[Stoves] Stove Entrepreneurs: Large Corporations versus Local Market-Based Approaches

[The Bootstrapper]

Here's a paper that should interest some folks.
 
Poverty Alleviation as a Business
http://www.intercooperation.ch/sed/product/heierli/main.html
 
William H.> Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 09:36:56 -0500> From: sabdelnour at ivey.uwo.ca> To: stoves at listserv.repp.org> Subject: [Stoves] Stove Entrepreneurs: Large Corporations versus Local Market-Based Approaches> > >> So, the message to a stoves entrepreneur is to sell the stove very> >> cheaply, at less than the manufacturing cost, and once the user is> >> hooked, make a lot of money by selling him overpriced fuel, which he> >> has to buy for the rest of his life.> > >This is a tried and tested business model (eg. razors, printer> >cartridges, , so should not come as a surprise - in fact we should> >expect much more of it if we believe that entrepreneurs should be> >involved in the stoves sector.> > I would like to suggest that entrepreneur-manufacturers working at the level of local markets producing and distributing stoves - and not large corporations - are perhaps the key to dissemination. Unlike large corporations pursuing a razor-blade business model, small entrepreneurs would not likely be able to control specialized fuel production and entire distribution networks leaving less room for exploitation and more room for diversity in stove choice.> > Samer> 
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