- Pretoria, South Africa: Themba, CEO Who Can't Collect
- Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya: Mariam, Microentrepreneur Who Must Choose between Feeding Her Children and Feeding Her Business
- Santiago, Chile: Jaime, International Executive Who Has to Please Everyone
- Kingston, Jamaica: Lisa, Business Leader Whose Industry Is Struggling
- Abuja, Nigeria: Ijeoma, Government Leader Who Can't Help Feeling Like a Beggar
- Washington, DC: Rob, Development Partner Can't Work Self Out of Job
- The Core Problem: Caught in The Survival Trap
- Getting at the Essence of The Survival Trap from a Stakeholder's Perspective
- BoP Markets as the Biggest Untapped Business Opportunity
- The Case of Africa: Islands of Opportunity in a Sea of Challenges
- The Solution
- Why Business Must Lead BoP Nations out of The Survival Trap
- Building Partnerships That Transcend The Survival Trap
- Practical Solutions for Escaping The Survival Trap
- The Approach
The Approach
This is primarily a book about prosperity creation in business and society. It is about your business, your institution, your nation, and your sense of control over your economic destiny. Hopefully, it will help you think and act differently so that we together can escape The Survival Trap.
The initial focus is on defining mindsets and their impact on business. Mental models are measurable and changeable. Good frameworks exist across disciplines to change mindsets. The next chapter addresses these issues.
Themba, Mariam, Jaime, Lisa, Ijeoma, and Rob consider this new perspective; they realize how uncomfortable they are with the idea of mindset. I explore a few underlying concepts to understand these mindsets and the implications on their lives.
Next, we move to identify and provide specific opportunities for entrepreneurs, managers, and leaders to not only change the mindsets that inform their economic strategies but also act differently. Throughout I offer case studies of businesspeople and leaders who have successfully confronted The Survival Trap in their lives, transforming their businesses, and in some cases their nations.