The Business Solution To Poverty
Designing Products And Services For Three Billion New Customers.
The nearly three billion people living on two dollars a day are not just the world’s greatest challenge – they represent an extraordinary market opportunity.
The key is what Paul Polak and Mal Warwick call Zero-Based Design: starting from scratch to create innovative products and services tailored for the very poor, armed with a thorough understanding of what they really want and need, and driven by what Polak and Warwick call “the ruthless pursuit of affordability.”
Polak has been doing this work for years, and Warwick has extensive experience in both business and philanthropy.
Together, they show how their design principles and vision can enable unapologetic capitalists to supply the very poor with clean drinking water, electricity, irrigation, housing, education, health care, and other necessities at a fraction of the usual cost and at profit margins comparable to those of businesses in the developed world.
Promising governmental and philanthropic efforts to end poverty have not reached scale because they lack the incentives of the market to attract massive resources. This book opens an extraordinary opportunity for nimble entrepreneurs, investors, and corporate executives that will result not only in vibrant, growing businesses but also a better life for the world’s poorest people.
Authors
Mal Warwick worked for three decades as a professional fundraising consultant to nonprofit organisations and progressive political candidates and committees. In 2010 he left the fundraising field to become one of four partners in the One World Futbol Project, LLC.
Paul Polak, widely considered the father of market-based solutions to poverty, is founder and CEO of Windhorse International, a for-profit social venture launching new businesses to serve the poor and the latest of three organisations he has founded. He is the winner of numerous awards, including being named one of The Atlantic’s 27 “Brave Thinkers” in 2009.
Reviews
“The Business Solution to Poverty presents a radical new idea that’s firmly grounded in common sense. This book describes precisely the sort of investment opportunity that patient investors who seek social impact are looking for. Once companies like those Paul Polak and Mal Warwick envision are up and running and looking to the capital markets, I’m confident they will provide the opportunities for funding to help put an end to global poverty.”
Wayne Silby, Founding Chair, Calvert Funds
“The failure of foreign aid and other efforts by outsiders to end poverty in developing countries is no secret. But now we have a promising alternative approach to this age-old challenge. The Business Solution to Poverty shows the way, step by step, with countless examples that virtually leap off the page.”
Barbara Lee, cofounder and Cochair, Congressional Out-of-Poverty Caucus, and Chair, Democratic Whip Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity
“Paul Polak and Mal Warwick have written an insightful and accessible guide for co-investing in a way that enriches the livelihoods of the poor and the souls of investors. Why are we here, anyway? Whether you’re an entrepreneur or investor, The Business Solution to Poverty has an abundance of examples of what it takes for enterprises to be successful and transformational in emerging markets.”
Bob Pattillo, founder, Gray Ghost Ventures
“One of the most hopeful propositions to come along in a long time. Paul Polak and Mal Warwick’s approach is original, ambitious, and practical–and it just may be the key to reducing the number of people in poverty on a very large scale. They propose to harness the power of free enterprise to begin meeting the most basic needs of the poor . . . while making a profit. Though market-based approaches aren’t new, Polak and Warwick lay out a practical and systematic way to work on a global scale, transforming the lives of hundreds of millions of poor people.”
President Bill Clinton
- Mal Warwick resigns as chair of the Resource Alliance (20 October 2008)
- Fundraising when money is tight by Mal Warwick
