2002-The Great Leap: Driving Innovation From the Base of the Pyramid伟大的飞跃：从金字塔的底部推动创新

Hart, S. L. , and  C. M. Christensen . "The great leap: Driving innovation from the base of the pyramid." MIT Sloan Management Review 44.1(2002):51-56.

Hart, S. L. , &  Christensen, C. M. . (2002). The great leap: driving innovation from the base of the pyramid. MIT Sloan Management Review, 44(1), 51-56.

Global companies today are struggling with a Catch-22. On one side is the legacy of the 1990s, when investors became accustomed to double-digit annual growth. While investors are no doubt revising their expectations now that the bubble has burst, they are not ready to give up on demands for rapid, steady growth in the companies they fund. This need to find new markets or products is in itself a huge challenge.

如今，许多公司都在与Catch-22作斗争。一方面是上世纪90年代的遗留问题，当时投资者已经习惯了两位数的年增长率。尽管投资者在泡沫破裂后无疑正在调整他们的预期，但他们并不准备放弃对所投资公司快速、稳定增长的需求。寻找新市场或新产品的需求本身就是一个巨大的挑战。

Add to that the second part of the dilemma: Antiglobalization demonstrations have made it apparent that if corporate expansion is seen to come at the expense of the poor and the environment, it will encounter vigorous resistance. This is not just an issue for a few thousand protesters. As multinationals unrelentingly seek new growth to satisfy shareholders, they increasingly hear concerns from many quarters about environmental degradation, labor exploitation, cultural hegemony and local autonomy. What is to be done? Must corporations' thirst for growth and profits serve only to exacerbate the antiglobalization movement?

再加上第二个困境：反全球化示威已经表明，如果企业扩张被视为以牺牲穷人和环境为代价，它将遇到强烈的抵制。这不仅仅是几千名抗议者的问题。随着跨国公司不懈地寻求新的增长以满足股东的需求，他们越来越多地听到来自许多方面的担忧，包括环境恶化、劳动剥削、文化霸权和地方自治。要做什么？企业对增长和利润的渴望是否只会加剧反全球化运动？

On the contrary, a solution to this dilemma does exist. Companies can generate growth and satisfy social and environmental stakeholders through a “great leap” to the base of the economic pyramid, where 4 billion people aspire to join the market economy for the first time. This is not a question simply of doing the right thing in order to lift people out of poverty — although that will surely be a result of the leap we have in mind. From a senior executive's point of view, it's a matter of finding the most exciting growth markets of the future, an especially important task for major corporations considering that 69% of the S&P 500 had below-average growth in 1999 and that turnover in the S&P 500 has increased over the years to 10% annually. The majority of large companies seem to be mired in saturated markets that have few significant growth opportunities.2The base of the pyramid is, so to speak, completely unsaturated.

恰恰相反，解决这一困境的办法确实存在。公司可以通过向经济金字塔底部的“大跃进”来促进增长并满足社会和环境利益相关者的需求，在经济金字塔的底部，有40亿人渴望首次加入市场经济。这不仅仅是一个做正确的事情以使人们摆脱贫困的问题--尽管这肯定是我们所设想的大跃进的结果。从高级管理人员的角度来看，这是一个寻找未来最令人兴奋的增长市场的问题，考虑到1999年标准普尔500指数中69%的公司增长低于平均水平，标准普尔500指数的营业额在1999年超过了平均水平，这对大公司来说尤其重要。在过去几年中，每年增长10%。大多数大公司似乎陷入了饱和的市场，几乎没有显著的增长机会。金字塔的底部可以说是完全不饱和的。

It is also where the technologies that are needed to address the social and environmental challenges associated with economic growth can best be developed. So far, technological advances in the developing world have been under the radar of executives in the industrialized economies. We've learned, however, that companies are profitably disrupting traditional approaches to business problems in such industries as telecommunications, consumer electronics and energy production, to name just a few. These and many other opportunities are ready to explode in the coming years.

它也是能够最好地开发解决与经济增长相关的社会和环境挑战所需的技术的地方。到目前为止，发展中国家的技术进步一直在工业化经济体的高管们的关注之下。然而，我们了解到，在电信、消费电子和能源生产等行业，公司正在有利可图地颠覆传统的商业问题解决方法。这些和许多其他机会将在未来几年爆发。

Creative Creation

创意创作 

Economist Joseph Schumpeter's term “creative destruction” has become justifiably well known in recent years, but it tells only half the story. Before the destruction of industry leaders occurs as a result of disruptive innovation, a long period of “creative creation” typically can be discerned.

经济学家约瑟夫·熊彼特（Joseph Schumpeter）的“创造性破坏”一词近年来已广为人知，但它只讲述了故事的一半。在行业领导者因破坏性创新而被摧毁之前，通常可以看到一段长时间的“创造性创造”。

Keep in mind the fundamental conditions that lead to the success of a disruptive innovation.The product or service must be one that initially isn't as good as those being used by customers in mainstream markets; as a result, it can take root only in new or less demanding applications among nontraditional customers. Because well-managed companies are under pressure to pursue innovations in markets that can sustain corporate growth rates and enhance overall profit margins, they conclude that investing in disruptive innovations is irrational. Potential disrupters are thus able to incubate their businesses in the safety of markets that resource-rich competitors are motivated to ignore; upstarts will then seek to grow upmarket by successively attacking market tiers that are the least attractive of the investment options facing the industry leaders.

请记住导致颠覆性创新成功的基本条件。产品或服务必须是最初不如主流市场客户使用的产品或服务;因此，它只能在非传统客户中的新应用或要求较低的应用中扎根。由于管理良好的公司面临着在市场上寻求创新的压力，这些创新可以维持公司增长率并提高整体利润率，因此他们得出结论，投资于破坏性创新是不理性的。因此，潜在的破坏者能够在资源丰富的竞争对手有意忽视的安全市场中孵化自己的业务;然后，暴发户将通过连续攻击行业领导者面临的投资选择中最没有吸引力的市场层次来寻求高端市场的增长。

Disruptive innovations allow many more people to begin doing things for themselves that could only be done either with the help of skilled intermediaries or by the wealthy before the disruptions (examples include the tabletop copier and online trading). The social good is well served through disruption which has, over the decades, created millions of jobs, generated hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues and market capitalization, and raised standards of living by making available cheap, high-quality products. The magnitude of creative creation in the disruptive process has dwarfed the extent of creative destruction.

颠覆性创新让更多的人开始为自己做一些事情，而这些事情在颠覆之前只能在熟练的中介机构或富人的帮助下才能完成（例如桌面复印机和在线交易）。几十年来，颠覆创造了数百万个就业机会，产生了数千亿美元的收入和市场资本化，并通过提供廉价，高质量的产品提高了生活水平。在破坏过程中，创造性创造的规模使创造性破坏的程度相形见绌。

And yet that progress has taken place almost exclusively at the peak of the population pyramid. That is, disruptive innovation has at first benefited the poorer and less-skilled people in developed countries before shifting upward toward members of higher tiers in those same countries. It has improved the quality of life of just a small fraction of the world's population — at most, 1 billion of the world's 6.1 billion people. (See “Disrupting the Pyramid.”) In much of the world, people's basic needs go unmet. In these circumstances, new waves of disruptive technology deployed by companies making a great leap down the pyramid have an extraordinary potential to generate growth.

然而，这一进展几乎完全发生在人口金字塔的顶端。也就是说，颠覆性创新首先使贫穷和技能较低的人受益，然后再向上转移到这些国家的更高层次的成员。它只改善了世界人口中一小部分人的生活质量-最多是世界61亿人口中的10亿人。(See“破坏金字塔”）。在世界许多地方，人们的基本需求得不到满足。在这种情况下，从金字塔上一跃而下的公司部署的新一波颠覆性技术具有非凡的增长潜力。

Disruptive Potential

破坏性潜力

Developing countries are ideal target markets for disruptive technologies for at least two reasons. First, business models that are forged in low-income markets travel well; that is, they can be profitably applied in more places than models defined in highincome markets. Honda's success with motorcycles provides an example. In the 1950s, Honda began selling motorized bicycles to small distributors in the crowded and impoverished Japanese cities that were rebuilding from the ruins of World War II. The company developed a business model in which it could make money selling its products at very low price points. When Honda entered the U.S. market in the early 1960s with the Supercub, the product's simplicity and low price meant that people who lacked the money or boldness to own a Harley Davidson could buy and drive motorcycles. Honda's base in impoverished Japan gave the company a huge competitive advantage in disrupting U.S. motorcycle makers because it could make money at prices that were unattractive to the established leaders.

发展中国家是颠覆性技术的理想目标市场，至少有两个原因。首先，在低收入市场形成的商业模式很好地传播；也就是说，它们可以在更多的地方获利，而不是在高收入市场定义的模式。本田在摩托车领域的成功就是一个例子。在20世纪50年代，本田开始向拥挤而贫困的日本城市的小型经销商销售摩托自行车，这些城市正在从第二次世界大战的废墟中重建。该公司开发了一种以极低价格销售产品的商业模式。当本田在20世纪60年代初以Supercub进入美国市场时，该产品的简单和低廉的价格意味着那些没有钱或没有胆量拥有哈雷戴维森的人可以购买和驾驶摩托车。本田在贫困的日本的基地使该公司在扰乱美国摩托车制造商方面具有巨大的竞争优势，因为它可以以对老牌领导者没有吸引力的价格赚钱。

Toyota and Sony followed the same recipe and enjoyed decades of success while taking on the market leaders in developed countries. In fact, the industries that constituted the engine of Japan's economic miracle from the 1960s to the 1980s all followed the disruptive strategy of attacking markets that established competitors wanted to avoid because their likely revenues and profits were unattractive to them. Disruption was the nation's strategy of national economic development. The reason that Japan's economy has suffered from no growth for a decade is that its institutions will not permit new waves of disruptive innovation to be launched against today's multinational giants — the very companies that were yesterday's disrupters.4

丰田和索尼遵循了同样的配方，在与发达国家的市场领导者竞争的同时，也取得了数十年的成功。事实上，从20世纪60年代到80年代，构成日本经济奇迹引擎的行业都遵循了攻击市场的破坏性战略，而这些市场是老牌竞争对手希望避免的，因为它们可能的收入和利润对它们没有吸引力。破坏是国家的国家经济发展战略。日本经济十年来没有增长的原因是，日本的制度不允许新一轮的颠覆性创新对今天的跨国巨头发起冲击，而这些公司正是昨天的颠覆者。

In addition to having more adaptable business models, disruptive innovators also compete against nonconsumption — that is, they offer a product or service to people who would otherwise be left out entirely or poorly served by existing products and who are therefore quite happy to have a simpler, more modest version of what is available in high-end markets. That is the second reason why developing countries are often better markets initially for new growth businesses. When companies searching for growth fight against capable competitors to win the business of savvy customers in established markets, the barriers to success are formidable.5

除了拥有适应性更强的商业模式外，颠覆性创新者还与非消费者竞争--也就是说，他们向那些原本会被现有产品完全排除在外或服务质量很差的人提供产品或服务，这些人因此非常乐意拥有高端市场上可用的更简单、更温和的版本。这就是为什么发展中国家往往是新增长企业的更好市场的第二个原因。当寻求增长的公司与有能力的竞争对手竞争时，在成熟的市场中，精明的客户的业务，成功的障碍是可怕的。

General Motors must answer questions about consumption versus nonconsumption in China, where it recently opened a Buick assembly plant. GM's apparent strategy of competing against consumption pits the Buick against prestige brands like Mercedes, BMW and Lexus in a battle to win the business of China's wealthiest and most sophisticated consumers. Even if GM succeeds in winning over this segment of the Chinese market, the plant would have a very difficult time producing cars for export. China lacks the infrastructure of quality materials and suppliers needed to make vehicles with the functionality and consistency that are expected in the markets of western Europe and North America. In short, GM faces an uphill climb on two fronts.

通用汽车必须回答有关中国消费与非消费的问题，该公司最近在中国开设了一家别克装配厂。通用汽车明显的消费竞争战略使别克与梅赛德斯、宝马和雷克萨斯等知名品牌展开了一场争夺中国最富有、最精明消费者的战役。即使通用汽车成功地赢得了中国市场的这一部分，该工厂将有一个非常困难的时间生产汽车出口。中国缺乏制造具有西欧和北美市场所期望的功能性和一致性的汽车所需的优质材料和供应商的基础设施。简而言之，通用汽车在两个方面都面临着艰难的攀登。

Now consider the possibilities inherent in GM's recently announced joint venture with a Chinese company to produce and sell “minivehicles.” If the venture were able to figure out how to profitably make and market a small, simple, fuel-efficient $4,000 car to the Chinese middle class (for whom automobile ownership has not yet been possible), the potential upside would be enormous. As it begins to sell millions of vehicles in China, GM would likely find its Chinese business unit to be an ideal platform from which to export slightly bigger, slightly more powerful and sophisticated cars to emerging markets in eastern Europe and Russia. Ultimately, it could begin attacking the low end of the U.S. market. If GM were to follow a strategy of creative creation (as it seems to be doing in making a $1 billion commitment to build a hydrogen-powered car within a decade) and were to compete against nonconsumption in China's domestic market first, it could make money selling to customers whose demands for performance constitute a readily surmountable hurdle, even as it builds a business that has extraordinary growth potential.

现在考虑一下通用汽车最近宣布与一家中国公司合资生产和销售“微型汽车”的可能性。如果这家合资企业能够找到盈利的方法，制造一款小型、简单、省油的4,000美元汽车，并将其推向中国中产阶级（对他们来说，拥有汽车还不可能），那么潜在的好处将是巨大的。随着通用汽车开始在中国销售数百万辆汽车，它可能会发现，其中国业务部门是一个理想的平台，可以向东欧和俄罗斯的新兴市场出口略大、略强和略先进的汽车。最终，它可能会开始攻击美国低端市场。如果通用汽车遵循创造性创新的战略（就像它承诺在10年内投入10亿美元制造氢动力汽车一样），首先在中国国内市场与非消费型汽车竞争，即使它建立了一个具有非凡增长潜力的业务，它也可以向那些对性能的要求构成一个容易克服的障碍的客户销售产品，从而赚钱。

Microwaves for the Masses

为大众提供微波炉 

Although the arrival of the minivehicle still lies in China's future, other disruptive products are already available. A Chinese company called Galanz has achieved extraordinary growth through a first great leap downward, and it is poised to replicate the formula. In 1992, Galanz decided to enter the market for microwave ovens, even though it was a textile and garment manufacturer at the time. The global market for microwaves was mature and shrinking, and it was hard to differentiate products because most of them were good enough to do what people wanted them to do. Manufacturing had migrated to countries where labor costs were low, and consumption was concentrated in developed countries. In China, only 2% of all households owned a microwave oven. Most families did not have kitchens large enough to accommodate the available models, which had been designed to fit into homes in the West.

尽管微型车的到来仍然是中国的未来，但其他颠覆性产品已经出现。一家名为格兰仕（Galanz）的中国公司通过第一次大跃进实现了非凡的增长，并准备复制这一模式。1992年，格兰仕决定进入微波炉市场，尽管当时它还是一家纺织服装制造商。微波炉的全球市场已经成熟，而且正在萎缩，很难区分产品，因为大多数产品都足够好，可以做人们想要做的事情。制造业已转移到劳动力成本较低的国家，消费集中在发达国家在中国，只有2%的家庭拥有微波炉。大多数家庭没有足够大的厨房来容纳现有的模型，这是为了适应西方的家庭。

Rather than pursue the obvious strategy of using inexpensive Chinese labor to make lower-cost ovens for export, Galanz's founder Qingde Liang chose to compete against nonconsumption in the domestic market. Galanz introduced a simple, energy-efficient product at a price that was affordable by China's middle class and small enough to fit in their kitchens. As sales steadily climbed, Liang stimulated demand by using the company's ever-declining cost per unit to reduce the product's price. Galanz's domestic market share rose from 2% in 1993 to 76% of a much larger market in 2000. Armed with a business model that could earn attractive profits at low price points, Galanz moved upmarket to manufacture larger machines that had more features. It began to disrupt the microwave-oven markets in developed countries: By 2002, its global market share was 35%.

格兰仕的创始人梁庆德没有采用显而易见的战略，即利用廉价的中国劳动力生产低成本的烤箱出口，而是选择在国内市场与非消费品竞争。格兰仕推出了一款简单、节能的产品，价格既能让中国中产阶级负担得起，又小到可以放在他们的厨房里。如销售在稳步攀升的情况下，梁通过利用公司不断下降的单位成本来降低产品价格，从而刺激需求。格兰仕的国内市场份额从1993年的2%上升到2000年的76%。格兰仕的商业模式可以以较低的价格获得诱人的利润，格兰仕转向高端市场，生产具有更多功能的大型机器。它开始扰乱发达国家的微波炉市场：到2002年，它的全球市场份额为35%。

Galanz has not been content to rest on its accomplishments with one product. In 2000, the company launched an effort to replicate its disruptive success in the home air conditioning industry — again, competing against nonconsumption by making a simple, low-cost, energy-efficient product that is good enough to cool the small homes and apartments in which most middle-income Chinese live. The results are not yet in, but the potential for this business is extraordinary.

格兰仕并不满足于在一个产品上取得的成就。2000年，该公司开始努力复制其在家用空调行业的颠覆性成功--再次通过生产一种简单、低成本、节能的产品来与非消费型竞争，这种产品足以为大多数中等收入中国人居住的小住宅和公寓降温。结果还没有出来，但这项业务的潜力是非凡的。

Connections for the Poor

穷人的联系

Galanz's success demonstrates the possibilities for disruptive change affecting people in the middle of the pyramid. But the feasibility of disruptive business models has also been demonstrated in numerous experiments at the very bottom, where more than 4 billion people earn less than $1,500 annually in terms of purchasing power parity. Perhaps the best known experiment involves the Grameen family of enterprises in Bangladesh. The original Grameen Bank, one of the originators of microcredit in the developing world more than 20 years ago, has since spawned several spinoff ventures, including Grameen Telecom, which brings information and communication technology to rural Bangladesh.

格兰仕的成功证明了颠覆性变革影响金字塔中间人群的可能性。但颠覆性商业模式的可行性也在底层的无数实验中得到了证明，按购买力平价计算，超过40亿人的年收入不到1,500美元。也许最著名的实验涉及孟加拉国的Grameen家族企业。最初的格莱珉银行是20多年前发展中国家小额信贷的创始人之一，此后又衍生出了几家合资企业，其中包括为孟加拉国农村地区带来信息和通信技术的格莱珉电信。

Disrupting the Pyramid

破坏金字塔

In the past, major waves of growth have been created by innovations that have had an impact only on the bottom of developed markets. Disruptive innovations at the base of the pyramid — home to billions of the aspiring poor — have much greater potential than those that begin and end in developed markets.

在过去，主要的增长浪潮是由只对发达市场底部产生影响的创新创造的。位于金字塔底部的颠覆性创新--数十亿有抱负的穷人的家园--比那些开始和结束于发达市场的创新具有更大的潜力。

 

More than 3 billion people around the world lack reliable telecommunications service. A big part of the reason is the cost involved in extending wire-line infrastructure from urban to rural areas. In rural Bangladesh, average per capita income is $286 per year, a level that makes the existing business model for telephone service unfeasible. Only a disruptive model could change the situation.

全世界有30多亿人缺乏可靠的电信服务。很大一部分原因是将有线基础设施从城市延伸到农村所涉及的成本。在孟加拉国农村地区，人均年收入为286美元，这一水平使得现有的电话服务商业模式不可行。只有颠覆性的模式才能改变这种局面。

Accordingly, Grameen Telecom has focused on bringing wireless service to the country's poor. Initially, few gave the venture much hope since only the richest city dwellers in Bangladesh could afford their own mobile phones. But Grameen Telecom, following the bank's microcredit model, came up with an innovative approach. It lent up to $175 to women in rural villages — independent entrepreneurs who became known as the “wireless women of Grameen.” The loan amount covered the cost of a mobile phone, a small solar recharger unit, and the training needed to use and service the equipment. Once equipped and trained, the entrepreneurs could then sell phone usage on a per-call basis at an affordable price to others in their villages.

因此，格莱珉电信公司一直致力于为该国的穷人提供无线服务。起初，很少有人对这项业务抱有太大希望，因为只有孟加拉国最富有的城市居民才买得起自己的移动的电话。但是格莱珉电信，遵循银行的小额信贷模式，想出了一个创新的方法。它向乡村妇女提供了高达175美元的贷款，这些妇女是独立的企业家，被称为“格莱珉的无线妇女”。贷款金额包括一部移动的电话、一个小型太阳能充电器以及使用和维修设备所需的培训费用。一旦装备齐全并经过培训，这些企业家就可以按通话次数以负担得起的价格向村里的其他人出售电话。

The pilot project started with 950 villages, and the results were impressive.6 Village phone operators increased their income on average by about $300 per year. They spent much of this additional income on their children's education and health care, another boost for Bangladesh's future development. The women of Grameen also saw their status in the villages rise considerably as a result of their role in providing the new service.

试点项目在950个村庄启动，结果令人印象深刻。6村庄电话接线员的收入平均每年增加约300美元。他们将这笔额外收入的大部分用于子女的教育和医疗保健，这是孟加拉国未来发展的另一个推动力。格莱珉的妇女也看到，由于她们在提供新服务方面的作用，她们在那些村庄的地位大大提高。

Users of the service benefited greatly as well. They no longer had to endure time-consuming, expensive travel to secure information about, for example, crop prices; nor did they have to place orders with distributors through a slow, unreliable postal system. Each call saved the average user between $2.70 and $10, a figure representing up to 10% of household monthly income. Environmental advantages also became clear, in the forms of reduced vehicle usage for travel and the avoidance of construction associated with a wire-line infrastructure.

服务的用户也受益匪浅。他们不再他们不得不忍受耗时、昂贵的旅行，以获取有关作物价格等信息;他们也不必通过缓慢、不可靠的邮政系统向分销商下订单。每个电话平均为用户节省了2.70美元到10美元，这一数字相当于家庭月收入的10%。环境优势也变得明显，减少了旅行中的车辆使用，避免了与有线基础设施相关的建设。

The business model also proved to be highly profitable for Grameen. In comparison with their urban counterparts, the rural phones booked three times the revenue per phone: $100 per month for a village phone versus about $30 per month in the city. If extended to all of rural Bangladesh, the business could generate revenues in excess of $100 million per year. (If a similar model were applied to rural India and China, tens of billions of dollars of revenue would be at stake.) Recently, Grameen Telecom began offering rural Internet access via kiosks. An emerging telecom company in India, n-Logue, has adopted a similar business model; it has developed new technology to dramatically lower connection costs in rural areas using “wireless local loop” technology that separates voice and data traffic. The revenue and profit potential for this business are enormous.7

事实证明，这种商业模式也为格莱珉带来了丰厚的利润。与城市电话相比，农村电话每部电话的收入是城市电话的三倍：农村电话每月100美元，而城市电话每月约30美元。如果扩展到孟加拉国所有农村地区，这项业务每年可产生超过1亿美元的收入。(If如果将类似的模式应用于印度和中国的农村地区，数百亿美元的收入将受到威胁。最近，格莱珉电信开始通过信息亭提供农村互联网接入。印度一家新兴的电信公司n-Logue采用了类似的商业模式;它开发了新技术，利用分离语音和数据流量的“无线本地环路”技术，大大降低农村地区的连接成本。这项业务的收入和利润潜力是巨大的。

Meanwhile, telecommunications giants in developed countries have spent billions on 3G technology and spectrum licenses, hoping to provide enough bandwidth so that current customers can use wireless devices to do things that they now do on the wire-line Internet. Those investments have crippled many companies and are unlikely ever to produce adequate returns. Far better to compete against nonconsumption at the base of the pyramid, and then to migrate from that profitable base toward successively more sophisticated customers and applications in global markets.

与此同时，发达国家的电信巨头已经在3G技术和频谱许可证上花费了数十亿美元，希望提供足够的带宽，以便当前的客户可以使用无线设备做他们现在在有线互联网上做的事情。这些投资使许多公司陷入困境，而且不太可能产生足够的回报。最好是与金字塔底层的非消费者竞争，然后从这个有利可图的基础转移到全球市场上更复杂的客户和应用程序。

Power to the People

政于民

Beyond the mandate to sustain corporate growth lurks another challenge that increasingly will vex multinationals: the extent to which they contribute to, or detract from, sustainable development. Affluent countries account for more than 75% of the world's energy and resource consumption and create the bulk of the industrial, toxic and consumer waste; if the developed world's model of commerce and consumerism were to become the standard everywhere, it would require the equivalent of more than four Earths to supply the raw materials, fossil fuels and waste sinks that would be needed. Clearly, a different model is called for.

除了维持公司增长的任务之外，还潜伏着另一个日益困扰跨国公司的挑战：它们对可持续发展的贡献或减损程度。富裕国家占世界能源和资源消耗的75%以上，并产生了大部分工业、有毒和消费废物;如果发达国家的能源和资源消耗量超过发达国家，如果世界上的商业和消费模式成为各地的标准，将需要相当于四个地球以上的人口来提供所需的原材料、化石燃料和废物汇。显然，需要一种不同的模式。

For most corporations, environmental management and clean technology efforts are driven by the demands of their established markets. They would do better to focus on developing countries, which constitute the best initial markets for environmentally friendly technologies. When environmental innovations are targeted at developed markets from the outset, they are pitted against wasteful but inexpensive and entrenched technologies and aimed at customers who are extremely unforgiving. Again, competing against nonconsumption is the better route.

对大多数公司来说，环境管理和清洁技术的努力是由其既定市场的需求驱动的。它们最好把重点放在发展中国家，因为这些国家是无害环境技术的最佳初始市场。当环保创新从一开始就针对发达市场时，它们与浪费但廉价和根深蒂固的技术相对抗，并针对那些极其无情的客户。同样，与非消费者竞争是更好的途径。

Consider the problem of electric power generation and distribution. In rich countries, the existing power infrastructure is made up of large, centralized facilities and an extensive grid system for transmission and distribution. But there is also growing investment in disruptive innovations based on what is called the “distributed generation” of power; these include such technologies as solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, fuel cells and microturbines. In addition to taking advantage of renewable fuels, these technologies generate small quantities of electricity (under 1 megawatt) near the actual point of use, thereby avoiding the need for expensive distribution infrastructure. In 2000, global venture-capital investment in distributed generation surpassed $800 million (up from about $100 million in 1996).

考虑发电和配电的问题。在富裕国家，现有的电力基础设施由大型集中式设施和广泛的输电和配电电网系统组成。但是，对基于所谓的“分布式发电”的破坏性创新的投资也在增加;这些技术包括太阳能光伏发电、风力涡轮机、燃料电池和微型涡轮机。除了利用可再生燃料外，这些技术还在实际使用点附近产生少量电力（1兆瓦以下），从而避免了对昂贵的配电基础设施的需要。2000年，全球对分布式发电的风险投资超过8亿美元（1996年约为1亿美元）。

In the developed world, the difficulty facing innovators is the existence of a well-developed, sunk-cost grid system, which (at least for now) wipes away any cost advantages associated with distributed generation. In these markets, cost-accounting systems and rate structures that are tailored to the centralized generation of power make it difficult for such technologies to gain a foothold.

在发达国家，创新者面临的困难是存在一个发展良好的，沉没成本的电网系统，它（至少现在）抹去了与分布式发电相关的任何成本优势。在这些市场中，为集中发电量身定制的成本核算系统和费率结构使此类技术难以站稳脚跟。

But distributed generation has much more promise in the developing world. Consider that more than 2 billion people in the world have no access to dependable electric power. For people in distant rural areas, no grid system exists, and the massive capital investments needed to build such systems mean that it could be decades before they are built. As a consequence, the rural poor now spend much of their income on candles, kerosene and diesel in order to have periodic electrical service and lighting at night. If offered a viable substitute, these people might abandon dangerous and polluting fuels in favor of clean and efficient electric power. The potential market is huge and made up of people who would welcome innovations that cannot now compete in developed markets. Yet few producers of distributed-generation technologies have targeted the rural poor at the base of the pyramid as their initial market.

但分布式发电在发展中国家有更大的前景。世界上有20多亿人无法获得可靠的电力。对于偏远农村地区的人们来说，没有电网系统，而建设这样的系统所需的大量资本投资意味着可能需要几十年的时间才能建成。因此，农村穷人现在将大部分收入用于购买蜡烛、煤油和柴油，以便定期供电和夜间照明。如果有可行的替代品，这些人可能会放弃危险和污染的燃料，转而使用清洁和高效的电力。潜在的市场是巨大的，由那些欢迎创新的人组成，在发达市场上无法竞争。然而，很少有分布式发电技术的生产商将金字塔底层的农村穷人作为其初始市场。

The crucial breakthrough for sustainable energy technologies will not take place in a laboratory. Instead, such technologies must be incubated and refined where they can be profitably deployed through disruptive strategies, in markets where they do not compete against established systems. Pioneering companies will have to optimize a new technology for use in poor rural areas and develop production, sales, service and microfinancing packages that enable nonconsumers to gain access.

可持续能源技术的重大突破不会发生在实验室里。相反，这些技术必须在不与现有系统竞争的市场中通过颠覆性战略进行有益的部署。开拓性的公司将不得不优化一项新技术，以便在贫困的农村地区使用，并开发生产、销售、服务和小额融资一揽子计划，使非消费者能够获得这些服务。

Rolltronics, a start-up in Menlo Park, California, may be just such a pioneer.10 The company has devised a method of producing semiconductor circuits on a flexible substrate such as plastic or foil, using a continuous roll-to-roll production process, similar to that used in printing on paper. The technology has important implications for power consumption at the base of the pyramid.

位于加州门洛帕克的Rolltronics公司可能就是这样一个先驱。10该公司设计了一种在塑料或箔等柔性基板上生产半导体电路的方法，使用连续的卷对卷生产工艺，类似于在纸上印刷所使用的工艺。该技术对金字塔底部的功耗具有重要影响。

The roll-to-roll process is a classic disruptive technology: It can produce certain low-end types of semiconductor circuits at markedly lower costs. Compared with the current approach, in which chips are produced in billion-dollar fabrication facilities using millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals, roll-toroll processing is modular and clean. Low capital costs (as low as $10 million per facility) make it possible to locate smaller production facilities closer to end markets.

卷到卷工艺是一种典型的颠覆性技术：它可以以明显更低的成本生产某些低端类型的半导体电路。与目前的方法相比，在目前的方法中，芯片是在价值数十亿美元的制造设施中使用数百万加仑的水和有毒化学品生产的，滚转工艺是模块化的，清洁的。低资本成本（每个设施低至1，000万美元）使小型生产设施更接近终端市场成为可能。

Another pioneer in this area, Iowa Thin Film Technologies of Ames, Iowa, is already making roll-to-roll solar photovoltaic cells that could be used for the rural, off-grid market in the developing world. These solar cells don't generate a lot of power, but the homes of potential customers aren't filled with power-hungry appliances. And while photovoltaics can't be relied upon at night or on cloudy days, the technology still promises a substantial improvement to those who would otherwise have no electric power at all.

这一领域的另一个先驱，爱荷华州艾姆斯的爱荷华州薄膜技术公司，已经在生产卷对卷太阳能光伏电池，可用于发展中国家的农村离网市场。这些太阳能电池不会产生大量的电力，但潜在客户的家庭并没有充满耗电量大的设备。虽然在夜间或阴天不能依靠光伏发电，但这项技术仍然有望为那些根本没有电力的人带来实质性的改善。

To make this disruptive innovation competitive in developed markets and even more useful in poor countries, local production and low-cost power storage will be needed. Rolltronics is piloting roll-to-roll technology capable of producing the solar cells and low-cost, thin-film batteries that will make such storage feasible. Eventually, both the cells and the batteries could be made in small, relatively inexpensive factories located directly in the countries they would serve, helping to foster a fully integrated, indigenous, distributed solar industry. Other companies have begun to recognize the magnitude of the opportunity: Shell, through a joint venture with Akzo Nobel, has made investments in the development of roll-to-roll solar capability.

为了使这种颠覆性创新在发达市场上具有竞争力，甚至在贫穷国家更有用，需要当地生产和低成本的电力储存。Rolltronics是试验卷对卷技术，能够生产太阳能电池和低成本的薄膜电池，使这种存储可行。最终，电池和电池组都可以在它们所服务的国家的小型、相对廉价的工厂中制造，这有助于促进一个完全一体化的、本土的、分布式的太阳能产业。其他公司已经开始认识到这一机会的巨大性：壳牌通过与阿克苏诺贝尔的合资企业，投资开发卷对卷太阳能发电能力。

Sustainable energy pioneers who focus on the base of the pyramid could set the stage for one of the biggest bonanzas in the history of commerce, since extensive adoption and experience in developing markets would almost certainly lead to dramatic improvements in cost and quality. If companies such as Rolltronics create a business model that can be profitable in those markets, solar energy has a chance. But that is the only strategy that can possibly succeed in this area — absent massive and perpetual government subsidies.

专注于金字塔底层的可持续能源先驱可以为商业史上最大的富矿之一奠定基础，因为在发展中市场的广泛采用和经验几乎肯定会导致成本和质量的显着改善。如果像Rolltronics这样的公司创造出一种可以在这些市场盈利的商业模式，太阳能就有机会。但这是唯一可能在这一领域取得成功的战略--没有大规模和永久的政府补贴。

A Leap Beyond Faith

超越信仰的飞跃

The theory of disruptive innovation suggests that existing mainstream markets are the wrong place to look for major new waves of growth. Forcing a potentially disruptive innovation into a sustaining business model — thereby putting it on a collision course with incumbents — will only ensure its early demise. Our thinking about the potential rewards resulting from a great leap to the base of the pyramid extends this concept as a framework not just for corporate growth but also for more balanced macroeconomic development. Indeed, the great leap holds the potential to address the root causes of antiglobalization sentiments.

颠覆性创新理论表明，现有的主流市场并不是寻找新一轮增长浪潮的合适场所。强迫一个潜在的颠覆性创新进入一个可持续的商业模式--从而使其与现有企业发生碰撞--只会确保其早日消亡。我们对向金字塔底部的巨大飞跃所带来的潜在回报的思考，将这一概念扩展为一个框架，不仅是为了企业增长，也是为了更平衡的宏观经济发展。事实上，大跃进有可能解决反全球化情绪的根源。

If history is any guide, most of the growth opportunities in this vast, untapped market will be seized by entrepreneurs (like Grameen and Galanz) in developing countries — just as the opportunities in impoverished postwar Japan were captured by innovators such as Sony, Honda and Toyota. Global corporations, however, shouldn't assume that such an outcome is inevitable; they, too, can seize growth opportunities before they become threats. To do so, they will have to build new business models that include governance and organizational structures better suited to conditions at the base of the pyramid. And, as is always the case in pursuing disruptive innovation, companies will need to manage the opportunities independently from the processes and values of their mainstream global businesses.

如果以史为鉴的话，这个巨大的、尚未开发的市场的大部分增长机会将被发展中国家的企业家（如格莱珉和格兰仕）抓住--就像战后贫困的日本的机会被索尼、本田和丰田等创新者抓住一样。然而，跨国公司不应该认为这样的结果是不可避免的;他们也可以在增长机会成为威胁之前抓住它们。要做到这一点，他们必须建立新的商业模式，包括更适合金字塔底层条件的治理和组织结构。而且，正如在追求颠覆性创新的过程中一直存在的情况一样，企业需要独立于其主流全球业务的流程和价值观来管理这些机会。 

Our research on such ventures stresses the importance of focusing technology and product-development resources directly on the needs of the poor; it also points to the need to build long-term relationships with such partners as local communities, local companies and nongovernmental organizations. Global companies that follow the principles of disruptive innovation and set their sights on the developing world will not simply be taking a leap of faith. By taking a great leap to the base of the pyramid, they will be giving themselves a chance for sustained corporate growth while also helping to lift the poor out of poverty and opening the way to sustainable growth for the global economy.

我们对这类企业的研究强调，必须将技术和产品开发资源直接用于穷人的需要;研究还指出，必须与当地社区、当地公司和非政府组织等伙伴建立长期关系。那些遵循颠覆性创新原则并将目光投向发展中国家的企业，将不仅仅是信仰上的飞跃。通过向金字塔底部的巨大飞跃，它们将为自己提供一个持续企业增长的机会，同时也有助于使穷人摆脱贫困，并为全球经济的可持续增长开辟道路。

个人思考：

通过阅读该篇文献，我认识到了颠覆性创新的重要性，文章中提到的颠覆性创新理论强调了寻找新的增长点不应局限于现有的主流市场。这提示我们，在探索商业机会时，应该更加开放地考虑那些尚未被充分开发的市场，特别是位于经济金字塔底层的市场。这些市场往往因为被认为利润空间小或是风险高而被传统企业忽视，但实际上它们蕴含着巨大的潜力。

通过阅读该篇文献，我还学习到企业应该将创新与社会责任相结合。本篇文章的作者提出了一个重要的观点，即企业可以通过关注金字塔底层人群的需求，不仅实现自身的增长，还能促进社会的整体进步。这种模式不仅有助于缓解反全球化的情绪，还可以通过提升底层民众的生活水平来促进宏观经济的均衡发展。这为企业的社会责任提供了一种新的视角，即将社会责任融入到商业模式中，而不是将其视为一种额外的成本负担。

企业应构建适合本地的商业模式。为了有效地服务于金字塔底层的市场，企业需要构建与之相适应的商业模式，包括治理结构和组织形式。这意味着企业不能简单地复制其在全球其他市场的成功模式，而是需要根据当地的实际情况进行创新。这不仅是一种商业策略，也是一种文化和社会责任的体现。

企业还需意识到可持续发展的必要性，特别是在可持续能源领域的创新，文章提到了没有大规模和永久的政府补贴的情况下，如何通过创造有效的商业模式来推动技术创新。这对于当前面临环境问题的世界来说尤为重要，它指出了企业在追求经济增长的同时，也应当考虑到环境保护和可持续发展的问题。

通过阅读该篇文献，我了解到创造而非破坏，文章中提到的“创造性创造”概念补充了传统的“创造性破坏”理论，强调了在创新过程中创造的价值远大于被破坏的部分。这提醒我们在评估创新的影响时，不仅要看到其可能带来的负面影响，更要关注它能为社会带来哪些积极的变化。

综上所述，这篇文章给我带来了关于如何在商业实践中更好地结合社会责任、创新以及可持续发展的深刻启示。它不仅提供了理论上的指导，也为实际操作提供了具体的建议，对于希望开拓新市场、实现可持续发展的企业和个人来说，是非常有价值的参考资料。