Description

This episode explores how organizations innovate their business models to serve low-income communities at the Base of the Pyramid. Drawing on research from water and sanitation initiatives around the world, we unpack how companies overcome challenges such as low incomes, poverty penalties, heterogeneous needs, weak payment rates, and slow scaling.
Listeners will learn five types of business model innovation—design, renewal, expansion, diversification, and replication—and how each helps organizations adapt their value propositions, delivery systems, and revenue models to local realities . The episode also highlights why successful solutions depend on value-in-context, flexible adaptation during growth, and ambidextrous management that balances improving core operations with exploring new opportunities .
A concise, evidence-based look at what actually works when building inclusive, scalable business models for social impact.

Keywords:

Base of the Pyramid, Business Model Innovation, Inclusiveness, Scalability, Value-in-Context, Social Impact