L'auteur de The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid interviewé pour le site Knowledge@Wharton

5 ans après la sortie de son ouvrage phare, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, C.K. Prahalad revient sur les conséquences de sa théorie et de son livre sur le monde économique, et notamment sur les grandes firmes multinationales qui étaient au coeur de son approche. Le bilan semble plutôt positif, puisque la plupart des grandes entreprises ont intégré l'idée de développer leur activité sur des marchés difficiles d'accès. Mais l'auteur rappelle que cela ne peut marcher que si les dirigeants sont prêts à innover et à développer des partenariats avec les acteurs locaux. Je retiendrais surtout de son interview le constat qu'il fait concernant les produits développés pour les consommateurs à très faible revenu: ces produits finissent bien souvent par trouver un marché dans les pays développés (comme le Netbook, cet ordinateur à 200$ conçu avec l'idée d'être vendu à des consommateurs à très faible revenu, idéalement dans les PED, qui a trouvé un large marché aux Etats-Unis notamment).

How C.K. Prahalad's Bottom of the Pyramid Strategies Are Paying Off

Knowledge@Wharton — knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

Published on October 15, 2009

Five years ago, C.K. Prahalad published a book titled, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid, in which he argues that multinational companies not only can make money selling to the world's poorest, but also that undertaking such efforts is necessary as a way to close the growing gap between rich and poor countries. Key to his argument for targeting the world's poorest is the sheer size of that market -- an estimated four billion people. How has Prahalad's book -- a revised, fifth-anniversary edition of which has just been published -- affected the behavior of companies and the well-being of consumers in the years since its publication? Knowledge@Wharton checked in with the author for an update, including examples of specific companies that are implementing Bottom of the Pyramid strategies.

Below is an edited transcript of the conversation.

Knowledge@Wharton: In the five years since The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid was published, what impact have your ideas had on companies and on poor consumers?

C.K. Prahalad: The impact has been interesting and profound in many ways -- much more than one could have expected. For example, several of the multi-lateral institutions -- The World Bank, UNDF [United Nations Development Fund], IFC [International Finance Corporation] and USAid -- have fundamentally accepted the idea that involvement of the private sector is critical for development.... I asked 10 CEOs of companies as diverse as Microsoft, ING, DSM, GSK and Thomson Reuters to essentially reflect on whether the book has had some impact on the way they think about the opportunities. Uniformly, everybody -- whether it is Microsoft or GSK -- essentially says not only that it has had some impact, but that it has changed the way they approach innovation and ... new markets.

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