Building Partnerships to Create Social and Economic Value at the Base of the Global Development Pyramid

Abstract

This article, written with Calton, Hartman and Bevan, develops the position that poverty, globally, can be alleviated if not eradicated if Western industrial companies and other commercial institutions will form partnerships and collaborations in the emerging economies. These efforts are not intended to arise from any form of philanthropy. Indeed, the authors here argue both (i) that charity simply makes those people it sets out to assist even more dependent and (ii) that there is evidence to suggest that globally – even in the poorest communities – what is free is not valued nearly as much as those goods or services for which one has to pay, even if only a few cents. Indeed, the collaborations proposed here are not dependency relationships but partnerships which are truly equitable business relationships that create value-added for both parties.