Stakeholders

"How to Design4Billions?" When you decide to approach this market, you have to realize that this is a complex task. Working in this field is not a one-man show. Eradicating poverty through profits requires collaboration with stakeholders who have an other perspective. Assume that every stakeholder symbolizes a gear in Design4Billions. All these gears should be synchronized to operate smoothly. ’Eradicating poverty’ and ’making profit’ were anti-poles a short time ago. Creating a sustainable business opportunity in Design4Billions requires insight in the different perspectives. It will take time to find the right partners and gear like an oiled machine.

1 Business 2 Humanitarian 3 Local Enterprises 4 Knowledge 5 Technological 6 User 7 Micro Financial 8 Governmental 9 Designer

Different perspectives to approach the Base of the Pyramid

This chapter gives an introduction in the different perspectives in Design4Billions. This overview is useful for Designers4Billions as well as for technicians, business-men or scientists who are interested in approaching the Base of the Pyramid. Together, these persons can create a full picture of what is necessary to approach the Base of the Pyramid.
In various versions of the tale ’The Blind Men and an Elephant’, a group of blind men (or men in the dark) touch an elephant to learn what it is like. Each one touches a different part, but only one part, such as the side or the tusk. They then compare notes on what they felt, and learn they are in complete disagreement. The story is used to indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending upon one’s perspective.
Identical situations can occur in approaching the Base of the Pyramid; the different perspectives indicate that reality may be viewed differently depending upon one’s perspective. But the best picture is the combination of all these perspectives!

Blind Men and the Elephant

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind

The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
“God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, "Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me ’tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up and spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"’Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E´en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
"I see," quoth he "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen!
By John Godfrey Saxe (1816 - 1887)