Organizational Challenges of Multinational Corporations at the Base of the Pyramid: An Action-research Inquiry

To what extent and how does a multinational corporation adapt its strategy and organizational capabilities in order to address markets at the Base of the Pyramid? This paper builds on the results of a three-year action-research program conducted with Lafarge, a global building materials company and introduces a strategic framework which opposes two types of approaches of such markets: a licence-to-operate approach, and a business opportunityseeking approach. The article analyzes how the company moved from the first to the second approach and discusses the implications in terms of organizational capabilities of with each approach.