article thumbnail

Businesses Serving the Poor Need to Get Over Their Unease About Profit

Harvard Business Review

If you've ever had anything to do with business initiatives among the world's poor — the so-called bottom of the economic pyramid — you've no doubt heard the advice that enterprises in this space need to aim for low prices, low profit margins, and high sales volumes. It's more than just conventional wisdom. Solae closed the pilot.

article thumbnail

The Timeless Strategic Value of Unrealistic Goals

Harvard Business Review

Prahalad's 1989 HBR article "Strategic Intent" brought about a discontinuous shift in my career — from a professor of accounting to a researcher on strategy and innovation. Strategic intent takes the long view: the act of such intent is to operate from the future backward, disregarding the resource scarcity of the present.

Goal 9