ABSTRACT
It has been over a decade since the publication of “The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” which launched the “BoP” business movement (Prahalad and Hart, 2002). Over the past decade, there have been fits and starts: many BoP ventures have flat-lined or failed; some have been converted to philanthropic programs; but only a few have taken root and gathered significant commercial momentum. Fortunately, much has been learned over the past ten years suggesting that we are on the verge of taking the BoP business movement to the next level in the coming years—a BoP 2.0 revolution. The learnings from the past decade can be distilled into three distinct domains: 1. Thinking like a mountain; 2. Writing the unfinished symphony; and 3. Taking the green leap. Each of these is discussed in depth followed by some closing thoughts about how best to make BoP 2.0 a reality in today’s bottom line-driven corporate world. Taken together, the learnings suggest that the key to business success at the base of the income pyramid is to think and act as stewards of the future.
