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PDW - Friday 3 August 12.45-2.45pm, Sheraton Boston Hotel, Back Bay Ballroom A

Can a true story about a woman and some rats begin to help us make sense of the 'Bottom of the Pyramid' conundrum?   Despite the BoP business literature reading convincingly, even a Proctor & Gamble or DuPont fail more often than they succeed there (for a recent discussion, see Erik Simanis' "Reality Check at the Bottom of the Pyramid", HBR, June 2012).

Even seemingly obvious winners -- cheap water purification for people in slums; cheap bed nets in malaria-ridden areas -- often fail to be adopted as expected.

How can we understand this phenomenon?   Do these problems lie solely in execution, or do we equally need to understand differences in what makes people do what they do -- the set of cognitive structures that animate behavior?  

This PDW will explore the role of cognitive worldviews in the behaviors of agents within BoP contexts. Lessons from similar problems in the field of economic development aid can provide the marketer and policymaker with a window on the effects of cognitive factors. The PDW will use empirical examples and a hands-on ethnographic exercise to look at how we can create an MOC 'toolkit' to better understand the micro-constructs of key participants. We hope this can become an ongoing practice-building dialogue beyond the PDW session.