The objective of this section is to build a framework for poverty alleviation. We start with a simple proposition. If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up. Four billion poor can be the engine of the next round of global trade and prosperity. It can be a source of innovations. Serving the BOP consumers will demand innovations in technology, products and services, and business models. More importantly, it will require large firms to work collaboratively with civil society organizations and local governments. Market development at the BOP will also create millions of new entrepreneurs at the grass roots level—from women working as distributors and entrepreneurs to village-level micro enterprises. These micro enterprises will be an integral part of the market-based ecosystem. It will require organizational and governance innovations as well.

The vision that is presented in the following pages is the co-creation of a solution to the problem of poverty. The opportunities at the BOP cannot be unlocked if large and small firms, governments, civil society organizations, development agencies, and the poor themselves do not work together with a shared agenda. Entrepreneurship on a massive scale is the key. This approach will challenge the prejudices about the “role and value added” of each group and its role in the economic development at the BOP.

In these chapters the reader will find the opportunities for co-creation among the various players. More importantly, the poor themselves are willing to experiment, learn, and change. While we will focus on the role of the private sector, the importance of collaboration across the various groups will become obvious. The interconnectedness of the approach to economic development and social transformation as visualized below will become obvious.

Part I outlines how that can be accomplished by isolating principles from successful, large-scale experiments involving the entire private sector ecosystem. Most of the examples of successful experimentation are taken from the case studies included in Part II of the book. The bottom line is simple: It is possible to “do well by doing good.”