QuoteProject
The real source of market promise is not the wealthy few in the developing world, or even the3 emerging middle-income consumers. It is the billions of aspiring poor who are joining the market economy for the first time.
C. K. Prahalad
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The untapped potential of low-income consumers is a key driver for market growth and economic promise.

This quote emphasizes that the true opportunity for economic development lies not just with the affluent individuals or the emerging middle class, but significantly with the vast number of low-income individuals who are beginning to engage with the market. Their participation can lead to substantial economic growth and innovation, as they represent a largely overlooked segment of the consumer base that possesses significant purchasing power when collectively considered.

Themes

MarketEconomyConsumersPovertyOpportunityGrowth

In practice

Example use cases

In a business seminar discussing sustainable growth strategies.

More from C. K. Prahalad

If we stop thinking of the poor as victims or as a burden and start recognizing them as resilient and creative entrepreneurs and value conscious consumers, a whole new world of opportunity will open up.
C. K. PrahaladRead
If your aspirations are not greater than your resources, you’re not an entrepreneur.
C. K. PrahaladRead
Strategy is about stretching limited resources to fit ambitious aspirations.
C. K. PrahaladRead

Similar quotes

If you don't talk about families, then it's easy to disembody subprime mortgages and asset securitization and unemployment rates without remembering that every one of those numbers is a million families.
Elizabeth WarrenRead
Long-term unemployment can make any worker progressively less employable, even after the economy strengthens.
Janet YellenRead
I attempted to see famines as broad "economic" problems (concentrating on how people can buy food, or otherwise get entitled to it), rather than in terms of the grossly undifferentiated picture of aggregate food supply for the economy as a whole.
Amartya SenRead
If stability and efficiency required that there existed markets that extended infinitely far into the future - and these markets clearly did not exist - what assurance do we have of the stability and efficiency of the capitalist system?
Joseph StiglitzRead
It is regrettable that people think about our monetary system, and of our economic structure, only in times of depression.
Henry FordRead
Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs to Japanese and German investors. The fear of getting into such a predicament is so strong today that fantasy often outstrips reality. The reality is that inequality with respect to capital is a far greater domestic issue than it is an international one.
Thomas PikettyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.