Microsoft Unleashes India's Creative Capitalism

Microsoft's 17-month-old Unlimited Potential (UP) program brings together the company's business strategy and corporate citizenship goals in a coordinated effort. UP's goal? To help address the diverse social and economic issues faced by 5 billion people in the world who currently receive little or no benefit from technology. In India, for instance, UP works closely with grassroots innovators to co-develop and co-market tech solutions that enhance local communities' standard of living. UP's success proves that tech vendors can do well while doing good in the world. Following Microsoft's lead, tech multinationals should integrate their for-profit business models and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives into a coherent strategy to profitably serve users at the bottom of the economic pyramid. But first, they must overcome their ethnocentric view of the emerging markets and transform their organizational design from that of a multinational corporation (MNC) to a globally adaptive organization (GAO).