One of the greatest challenges facing the world today is poverty, and this affects not just financial standing, but also aspiration. And, things are changing. While the developed world deals with the consequences of the serious economic slowdown, the impact upon developing countries and their communities is that they can no longer rely on aid for assistance.
The Mowgli Foundation recognises the value and power of mentoring. Widely acknowledged to be a key driver in achieving sustainable business success, our aim at Mowgli is to use mentoring to unlock potential in the developing world. We envision an end to poverty by creating an ‘enabling environment’ that facilitates enterprise and entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurial Businesses: Stages of Development
Our Inspiration
Mowgli’s founder – Tony Bury – found himself deeply moved by an encounter with CK Prahalad’s book, The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. In economics, the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ represents the largest but poorest socio-economic group, and Prahalad argues that the private sector must re-evaluate pre-conceived notions of commercial opportunity. He challenges companies to revolutionise the way they do business in developing countries, and furthermore, understand they have the potential to significantly contribute to the alleviation of poverty. This notion moves well beyond the standard Corporate Social Responsibility strategy. Prahalad suggests that collectively, the world's billions of poor people have immense entrepreneurial capabilities and we can learn how to serve them with a real engine for jobs and services. In his work he illustrates the business model through numerous inspirational case studies.
Imagine that we could transform the world’s poorest nations and their fortunes. The market is huge – 4 billion people in the developing world and a market potential totalling £13 trillion – and by embracing a new approach to business we can do just that.
To learn more about C.K Prahalad and the Bottom of the Pyramid, please visit our Knowledge Centre
Origin of the Mowgli Name
Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli was the boy who learnt the laws of the jungle with the support of his varied animal mentors. The Jungle Book chronicles his story of survival, wisdom and hope, and teaches us that true friends are the ones who will tell you what you need to hear, rather than what you want to hear. We felt that this is the very essence of mentoring, so his name lends itself perfectly to our foundation.
