Harnessing the Potential of the Grassroots Innovators: Inversion of the Bottom of the Pyramid

Abstract

The phrase, “Bottom of the pyramid” has become a famous cliche for infamous settings. The moment this phrase is used in socio-economic settings (with particular reference to India), it has always been the underprivileged, downtrodden and the subalterns who come to one’s focus. Condescending with this view, the paper shall be looking at the pyramid, starting from bottom upwards. Marx was nowhere amiss when he referred to the power of the proletariat, which would displace the capitalists. And, he had also referred to the economic base as the edifice on which the political and social superstructure is built upon. To add to this, his writings also underscored the entrepreneurial potential in the industrial capitalists. Parallely, Prahalad referred to the bottom of the pyramid, where the micro-entrepreneurs would be serving the consumers at the bottom of the pyramid. In line with this thought, the proposed paper shall be an attempt at underscoring the immense potential which this very bottom of the pyramid has, when it comes to creativity and innovations, by drawing a parallel between Marx and Prahlad’s pyramidal base(s)/bottom(s). The paper shall be a brief on the Grassroots Innovators; Upscaling of these innovations; Dissemination of these innovations; and; the role of the academics in the emergence of these Grassroots Innopreneurs. Lastly, the paper shall give future directions for research in this field.