Base of the Pyramid Protocol
BoP Protocol: a process of collective entrepreneurship that enables Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to co-create new businesses and markets with BoP communities.
The Base of the Pyramid (BoP) Protocol is a process of collective entrepreneurship that enables Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to forge lasting business partnerships with income-poor communities in order to co-create businesses that mutually benefit the MNC and the communities. The Protocol does this by forging lasting partnerships with income-poor communities through mutual dialogue and joint learning, by co-creating new businesses embedded in the local cultural infrastructure, and by creatively marrying the MNC’s resources, technologies and capabilities with those of the community. The BoP Protocol helps MNCs and communities co-create new BoP markets that recognize and derive genuine value from the business’s products and services.
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Becoming Native to Place
By forging lasting partnerships between the MNC and income-poor communities otherwise rich in local knowledge and social capital, the BoP Protocol™ ensures that business development is both sustainable and equitable. The Protocol uses a unique set of business tools and practices adapted from social anthropology and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to build what we call an MNC’s “native capability”. This native capability consists of the ability to:
- Engage in deep listening and mutual dialogue with income-poor communities.
- Co-discover and co-create new business opportunities and business models embedded in the local cultural infrastructure.
- Co-design and launch BoP businesses that generate mutual value for all partners.
It is our belief that sustainable, successful businesses at the Base of the Pyramid will emerge only through such a process of mutual partnership and co-creation.
The BoP Protocol is the work of the BoP Protocol Working Group which is managed out of Cornell University by Stuart Hart and Erik Simanis.
