When as a corporate you plan for  making a difference in the lives of the people at the  bottom of the economic pyramid you have four broad strategic options:

1. Invest your resources to co-create an innovative business model by engaging low income households as your consumers or producers.

2. Market your existing products to the BoP by strengthening your distribution system.

3. Walk down the CSR route : fund relevant projects and social entreprenuers.

4. Act as a aggregator and facilitator of innovation at the Base of the Pyramid through social entreprenuers and then commercialise and facilitate financing for scaling up.

The post by Navi Rajdou in Harvard Business Publishing  illustrates strategic option 4 that is being followed by Marico and Microsoft in India.