare mix of breadth and depth that makes this collection so extraordinary and so valuable. We are introduced to the world’s poor in detail, learn the many ways that business can help them work their way out of poverty, and told what governments and citizens’ groups must do to make this happen. Business leaders even discover how they can generate both economic and social value."
—Stephan Schmidheiny, founder, World Business Council for Sustainable Development 

"This book provides excellent case studies that vividly describe how new business models can address the problems and the opportunities at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’; it thereby shows how corporate social responsibility can be embedded into normal commercial operations. The fact that these case studies are drawn from many industries on several continents add greatly to its credibility."
—Antony Burgmans, chairman, Unilever

"This is a very important book. If it’s widely read and widely applied, it might even prove to be a world-changing book. Expert contributors from different nations take an unsentimental look at the world’s poorest 3 billion people and ask: are there new ways of doing business that could be both beneficial for the poor and profitable for companies? Their answers are imaginative, practical and encouragingly positive."
—Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO, WPP

"This volume focuses on a challenge that business, worldwide, has hitherto not regarded as being within its ambition: the challenge of banishing poverty. . . . . The book makes a significant contribution towards setting business on that endeavor."
—Rattan N. Tata, Chairman, Tata Sons Limited

Product Description

Based on research presented at The Harvard Business School’s first-ever conference on business approaches to poverty alleviation, Business Solutions for the Global Poor brings together perspectives from leading academics and corporate, non-profit and public sector managers. The contributors draw on practical and dynamic how-to insights from leading BOP ventures from more than twenty countries world-wide. This important volume reflects poverty’s multi-faceted nature and a broad range of actors—multinational and local businesses, entrepreneurs, civil society organizations and governments—that play a role in its alleviation.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 456 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787982164
• ISBN-13: 978-0787982164
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #213,865 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A collection with a story to tell, June 29, 2007

By	E. R. Gard - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This work is a seamless compilation of information from the corners of the globe detailing innovative new approaches to the alleviation of global poverty through creative efforts in the private sector. Beyond useful and insightful facts and information, this book goes on to organize and present the knowledge in a framework that serves to effectively establish the context of global poverty and therefore the efforts to alleviate it. Because of this context-building framework, as a reference material, this volume is greater than the sum of its parts.