Ill be speaking tomorrow at this event, organised by the British Council. Its billed as Happy Hours with Creative Entrepreneurs: Secrets of their Success, but I have no secrets to share ;)
I will instead be focusing more on social entrepreunership.
details here.
Bill Gates refers to it as creative capitalism. C.K. Prahalad calls it BOP Markets (Bottom of the Pyramid).
4 billion people live on less than $2 per day. The thinking is simply that creating products that serve the poorest people (as opposed to ignoring them since the easiest assumption is that they have no purchasing power) would over time elevate them to middle-class, and with that all the benefits that capitalism has to offer. On the whole it seems to be rooted in good intentions: creating value for the poor and giving them equal access to the global economy.
I cant say I’ve spent too much time researching this, but there seems to me one major cause for concern shockingly omitted in all current dscussions: resources.
Where will the global economy find the resources to support an additional 4 billion consumers? Can the earth sustain our consumption habits anymore?
Im not saying we should continue to ignore the under-served, but I think we also need to balance the spending habits of the filthy rich. If the poor is to gain access to the markets, then the rich must be willing to scale back its consumption. But this is unlikely to happen, leading to hyper-capitalism.
Ironically, the current economic crisis may just aid such a scenario. The middle class will spend less, the rich will continue spending to protect their lifestyles, and the markets will turn to the poor to tap the huge potential ($2/day x 4 billion x 365 days; you do the math).
the absolutely brilliant this american life, produced by Chicago Public Radio, ran a podcast, back in sept, on how the U.S. got itself into a housing crisis which eventually lead to the global economic downturn.
other than amazing coverage, they sure know how to produce podcasts. it’s over an hour but i couldnt stop listening.
1. piracy isn’t stealing. there is an economy around it. people do pay for pirated goods. the take away? there is a price point consumers are willing to settle for. there is money to be made. obviously VERY good money, going by the never declining number of pirates.
2. pirates are early innovators in the retail space. they understand how and what consumers want to buy. and they understand how to get it to them. setting up kiosks at the pasar malam with laptops and sideloading ringtones to kids in attractive bundles is something the music industry could have thought of first, if only they understood their own consumers. but that’s asking too much…
3. piracy fuels the economy. how many young malaysians graduate every year thanks to affordable software?
i buy the software i use. original. i can afford it. my business makes money. i support innovation in the software industry to enable me to keep doing what i do. for everything else there are open source alternatives. i am not condoning piracy.
i am questioning the governments understanding on piracy, and why it even exists.
