paul polak
[golden, co]
intro’d to Paul via a conversation with David.
struggling/wondering/curious -about his focus on market/profitability.. answers through lower cost.. people as customers..
taking him in first here:
The Business Solution to Poverty
3 movements:
1. end extreme poverty – basically failed unless we find new ways of addressing poverty
2. social impact – unless find ways of demonstrating commercial profitability at scale.. will die
3. big business – has been in global recession – now coming out of it – but using same overconsumption patterns that led to recession in first place.. unless focusses on 2.7 million that aren’t being served (live on under 2 dollars/day) will die
charity doesn’t bring people out of poverty..
5 min – where can big business find the next china?
for big business, extreme poverty, investing…
why hasn’t big business entered the market of the 3ish billion living on under 2 dollars a day
refers to them – as 2 dollar a day customers
profitability at scale…?
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silly to question this brilliant man no?
but how has he gotten so much acclaim, done so much good, and poverty still prevails..
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Paul Polak has been helping people escape poverty in Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and elsewhere for 27 years.
You have great hopes for a $100 house.
Virtually all “dollar-a-day” people in rural areas own their own houses. But the walls are made of mud and wattle, usually there’s a thatched roof, and the floor is a mixture of dung and clay. The house has no value. You can’t sell it and, even more critically, you can’t go to a bank and use it [as collateral] for a loan. But for $100 you can build a 20-square-meter house—a skeleton of eight beams and a good roof that they can add bricks or cinder blocks to. Then they can go to the bank and borrow against it.
oh my.no?
schooling the world ness. Helena?
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2011
TEDxMileHigh – The Future Corporation
customers that live on less than 1 dollar a day – have become my teachers/friends
3 billion by passed customers
treadle pump – whoa..
20 mill people move out of poverty via ide
to sell safe drinking water at scale – springhealth/windhorse
revolution – in market/business – in design/price
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what if zero based design’s starting from scratch means money doesn’t exist..
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just finishing the business solution to poverty..
many wonderings.. why is money assumed… why aren’t local people coming up with the problem… what about zooming out more to a deeper problem.. one for 7 billion + people.. no?
this phrase shows up a lot: there are lots of great ways to make money, but relatively few that will respond to the needs of poor people and turn a handsome profit as well.
another: it’s essential that you speak at length with – and, more important, listen to – what poor people say about your idea.
sounds like spinach or rock ness of pbl et al.
imagine a nother way
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find/follow Paul:
his site:
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poverty
