Here’s your Daily Brief for October 16th:

New Approaches to New Markets: How C.K. Prahalad’s Bottom of the Pyramid Strategies Are Paying Off (via Knowledge@Wharton) – C.K. Prahalad’s book, The Fortune at The Bottom of the Pyramid, has been one of the most coveted books for those of us advocating business investment in BoP markets. It was one of the first pieces of literature that took an honest account of the world’s poorest populations, disproving many misconceptions of the poor and laying out a clear strategy on how to operate a business that serves this market. But importantly, he also showed how innovation that occurs in serving BoP markets can trickle up and ultimately serve developed markets as well!

Five years since the release of this book, C.K. Prahalad reflects on the impact it has had. You can download the podcast interview here.

Success for Social Enterprise in Africa (via Beyond Profit) – A few weeks ago was the African Social Enterprise Forum in New York. I was unfortunately unable to attend, but my friend Diana Skurka was there to help promote International Transparency Solutions.

I’m still sifting through all the notes from the conference, but Beyond Profit posted this article recapping some of the key points from keynote speakers. What stands out most to me in this brief is the point made by Jacob Lief, Founder and President of Ubuntu Education Fund:

Jacob spoke on the scaling up and due diligence panel, where he challenged the term “scaling up.” He explained that Ubuntu’s approach is to “scale down” – to go deeper into a community and focus on changing lives, rather than simply touching them.

Over the course of the last 10-15 years, innovation has focused on “scale” and going macro. This is a trend that I see quickly giving way to more micro/community-based penetration. As we seek greater “impact”, more localized approaches will be the way to go.

Step Inside the Laptop Bank – Introducing FrontlineSMS:Credit (via Ken Banks) – Ken Banks is the founder of FrontlineSMS, a free software that allows individuals and organizations to create and run SMS-based networks. The software has been used by Ushahidi to track and report post-election violence in Kenya and many other cases in the last few years. Josh Nesbit used the platform to introduce FrontlineSMS:Medic — creating a network of healthcare professionals in the developing world and providing them with the SMS-based tools to interconnect and operate effectively.

A few weeks ago while I was in DC, I had the pleasure of meeting up with Ben Lyon from CreditSMS. Well just recently, CreditSMS became FrontlineSMS:Credit. Ben is doing some very cool work building a platform for SMS-based microfinance and banking. The linked article was written by Ken Banks on what Ben is doing.