Multinational corporations can simultaneously alleviate global poverty and reach a potentially huge yet untapped consumer and employee market if they put aside biases and team up with an atypical business partner—the world’s poor. However, to succeed, these business partnerships must be designed to be profitable, according to a new book, co-written by DePaul University professors, that provides a fresh perspective on poverty reduction.

In their book, "Alleviating Poverty Through Profitable Partnerships" (Routledge 2009), authors Patricia H. Werhane, Laura P. Hartman and Scott P. Kelley of DePaul and Dennis J. Moberg of Santa Clara (Calif.) University, draw on research by prominent business ethicists and poverty experts to conclude that the private sector holds the key to ending poverty.

The tradition of relying primarily on government aid and private philanthropy to address poverty is "flawed," the authors argue, because it is unsustainable. "Instead, companies should seek profitable partnerships with the poor for mutual gain. By developing new markets for their products and creating new jobs and opportunities for economic development, profitable partnerships hold the potential to create value for shareholders as well as for these new stakeholders," the authors conclude.

"The goal of the book is to convince companies that it is to their long-term, competitive advantage to engage in value-creatin projects in less developed countries," explained Werhane, the Wicklander Chair in Business Ethics at DePaul. "And frankly, we conclude that those companies who do not engage will not survive to 2050."