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Author Bio

Lina M. Salazar Ortegón

Lina Salazar Ortegón es entrenadora de salud integral. Previamente trabajó en Comunicaciones de BID Invest. Antes de entrar al Grupo BID, Lina trabajó en la Americas Society/Council of the Americas (ASCOA) en Nueva York, la Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) en París y la Cámara de Comercio Colombo Americana en Bogotá. Lina es Abogada y Politóloga de la Universidad de los Andes en Bogotá, Colombia, y tiene una maestría en política pública de Sciences Po en París y de la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. Lina ha publicado artículos en medios impresos y en línea; y habla español, inglés, francés y portugués.

Posts by Lina M. Salazar Ortegón

The best of 2015: Counterintuitive ideas for sustainable enterprises
The best of 2015: Counterintuitive ideas for sustainable enterprises

Most business models are formulated by the top of the economic pyramid. Many business leaders and academics write about the "must haves" of a successful base of the pyramid (BOP) business model. Still quite a few of those business endeavors fail.  While reasons for failure vary, experience shows that the ability to observe, listen and understand the BOP’s social codes and priorities is key to successfully formulate and set up profitable, sustainable enterprises that target low-income markets.

Don’t let base of the pyramid millennials catch your company off guard
Don’t let base of the pyramid millennials catch your company off guard

Hardly a day passes without a new article on how businesses are analyzing the needs, wants and spending trends of millennials. In the US alone, millennials (or Generation Y), those born between 1980 and 2000, represent 30 percent of the population. By 2025 they will be 75 percent of the workforce of this country. The impact that millennials are starting to have on the global economy, the environment, and politics is enormous. But “millennial mania” is dominated by studies, research and marketing efforts that focus on affluent individuals. Meanwhile, in Latin America and the Caribbean a market of 77 million low-income or base of the pyramid millennials goes almost unnoticed.

WANTED: Innovative companies for a $760 billion market
WANTED: Innovative companies for a $760 billion market

It has been more than ten years since we first read about the base of the pyramid (BOP) and the large and virtually untapped market represented by this socio-economic segment. People at the BOP in Latin America and the Caribbean live on less than $10 a day, but they have benefited from the region’s economic growth between 2000 and 2010 and their incomes have been growing ever since. Latin America’s BOP now encompasses 406 million people and represents a market of $760 billion. A market segment that awaits for innovative companies.

What happens when low-income people's disposable income increases?
What happens when low-income people's disposable income increases?

The base of the pyramid as we knew it ten years ago has changed tremendously. Latin America and the Caribbean’s economic growth between 2000 and 2010 benefited many in the region, from top to bottom. Millions of people emerged from poverty, and the segment of those living on $4-10 a day grew considerably. More than 400 million people in Latin America live at the base of the pyramid (BOP) today. They represent a $760 billion market annually. The Inter-American Development Bank's BASE III Forum will be this year's opportunity to discuss how to tap into this unexplored market and have an impact on low-income people's lives. It will take place in Mexico City on June 29-July 1.

Counterintuitive ideas are the right answer for sustainable enterprises
Counterintuitive ideas are the right answer for sustainable enterprises

Most business models are formulated by the top of the pyramid. Many business leaders and academics write on the must haves of a successful base of the pyramid (BOP) business model. Still quite a few of those business endeavors fail.  While reasons for failure vary, experience shows that the ability to observe, listen and understand the BOP’s social codes and priorities is key to successfully formulate and set up profitable, sustainable enterprises that target low-income markets.

Abandoned houses prove golden opportunity: An interview with Antonio Díaz, Founder and CEO of Provive
Abandoned houses prove golden opportunity: An interview with Antonio Díaz, Founder and CEO of Provive

Miriam, 43, lives in Cañadas del Florido, a low-income neighborhood in Tijuana, Baja California, the northernmost state of Mexico.  Three years ago, on any given day, Miriam and her three children would watch criminals, drug addicts, and vagrants frequent the empty house next-door. Their streets were littered with garbage and dead animals. This is not an uncommon situation in the Mexican neighborhoods, or fraccionamientos, where more than seven million houses were built by developers with mortgages from the government in the last decade. Thanks to Provive, Miriam’s life has since changed.