Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets

Most companies mistakenly dismiss low-income markets as commercial wastelands. Yet many top corporations — including IBM, Ford, Hewlett Packard, and Texas Instruments — have discovered that investing in and partnering with underserved communities can yield significant profits. Based on rigorous research spanning seven years and 50 cases, Untapped shows how serving consumers and suppliers at the bottom of the pyramid can be the key to addressing corporations' pressing needs: increased sales, a qualified workforce, marketable innovations, reduced costs, and increased quality. But as corporations benefit, so too do communities, through better products, prices, and services, more meaningful job opportunities, and an increased market for their own goods and services. The authors' blend of proven strategies, practical tools, case studies, and cogent insight shows managers how to maximize profits while helping community residents increase income and assets, creating a relationship of mutual gain.

This book for business managers describes how to reach low-income communities in developed and developing countries. It explains all of the related business functions, focuses on the whole market system, and includes US and European underserved communities. The authors detail five factors--mining and translating local market information, adapting the business model, changing internal incentives and challenging cultural assumptions, creating partnerships and strategic alliances, and improving the enabling environment--and how to apply them in sales and marketing, human resources, purchasing, and product and process innovation. Each chapter ends with a long case study illustrating how the factors were used successfully by a company. Many of the cases are from the Ford Foundation's Corporate Involvement Initiative. Weiser is an attorney; Kahane, Rochlin, and Landis work at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Most companies mistakenly dismiss low-income markets as commercial wastelands. Yet many top corporations — including IBM, Ford, Hewlett Packard, and Texas Instruments — have discovered that investing in and partnering with underserved communities can yield significant profits. Based on rigorous research spanning seven years and 50 cases, Untapped shows how serving consumers and suppliers at the bottom of the pyramid can be the key to addressing corporations' pressing needs: increased sales, a qualified workforce, marketable innovations, reduced costs, and increased quality. But as corporations benefit, so too do communities, through better products, prices, and services, more meaningful job opportunities, and an increased market for their own goods and services. The authors' blend of proven strategies, practical tools, case studies, and cogent insight shows managers how to maximize profits while helping community residents increase income and assets, creating a relationship of mutual gain.