Strategizing International Business At The Bottom Of The Pyramid

Abstract

Globalization across the multinational companies has enabled the world come closer. The cross
cultural strategic exchange of people and business ideas have led to a whole new milieu where people trade.
Pertaining to the Indian market, it has become one of the most promising ones among Asian countries.
Multinational companies all around the world are stepping into the Indian markets. People have been
benefitting from this expanding trade among countries. But at the same time, all around the world we have a
large amount of people who have been deprived of this opportunity to become a part of the international
business. The people living at the bottom of the economic pyramid have been secluded from being a
potential buyer since many years. Their large population size of greater than 4 billion have been taken for
granted. Few years ago, the article ‘The fortune at the bottom of the pyramid’ by C.K. Prahalad and Stuart L.
Hart, created buzz among the companies to turn their eyes towards the poorest strata of the population. Since
then many companies have come to serve them but only a few succeeding. The process is still in its nascent
stage. Therefore, in this paper, we focus on how the multi-national companies are entering the bottom of the
pyramid market and strategies they use to serve the poorest of the poor. We will examine the impact of these
multi-national companies on the people living in the bottom of the pyramid and on the domestic industries.