TiE CHENNAI partners LIBA-CK Prahalad Centre to foster BOP oriented entrepreneurs

TiE Chennai is a partner for the Prof. C.K Prahalad Center for Emerging India, India’s first research and innovation centre focused exclusively on Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) marketing. A visionary initiative of the Loyola Institute of Business Adminstration (LIBA), among India’s leading b-schools, this is expected to fuel multiple efforts at innovation targeted at this space. The first of its kind in India, the centre will primarily work towards addressing the current gap of scaling ideas generated into sustainable/viable business opportunities.

The centre will work on the primary premise of fostering BoP 2.0, a more democratic model of the initial concept that will view the BoP market as co-creators and co-owners and as an enormous untapped resource of human capital, vis a vis mere consumers. Under this approach, local communities get much more than simply new products and services; they generate jobs, entrepreneurial skills, new income, economic and social development.

Globally, it is estimated that 3.7 billion people are largely excluded from formal markets since they earn less than $2 per day and 60% of those live in China and India. Given the enormous attention the concept has attracted, it has the potential to impact the world’s billions of poor people. It is estimated that 800+ million in India are in the BoP bracket with US$360 billion in disposable income which is the biggest chunk of the global BOP market excluding China.

There are many TIE members out of Chennai doing their own bit in this area as well and fairly successfully, as evidenced by three of them winning TiE Stree Shakti awards instituted by TiE Mumbai recently. The three winners from Chennai are Saloni Malhotra of DesiCrew, Saundarya Rajesh of Avtar Carer Creators and Sree Vidhya of Ravindra Services Pvt Ltd.

In keeping with its innovation driven theme this year, TIECON Chennai 2011 will see sessions and panels on social entrepreneurship, successes and business models as well.

Block your diary and see you at the Chennai Trade Center on November 24, 2011.