Makuti Lounge: One solution to dealing with 7 Billion on earth

Monday, November 7, 2011

One solution to dealing with 7 Billion on earth

Most Fridays I’m usually at my daughter’s class where these intelligent third graders throw all kinds of questions at me on a particular topic. I always try to make it fun and have fun doing it. One thing’s for sure is that these are not your grandma’s third graders. In my line of business, I have been questioned plenty of times by new and existing clients that I meet with, but nothing compares to a third grade class. They always make it challenging because they are armed with far more information today than ever before.

Last week, we were trying to understand how big 7 billion was. Now, this is not kindergarten where I can spread my hands wide and say “this big” nor is it high school where they have a better sense of large numbers. It dawned on me that trying to explain 7 billion to third graders is almost rocket science. Eventually by relating that number to what they already know I began to see their jaws drop in amazement as they began to realize how large 7 billion really was.The topic came on the heels of the UN officially announcing that we are now 7 billion people on earth.

In my last post, I pointed out here that it’s not the number that’s we need to be focused on, rather its finding balance. How do we get the needed balance to sustain 7 billion people?

Solution 1: Raise level of consumption amongst the bottom one-third.

The bottom line is we need a balanced approach to consumption. Whereas the top 5% consume 17% of resources, the bottom one-third consume only 3.2%.

It’s not practical to ask the top consumers to consume less. Instead market forces will make the high consumers to consume less as we’re beginning to see in Europe and North America. What we should be doing is figuring out how the bottom can consume more.

So then how do you raise the level of consumption amongst a group that may not have personal resources to do so?

Back in 2005 when I visited Kenya there was an underlying problem chocking consumption. For anyone back then to transact required carrying cash around. This was further exacerbated if the transactions had to happen miles apart. For majority of the population who are still unbanked getting things done was a drag. However, there was a service that was just gaining momentum that would forever change how transactions were done.

M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service developed by a team of Kenyan entrepreneurs came about to help solve such challenges. The product was designed as a bankless way to move money. The service made sense to the bottom one-third who do not have access to banks. The result was increased consumption of new products and services using MPesa as a way to transact.

It’s been a great success story for M-Pesa who recently surpassed western union in number of transactions done within Kenya. Today MPesa has been at the heart of several business ventures, product and service creation amongst Kenya’s population.

The opportunities as well as the effect of such products and the impact to the bottom one-third to create more goods and services and hence consume more is nothing short of remarkable. It’s this kind of social entrepreneurship that will help raise level of consumption. Products and services that can be used especially by the bottom one-third to create more goods and services are what we really need.

Here’s one definition I read, “A social entrepreneur recognizes a social problem uses entrepreneurship principles to organize, create and manage a venture to achieve a social change.” We need these kinds of men and women to help bring balance. If you happen to be one of these, please let me know, I have a third grade class ready with questions to vet your product or service.