Many of you have noticed that Professor Aneel Karnani’s post, Mirage at the Bottom of the Pyramid, has remained at the top of NextBillion.net’s home page for the last 48 hours or so. This is no technical glitch – the moderators made an editorial decision to let it stick there for a day or two, since it was one of the first times a serious BOP critic has made his or her case on NextBillion.
I first caught wind of Professor Karnani’s paper a few weeks ago, when it was in draft (read: not bloggable) form. I read it with great interest, and found myself agreeing with him on many points but disagreeing on many others. My boss and known BOP expert Al Hammond will post to this space later this week with an “official” response.
In the meantime, you can still read and comment on Karnani’s paper – and I would highly encourage anyone truly interested in the BOP hypothesis to do so. As an idea becomes a movement, disagreement grows over the movement’s direction and purpose. Perhaps that’s where the BOP hypothesis is trending. For those of us interested in the BOP – from an academic, professional, or casual point of view – Karnani’s paper is required reading. Not only that, it’s only available via NextBillion. So get in on the ground floor now, and decide where you stand on Karnani’s points. Comments remain open – tell us what you think.
