Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Lab Network

The Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Learning Lab grew out of the research and writings of Dr. Stuart L. Hart in the late 1990's. His pivotal article, "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," co-authored with CK Prahalad, provided the intellectual argument for setting a business agenda that focused on improving the lives of the approximately 4 billion people in the world who live on less than $5 US per day. Rather than using traditional aid methodologies to help the poor, this innovative paradigm uses business methods to stimulate new business development and access to new markets.

As a result, the BoP Learning Lab was founded in January, 2000 with the objective of establishing a consortium of leading thinkers and practioners interested in exploring new business opportunities in low-income communities that would benefit the organization as well as the local community. The initial meeting welcomed a small group of academics, corporations and NGOs which included Collins & Aikman, DuPont, Ford Motor Co, Hewlett Packard, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Procter & Gamble, Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), Tata Energy Research Institute, N.A. (TERI-NA), Waterhealth Int'l, and World Resources Institute (WRI).

Initially, the BoP Learning Lab met regularly in the USA, but increasingly, there was a desire to expand this community to other regions including those that are deeply entangled in issues of poverty. As a result, over the past several years this small group of participants has evolved from an isolated consortium to a global network of BoP Learning Labs. By 2006 BoP Learning Labs were established in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and the Netherlands. We are currently working on creating BoP Learning Labs in South Africa and India.

http://www.bopnetwork.org

Benelux - BoP Learning Lab: http://www.bopnetwork.org/node/5