New Delhi, 20 August,2008] "If the 20th century was all about gaining political freedom, 21st century is about democratising commerce, about how to reach and enable access to all to the global economy." Dr C K Prahalad said this at a special session via video conferencing at the Ninth CII Marketing Summit here today. Reaching the bottom of the pyramid, he said, meant providing world-class products at an affordable price to each and every human being.
"Globalisation is a reality today and cannot be wished away," Dr Prahalad said adding, "there are 4 billion underserved persons in the world and there's a need to provide this emerging market the benefits of globalisation." He stressed on the need to "create micro-consumers and micro-producers along with micro-investors and micro-innovators if we are to achieve this goal."
Dr Prahalad said that there is no single business model to cater to the bottom of the pyramid as it is not one homogenous segment and spending models differ from country to country, region to region and district to district. "The underlying aim is to provide products with global standards and locally responsive solutions," he pointed out.
Dr Prahalad cited the example of cellphone industry in India to buttress his point that it is possible to successfully cater to market segments straddling the pyramid. "If we can do this in the field of connectivity, why should not we able to be successful in other core fields like health, energy, education, water and micro-finance," he said.
The biggest impediment in achieving this, he said, was the "managerial mindset". "We always think of going into a market where money is, not where we can create a market and this has to change," he stressed.
Dr Prahalad stressed that there could be no alternative to providing hi-tech hybrid solutions if we have to reach the bottom of the pyramid. "If people cannot afford, we have to reduce costs," he said, adding, "We have to think away from the traditional business strategy of cost plus profit is equal to price. The new way to reach out is to think in terms of target price minus target profit is equal to cost." This, he said, is economically justified as the scales are huge and important.
"We must also learn to co-create," he said. "The public, private and NGO sectors have to work together to achieve this goal," he pointed out. This is important to create inclusion and take the benefits of globalisation to all.
Dr Prahalad concluded by saying that all this is possible "only if we have the imagination and deep belief that every Indian has the right to quality services at affordable prices."
Earlier, welcoming the participants to the special session, Mr Suhel Seth, Chairman, CII Marketing Summit 2008 & Managing Partner, Counselage India, congratulated Dr Prahlad for his belief in the Indian growth story and said that attention must be paid to those at the 'bottom of the pyramid' a term coined by the noted thought guru.
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