BoP Protocol Initiative Phase I
Launched in 2004 by Stuart L. Hart, Gordon A. Enk, and Erik N. Simanis, the Base of the Pyramid Protocol Project sought to develop a new business process that would enable corporations to partner intimately with BoP communities in co-developing sustainable, economically viable businesses that served the communities’ needs and aspirations. A key assumption of the Protocol project was that local knowledge and resources were central to the development of sustainable businesses serving BoP communities. The fundamental principles guiding the creation of the Protocol were inclusiveness, co-invention, and co-ownership.
The agenda for first 2 years of the project, or Phase I, consisted of three major components:
1. A protocol design workshop to develop Version 1.0 of the Protocol
2. A pilot test of the V 1.0 Protocol
3. A review and revision workshop to develop Version 2.0 of the Protocol
Phase I was supported by a group of eight Investing Partners:
- The business schools of Cornell University and the University of Michigan
- The World Resources Institute
- DuPont, Hewlett Packard, SC Johnson, and Tetra Pak
- The Johnson Foundation.
Phase I Results
Protocol Design Workshop
Held in October of 2004, the BoP Protocol Design Workshop convened a diverse group of academics, practitioners, international development professionals, ethnographers, market researchers, corporate executives, and representatives from the BoP to craft this radically new business process. The BoP Protocol (V 1.0) integrated techniques developed in fields such as empathy-based design, participatory rural appraisal, quick ethnography, rapid assessment process, and economic anthropology. It resulted in an approach that had the unanimous endorsement of the participants and was applicable to a wide range of potential users. Results of the design workshop were summarized in a report and placed in the public domain in March 2005. The Protocol V 1.0 and its supporting materials can be found at: www.bop-protocol.org.
Pilot Testing the Protocol
SC Johnson, a key investing partner to the BoP Protocol Project, requested that the initial pilot testing of Protocol V 1.0 be conducted in collaboration with its business initiatives in Kenya. The purpose was to test the protocol in a real corporate setting, with ready access to BoP communities, in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the V 1.0, and to set the stage for modification and improvement. The project was also dedicated to identifying tangible new business opportunities for the company in Kenya and beyond. To that end, a 6-person BoP Protocol Pilot Team pilot-tested the Protocol from June 1 to August 15, 2005 in partnership with SC Johnson’s Kenya subsidiary. The Team worked closely with two communities in Kenya: with Nyota Township, a subsistence-based smallholder farming community in Nakuru Dustrict, and with Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi with an estimated population of 1 million. By the end of the pilot-test, the Kibera community and SCJ-Kenya had co-identified a new business opportunity with sufficient potential to merit the launching of a nine month business development phase.
Protocol Review and Revision Workshop
The Review and Revision Workshop will be held in October 2005 at the Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, WI, convening approximately 35 participants. This will include representatives of the investing partner corporations, key participants in the BoP Protocol Kenya pilot test (e.g. community representatives and NGO Partners), leading academics from the field of sustainability, and representatives from corporations interested in participating in Phase II. The goal of the workshop will be to review the results of the pilot test of Version 1.0 and develop a refined version of the protocol. Based upon the results of the Workshop, we anticipate publishing Version 2.0 of the BoP Protocol before the end of calendar year 2005.