Opportunity spaces vs ideas – business development for the BoP markets

Inaugural Issue of Entreprenuer magazine, photo taken in Kanpur India, Sept 13, 2009

Ideas or concepts are not the same as opportunity spaces or gaps in a particular market. Exploratory user research can identify opportunities for innovation, that is, either unmet needs or gaps in the existing ecosystem which could be filled by a product or service with the intent to create and provide value. On the other hand, actual ideas for new businesses or concepts for products or services may not be the immediate outcome of such exploration. While the insights from the field can act as waymarkers for new revenue generation opportunities, they are not the actual ideas or concepts themselves.

Imho, this conflation of the two – a concept or an idea and an opportunity space or gap in the existing market – gives rise to confusion about the goals or outcomes from field research, particularly in the short term or for the immediate results. It must be noted that even insights derived from observations are usually the result of data analysis and synthesis, best done with a team after the field research has been completed. Only after this can one say with any degree of confidence which gaps or behaviours observed would translate into potential opportunity spaces for innovation or new product development leading to sustainable and sustained revenue generation opportunities. Finally, the concepts or ideas can be generated within the constraints of this opportunity space.

The potential ‘market’ at the BoP is vast, complex and chaotic and too many needs go unmet that at first glance that it may seem opportunities are indeed available  for the picking and the possibility of fortunes immense.

The first critical challenge is to evaluate which of these potential areas offer value; a return on the customer’s investment, meagre though it may be.

The next is to evaluate the time and effort any new venture among BoP customers would require before it would start showing returns.

This is not a hit and run market.

Influence of global communications among the BoP audience

Recently, this call for action by Infodev was shared with me and I was pleased to notice that they’ve referenced one of my former projects - the Finnish BoP project funded by TEKES and conducted by Aalto University.  Now that was a challenging one to wrestle down into some kind of viable action plan but that’s a topic for another post. Here, I was reminded of the lens through which we finally decided to observe and understand the BoP consumer’s mindset for the Mass Communication section of the four continent study.

I remember struggling through this vast topic in a series of brainstorming sessions with our Project Manager, Arno Kourula (who was to travel with me to our first location in Kanpur, India). Which aspect of mass communications would be the most valuable to look at more closely? Since our first location was India, we finally decided that (in 2009) the greatest value would be to look at the impact or influence of the advent of global mass comm that had flooded the Indian market in the previous 20 years rather than simply looking at what was, out of context of history.

How had perceptions and mindsets changed due to the proliferation of information and easy access, particularly among the lower income demographic?

Chotu's shop, Delhi, India

One voice I still recall very clearly, though its been two years since we traveled and talked. Chotu is a paanwallah – he runs an open air kiosk at the corner of a busy neighbourhood market in urban Delhi and is family man with three sons in a private English language school. He himself has not completed his 10th standard nor did he ever study in English. I’d asked him what was the biggest change, in his opinion, for the aam admi (a euphemism in India that usually covers the majority of the BoP and politer to use in context than gharib or ‘the poor’) and his answer has stayed with me.

It was an empowering sense of having a voice that could now be heard.

Recall if you will that in India, as in much of the unevenly developed world, there is a vast disparity in income and lifestyle exacerbated by historic hierarchies. The common man tended not to get heard, if seen at all and certainly not when some injustice like a roadside hit and run took place and the perpetrator could drop names or spread wealth in order to escape.

Chotu said that now all this had changed. There were numerous TV channels blaring news 24 hours a day and they were ready to show up and shine the spotlight if a call was placed (with a mobile phone).  They were there when major accidents took place and counting the dead – gone were the days that the Government could get away with miscounts (due to the cash renumerations paid out to victims or the families) and everything could be brought out in the open rather than being hushed up.

Cable TV and the mobile phone had offered a way to empowerment. Had in fact given a voice to the voiceless. This was the biggest impact, in his opinion, of the changes that had taken place regarding the flow of information in the past couple of decades.

R.K. Laxman's Common Man or Aam Admi

Giving him a voice at last.