A blogger shares links to several recent stories that caught her eye, on topics ranging from microfinance to impact investment to financial services for low-income customers.
This summer, I got into the habit of posting some of the most interesting articles I come across on my Facebook page -- in the last two months I reposted over 100 links that I thought were worth reading. These stories ranged from interesting developments in microfinance, to new debates about international aid and the role of financial markets. In this blog, I share a selection of some of those posts from September and October.
For many businesses, entering majority markets makes "business as usual" seem like "business as unusual." Staff blogger Maria Marta Laurito offers some advice on getting started.
For many organizations, a clear way to say that there is nothing extraordinary about what needs to be done is to say that it is “Business as Usual.” However, for a company that has not yet ventured into the low-income market segment, working with the BoP is as unusual as it comes. For a private organization, conducting ‘business as unusual’ means having to learn many things all over again: reaching new customers, exploring new distribution channels, retesting business assumptions and redefining how they market themselves. This can be a steep learning curve.
