Business approaches for tackling poverty

Scaling up Business Solutions to Social Problems: A Practical Guide for Social and Corporate Entrepreneurs – Olivier Kayser & Maria Valeria Budinich

The authors suggest that some of the most sustainable and scalable solutions to poverty and deprivation are those based on business – rather than charitable – approaches. This chimes with Melinda Gates’ TED talk included in this issue on learning from Coca Cola and their ability to reach even some of the more remote communities of the developing world.

Scaling Up includes a wide range of case studies of both the families this approach has helped, and the organisations and social entrepreneurs who have successfully applied it. The book comes across as very well researched while written with the practitioner in mind. Examples from across the globe including India, Latin America and Africa range from the more familiar cases of microfinance and housing to community savings and utilities.

The authors put forward a range of strategic and market-driven solutions which can help people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, effectively challenging many assumption of the traditional charitable / donor-reliant approach to NGO-led development. The opportunity to achieve scale is explored both as the traditional scaling of the organisation itself, and as increasing its influence on the ecosystem.

The contents are practical, addressing core management issues such as finance and marketing in a new context. The book is very well structured, the only challenging aspect to its presentation is the excessive use of acronyms, which grates in spite of a glossary at the front of the book.

Reading the book is most likely to be of immediate benefit to managers already working in social enterprises or the third sector, but Scaling Up is a fascinating read for any leader interested in the economics of social justice.

The book is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com.