By Guest Blogger: Brooke Partridge,

CEO Vital Wave Consulting

A major obstacle to sustaining private-sector investments in developing countries is the lack of association with short-term, quantifiable business value – tying investments directly to near-term revenue. The development community can encourage or facilitate more private-sector funding by providing market knowledge and explaining how such investments create business value. For their part, business managers in the private sector must understand that the most compelling and profitable offerings can and should provide social and economic value to potential users.

In engaging the development community, the private sector would do well to:  

· Learn about local needs and usage models

· Quantify the market opportunity through appropriate tools and methodologies

· Adapt products and services to local needs and conditions

· Align business and market growth with local priorities

· Support the development of sustainable value chain partners

In engaging the private sector, the development community would do well to:

· Present opportunities in terms of potential business value to the company

· Help characterize the opportunity for business growth

· Identify potential operating efficiencies that will result from private-sector investments

With better knowledge of the priorities and motivations of their partners, the development community and the private sector can discuss collaboration in more concrete terms, helping for-profit organizations quantify the potential for near-term, profitable growth while transforming new products and business models into tools for social and economic development.

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 10:55 am and is filed under CES, How To. Reply to this post, or trackback from your own site. Follow responses to this entry through the comments RSS feed.