The purpose of the conference was to discuss the work on social entrepreneurship of IESE Professor Johanna Mair and Senior Researcher Christian Seelos, who has recently joined the Malik Management Center St. Gallen. According to Mair and Seelos, social entrepreneurship "offers innovative models for the delivery of products and services to meet basic needs that are not served by traditional political and economic institutions". In their view, social entrepreneurship is the "perfect formula to tackle the difficulties encountered in markets at the base of the pyramid (BOP)".

The integrated model is exemplified by the eye surgery project being carried out by AutoLab (a manufacturing company for affordable high quality lenses) and the Aravind Eye Hospital (which combines a free service for the very poor with a pay service for the better-off). The aim is to treat as many cataract patients as possible, meeting the high demand in India, but at the lowest possible price.

Is there a market for mobile telephony in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on the planet? According to Ole B. Sjulstad, Vice-President of Telenor International Mobile, who participated at the conference, there is. Because, whatever their circumstances, "people need to communicate".

The third model presented during the conference is complementary to the other two. It is derived from the experience of another Bengali NGO, WasteConcern, which has succeeded in reframing the problem of the vast amount of waste generated by cities such as Dhaka and turning it into a business opportunity.

All these social initiatives are built on a paradigm of entrepreneurial innovation in which the following features are key: ability to organize the poor around opportunities; providing services and products that are profitable and beneficial to all parties; using corporate resources and capabilities to forge new value chains; creating the necessary conditions for an industrial revolution; and developing social capabilities to open new markets.