What is the status of inclusive business in Africa?  And what support does it need to thrive?  This month's Editor's Choice, Realizing Africa's Wealth, helps answer both questions.

United Nations reports can, to be frank, be boring.  This one is not.  

It's worth recapping its assumptions first: that inclusive business…

This month's Editor's Choice is most definitely NOT yet another a tool for measuring business impact.    It does contain a good review of ten tools that could be used.   But it's greatest value lies in the way it introduces the task, the strategy and the choice of tools.

WBCSD's Measuring Socio-economic Impact: A Guide for Business seems to be based on a few…

Why are price-cutting and radio adverts NOT a good investment for companies selling innovative products to BOP consumers?   Why throw your solar lantern on the floor to encourage sales ?  Why are unsatisfied customers the key to market growth? And a better bet than donor-funded marketing campaigns?

These questions are all answered in an excellent new guide to 'Marketing Innovative Devices…

This report upset my plans.   Last month’s choice was an agriculture report so this month should not be.  But since reading ‘Catalysing  Smallholder Agricultural Finance’ 2 weeks ago, I have had umpteen times when I have referred to its findings in conversations and plans.  So if it’s that useful, I should share it.

The headline finding of a $450 billion gap in agricultural finance for…

When planting, farmers select the strongest seeds.  So companies should select the strongest solutions in their engagement with smallholders, aiming to produce high yields and cope with adverse environments.  

This is the message from this month’s Editor’s Choice, Growing Business with Smallholders, written by Endeva and Joyn-Coop.   A scan of challenges agri-businesses face  in engaging with…

It’s a simple equation: 925 million undernourished people worldwide + US$2.89 trillion spent on food each year at the base of the economic pyramid each year = big commercial opportunities.

This month on the Practitioner Hub, we’re exploring what these opportunities mean for inclusive business and what companies need to know to develop nutritious products for the base of the pyramid (BoP). So for our first Editor’s Choice of 2013, we’ve picked a report that explores the different…

Whether you seek practical tools for entrepreneurs, or an overview of how inclusive businesses are grappling towards scale, there has been plenty for everyone in the  highlights of 2012.

For the entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs who want tools,  Editor’s Choice featured several this year:   a range of short Checklists from BIF, and a comprehensive …

How long does it take for an inclusive business model to go to scale?  We will all say 'longer than the timeframe donor programmes recognise'.  But how refreshing to see graphs that actually plot the answer.   Or more precisely, answers.  For 'market entry models', where consumers are used to paying for the…

Another case study – yawn?  An inside look at the revenue structure and productivity dilemmas of a 2-year-old healthcare business?   Well that's more exciting, particularly if you too are in the healthcare sector.  Or perhaps not in health, but in IT, mining, logistics, or spaza retail shops, all or which have a clear current or potential role in the evolution of low-cost healthcare.

Primary Health…

Over 200 organisations and initiatives that provide finance or technical support for inclusive business are listed in a new Database of Financial and Technical Support for Inclusive Business.  Better still, these listings can be searched and filtered based on what they offer and which geography they cover.

Jointly produced by the…

Nothing speaks louder than a good example, particularly an example that has taken on challenges and can now report real results.  So the IFC’s report, G20 Challenge on Inclusive Business Innovation, will be a good read for all those that like to see what others are doing and how they are doing it across a myriad of sectors and countries: health, energy,  clean water, baker…

'What have I forgotten to think about? What else do I need to cover?' or even, 'Where do I start?' These are always useful questions to ask when forging ahead addressing a new challenge.  But if the answers are buried in a heavy manual, or are solely in the experienced heads of a  few experts,  they are unlikely to unearthed by the busy practitioner.

So this month's Editor's Choice is the new series of…

If the whole idea of inclusive business is to leverage the market to solve social problems, what then is the role for philanthropists and donors?   That is a good question that is well addressed in the latest Monitor report.  

'From Blueprint to Scale', from Monitor and Accenture, provides a convincing and well-evidenced argument that philanthropic funds are critical to the evolution of this sector.  It…

Many Indian social enterprises are small, but that reflects their youth rather than their potential.  They have many other features that indicate they are aggressively going for growth.

In this they are quite different from typical Micro, Small and Medium enterprises (MSME).  Typically, 90% of Indian MSMEs are structured as proprietorships and only 3% are private limited companies (PLCs).   But amongst the 100 social enterprises surveyed, 80% are PLCs – a structure that…

How are entrepreneurs providing safe water to people at the base of the pyramid? What types of solutions, what business models, and how can they scale?

These questions are well addressed in this month’s Editor’s Choice: Access to Safe Water for the Base of the Pyramid; Lessons Learned from 15 case studies.

While public water provision serves well the…

This month I have selected two excellent contrasting toolboxes for entrepreneurs.  One, more conventional, covers the essentials to start and run operations:  business plans, insurance, accounting and cash flow.   The other provides tools and building blocks for ‘entrepreneurial spirits’ to revamp…

One of the most important paragraphs in this month’s Editor’s Choice is this:

This theme is stated often – it’s not the new technology we need, but the business systems that works at the base of the pyramid.    But – and there are two large 'buts' -  stating it is not enough.  …

Taking innovation to scale is much discussed, but not well understood.    So it is refreshing to get analysis from Acumen Fund, of 3 strategies that have worked. 

This month’s Editor’s Choice focuses on ‘mission, margin and mandate’  as three routes towards the ideal of scale and sustainability.

At first sight, the authors, Brian Trelstad and Robert…

It's that time of year: best book of 2011?  Best movie, best photo, best newcomer of the year...?

What were the highlights on inclusive business?

It's not such a hard question to answer, because each month we pick out one highlight, as Editor's Choice.   So we have a short-list of 12 top picks ready to draw on.

All 12 can are listed…

What better way to round off 2011 than by focusing on the heart of inclusive business – the business models?   The supply relationships, distribution networks, products, revenue streams, and margins that somehow make it work: creating value for the company, but delivering social impact too.

These are explored in IFC’s latest report: Accelerating…