WBCSD-SNV Alliance: Creating inclusive business opportunities by linking local communities with big business

Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets: deadline for applications is 16 August!

In early June, we announced the launch of the "Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets", developed by the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) Opportunities for the Majority initiative, in partnership with management consulting firm Dalberg Global Development Advisors. The program is designed especially to help the region’s private sector businesses achieve long-term commercial success and corporate leadership in designing new and inclusive business models for the base of the pyramid.

In mid-July, over 50 executives took part in a workshop designed to generate ideas about how they could grow their businesses by engaging with low-income communities. The participants came from a wide variety of sectors, including construction, manufacturing, agro-industry, financial services and business consulting.

Nueva plataforma virtual de Negocios Inclusivos

Se ha lanzado el portal negociosinclusivos.org.  El portal surge de la iniciativa de instituciones líderes en el sector de los Negocios Inclusivos, que unieron fuerzas con el fin de promover y compilar en un sólo lugar información y recursos sobre este modelo de negocios.

En el portal encontrará: información detallada sobre los Negocios Inclusivos, estudios académicos y casos prácticos, metodologías de aplicación y medición de impacto de los mismos y, noticias y eventos relacionados con los Negocios Inclusivos.

IDB launches “Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets”

The Latin America and Caribbean region has experienced significant growth in profitable business activities that focus on the “base of the pyramid’ (BOP) in recent years, especially in the micro-enterprise and SME sectors. However, despite these successful innovations and some notable initiatives by medium and larger sized companies, there are still large opportunities waiting to be tapped in the region’s $500 billion per year low-income consumer markets.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is now offering a unique new program, titled Corporate Leaders Program for Success in Majority Markets, designed especially to help the region’s private sector businesses achieve long-term commercial success and corporate leadership in designing new and inclusive business models for the base of the pyramid.

WBCSD launches "Inclusive Business Challenge"

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has launched The Inclusive Business Challenge, an easy-to-use presentation and simulation tool to help companies and stakeholders identify and implement models that profitably engage low-income populations across companies' value chains and develop affordable products and services that meet the needs of low-income populations.

The tool (click through the presentation below for a quick overview) aims to help companies raise awareness of the role of business in development and to introduce the challenges, drivers and principles of inclusive business. It presents good practice examples, and suggests ways to integrate inclusive business into company strategy. A key feature of the tool is in the simulation activity which is designed to be used in an interactive workshop setting to identify risks and opportunities in building inclusive business.

Best of inclusivebusiness.org in 2009

Happy New Year to our readers! We appreciate your continued interest in our work. A warm thanks also to those readers that provide comments and send through suggestions for topics. Keep them coming! To kick off the year, here is the “best of” list of the most popular articles posted on inclusivebusiness.org in 2009 in both English and Spanish.

Estrategias de negocios inclusivos: lanzamiento de programa a distancia vía Internet

El Instituto de Estudios para la Sustentabilidad Corporativa – con el apoyo de The Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise (Cornell University, USA) y de la Red Internacional de Laboratorios de Aprendizaje en la Base de la Pirámide – presenta el Programa a distancia (vía Internet) en Estrategias de Negocios para la Base de la Pirámide (ver flyer, pdf) dirigido a ejecutivos de negocios, gerentes de diversas áreas y mandos medios y también a profesionales de otras áreas, tanto del sector público como del tercer sector.

Este Programa – dictado en idioma español y durante el cual los participantes accederán a papers y casos traducidos sobre la temática – posee un carácter teórico-práctico. El tiempo de duración estimado para concluir el Programa, el cual comienza en diciembre de 2009, es de aproximadamente 90 días de los cuales 7 días corresponden a la primera etapa, 7 a la segunda y 76 días para la tercera.