The 86 Percent Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the Next 50 Years

Preface: Do You Want to Be in This Market? Can You Afford Not to Be?

Managers at a major U.S. office equipment manufacturer were considering how to market an overhead projector to the developing world when we asked a simple question: How would the overhead projector work without electricity? There was silence. It was a question that they had never even considered. But this is a question that must be answered every day in the developing world. By asking and answering this type of question, Hewlett-Packard has created battery-operated digital cameras and printing systems that allow entrepreneurial photographers to operate completely off the grid. Ask yourself: Do you know what an inverter is? If you don't, you probably haven't thought enough about ...