categories
HOT TOPICS
- The Accelerator Conundrum
- The Startup Velocity Question
- Platform as a Service
- Man and Superman
- Web 3.0 = (4C + P + VS)
- The Future: End of Capitalism
- Capitalism 2.0
bottom of pyramid
Deal Radar 2008: SKS Microfinance
Microfinance is slowly becoming a mainstream financial service category, and with the recent IPO of Mexican MFI, Compartamos, interest in the segment has been growing. SKS Microfinance was launched in 1998 by Vikram Akula, who is now recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In the last
P-A-L-M to the boonies?
Wall Street Journal reports that the two Palms are showing signs of wanting to getting back together. “PalmOne Inc. said it is acquiring full rights to the “Palm” brand name and will change its name to Palm Inc. later this year. Milpitas, Calif.-based PalmOne also said Tuesday that it has renewed its license of the
Boonies may be the next big opportunity
SME. SME. SME. Those Farms and Fisheries in India are mostly SMEs. How big are these segments? Large enough to tip the market share war in Wireless OS that today is dominated by the Symbian OS, with its largescale support from Nokia, in favor of some lesser players like Microsoft and PalmSource? Could these grassroots applications for the bottom of the pyramid become killer apps in the quest for seducing the next billion computer / telecom users?
Coke, Pepsi & the Indian Heartland
December 2004. We were traveling in India. As we waited for our train at a small railway station in Bolpur, a small town near Calcutta, we watched a boy of 10 or 12 arrange his merchandise in preparation for boarding the train to Calcutta. He stacked up hundreds of packets of chips, cookies, and snacks
Looking to create a signature as a fashion designer?
I used to work with a small New York Designer called Lafayette 148 in the 1999-2000 timeframe. It was (and still is) a beautiful designer that wanted to use the highest quality fabrics but make the clothes available at relatively lower prices. [In the fashion business, the terminology would be Designer merchandise at Bridge prices.]
Sick of Campbell soups?
India is a paradise for delicious candies and other edibles: sweets, snacks, pickles … Trader Joe’s has made Mochi ice-creams now a household name in North America. The women in the villages almost always cook, and many of them could put the fanciest chefs in top restaurants worldwide to test. In Bengali cuisine, one of
How big is the global candle business?
But is it only the distribution channels for CPG categories that offer opportunities for such micro-entrepreneurship? I don’t think so. Most lifestyle retailers today sell candles. And one of their major business challenges is gross margin. If Federated focuses on putting in a supply chain that taps into the 4 Billion potential suppliers, and offers
Tupperware Party around the Village Pond
Avon and Mary Kay developed the model of home-based product representatives for their cosmetics. Then there were the Tupperware parties. The village women are also target markets for detergents, hair oil, and myriad of other products that MNCs want to sell. At the time of the 2001 census, there were 638,000 villages in India, and
