Empowering the bottom of the pyramid - an analysis of an investment cooperation in Angola: the case of ONI Communications

• Autor(a) principal: Fartaria, Marina Sofia Crespo
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/4041
• topic: BoP market; Agriculture; Telecommunications; Partnership

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a business model for companies that do foresee the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) as a promising and challenging market, that can enhance their position in the competitive context. According to Prahalad’s definition, ―world’s 4 billion poor, people who live on far less than $2 a day‖, are located at the BoP (Prahalad & Hart, first quarter 2002). Angola, the target market of this study, is one of the world’s poorest countries and one the fastest growing economies. It started reinventing itself economically and politically, after the end of the civil war in 2002, creating the right conditions for companies to invest. Angola attracted since 2003 over 1.124 projects representing more than USD 4 billion in investment capital. This study describes the benefits Angola, as fast growing economy, brings to foreign investors and the many advantages it presents mostly to Portuguese companies due to its long-relationship with Portugal. Doing business in Angola can lead to an indirect development of other sectors, welfare increase and competition. Based on the experience of ONI Communications in vertical solutions, this study developed a business case where farmers subscribed at a farmer cooperative benefited from information on market prices, new products and farming techniques, or accessed micro-credit. The synergies resulted from the partnership among a Portuguese company, a state-owned Angolan company, and a cooperative with a big impact on the target Market at an educational level, or in both infrastructures and sector development. The long relationship between Portugal and Angola, their common bonds and similarities bring benefits to this partnership. Angola is a market to be explored, although still living the consequences of the Civil War. With this study a new way to explore markets similar to Angola was developed and a new way to benefit from its emerging opportunities.