one laptop to change the world
DESCRIPTION
A presentation to my class about the OLPC project -- this presentation discusses the debates around this project and its impacts as a disruptive innovationTRANSCRIPT
One laptop to change the world
Ian Howard, Schulich School of Business, 30 March 2008
he has a dream...
the “movement of recorded music ... is about to become the instantaneous and inexpensive”
Negroponte, 1995
a disruptive technology
According to Christiansen:
disruptive technologies offer “a different package of attributes valued only in emerging markets
remote from, and unimportant to, the mainstream.”
source: Wikipedia
evolution of disruptionJan 2005 – OLPC project officially begins at World Economic ForumWorking Prototype WSIS Nov 2005Oct 2007 – Uruguay orders 100,000 unitsNov 2007 – OLPC begins mass productionJan 3rd 2008 – Intel quitsJan 5th 2008 – Give one get one laptops begin to be sent to Cambodia, Nepal...CES Jan 7th 2008 – Asus eeePC, Intel ...
1. the big push vs. pull development debate
2. the fortune at the BOP debate
A disruption in two camps
Debate 1: Push vs. Pull
Sachs Easterly
vs.
Debate 1: Push vs. Pull
Big Push
Utopianism
Planners
neo-colonialists
Non-Interventionist/
Pull
Pessimistic
Seekers
SimplisticSachs’s ... conviction [is] that Africa can be saved with $75 billion a year in Western aid. ... In Easterly’s opinion, the present generation of white philanthropists is no more likely than earlier ones to succeed in a self-appointed (and at times unwittingly imperial) mission of enlightening the Dark Continent. source: Economist's View
vs.
Debate 1: Push vs. Pull
“our breathtaking opportunity {is to} spread the benefits of technology... to all parts of the world...”
a quote taken by Easterly from Sachs' book The End of Poverty
is a $100 laptop affordable for the poor?
will they ever buy it?
(or will someone buy it for them?)
(or are cell phones the answer?)
Debate 2: is there a fortune at the bottom of the pyramid?
Prahalad's Principles for BOP Products:
1) Price
2) Hybrid
3) Scalable and Transportable
Prahalad's Principles for BOP Products:
4) Resource conservative
5) Functionality over form
6) Process innovations are just as critical as product innovations.
Prahalad's Principles for BOP Products:
7) Deskilling work is critical
8) Education of customers on product usage is key
9) Resilient and durable
10) Appropriate interfaces
Prahalad's Principles for BOP Products:
11) Innovations must reach the consumer (urban and rural)
12) Platform approach so that it can be added to and adapted quickly
Nov 2007: a $180 laptop is born
and Intel reacts with a $280 laptop
and ASUS with a $400 laptop...
is there a fortune at the bottom?
162,000 XOs have been sold since November!
(to US and Canadian consumers)
ASUS expects to sell over 5 million units worldwide (but not to the poor)
There is a fortune at the middle and top of the pyramid
Competition is good.
Two models have emerged, a commercial “pull” model that is attempting to straddle markets (Intel,
ASUS) – middle of pyramid
vs.
A “big push” market that is attempting to create a “blue ocean” (OLPC) – bottom of pyramid
The OLPC has certainly caused a disruption, but perhaps not the one that
Negroponte had wanted.
Is OLPC a BOP product?