Cases Involving the 39 Countries

9B17A065 - 14 pages
BRAC: Shasthya Shebikas’ Role in Delivering Health Care Service to Rural Markets
Sanal Kumar Velayudhan, Sayeda Shabukta Malik, Kaosar Afsana

BRAC was the largest non-governmental organization in the world, reaching out to 138 million people. It made a significant contribution to reducing poverty in Bangladesh by employing more than 117,000 community workers (Shasthya Shebikas) to improve the health and nutrition of the rural poor. The manager of BRAC's Health, Nutrition and Population program was faced with two significant challenges. First, she had to find a way to encourage more people to use BRAC’s services; more than 60 per cent of the population sought the services of unqualified health care service providers, despite the significant contribution made by Shasthya Shebikas. Second, she had to bring down the 10 to 20 per cent turnover rate of the Shasthya Shebikas.

9B17M097 - 15 pages
bKash: Financial Technology Innovation for Emerging Markets
Ishtiaq P Mahmood, Marleen Dieleman, Narmin Tartila

The founder of bKash Limited (bKash), a successful mobile financial services (MFS) model pioneered in Bangladesh, built the company from scratch, targeting services at the lower socioeconomic segment of society and eventually acquiring 26 million customers. bKash has had a positive impact on the lives of countless poor people and has gained worldwide recognition for its innovative business model. The model required close collaboration with telecommunications operators, banks, non-governmental organizations, and regulators. In particular, the Bangladesh central bank supported the venture, allowing experimentation in MFS to address poverty through financial inclusion. By the end of 2016, the founder was concerned about future regulations and looking to strengthen the foundation of his disruptive business to make it more robust. How could the company continue to grow while maintaining its financial inclusion objective?

9B17M074 - 12 pages
Indus OS: Revolution Through Incremental Innovation
Arpita Agnihotri, Saurabh Bhattacharya

Founded in May 2008 in India, Indus OS (previously known as Firstouch) understood the latent language needs of 90 per cent of Indian consumers, a need that prevented users from switching from their basic-feature phones to smartphones. Through incremental innovation of the open Android system, Indus OS launched the world’s first smartphone operating system that had the ability to function in 12 of India’s regional languages. Through strategic partnerships formed in 2015 with some of the leading smartphone manufacturers in India, by May 2016 Indus OS had become the second most popular operating system in the Indian market, following Google’s Android and leading Apple’s iOS. Moreover, Indus OS had firm strategic growth plans, not only for India but also for international markets like China and Bangladesh. The remaining critical issue was whether Indus OS could sustain its advantage over rivals or whether it was likely to be acquired by a large multinational corporation, a fate common to other successful start-ups in India.

9B16M023 – 11 pages
Joe Fresh: Ethical Sourcing
Jaana Woiceshyn, Norman Althouse, Nigel Goodwin

After more than 1,100 people lost their lives in the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory building in Bangladesh, executives of Joe Fresh, a Canadian fashion and lifestyle brand, had to respond. Along with numerous other Western retailers, Joe Fresh had sourced much of its merchandise from the Rana Plaza factory. The disaster evoked an emotional public reaction, ranging from sympathy to outrage. The clothing industry had become a critical part of Bangladesh’s economy, and this was not an isolated incident. How would the Rana Plaza incident affect the public perception of Joe Fresh, and what could the company do to improve that perception? More fundamentally, how could Joe Fresh balance its competitive position, obligations to shareholders, and customer demands with ethical sourcing?

9B16A001 – 15 pages
Walton: Building a Global Brand Through Internationalization
Mohammad B. Rana, Mohammad Tarikul Islam, Nikhilesh Dholakia

By 2014, the Walton Group, an electrical goods manufacturer based in Bangladesh, sold its products in over 20 different countries. A decision to utilize the advantages of low labour costs in the company’s home country was made in the early 2000s, which led to an increase in value and permitted rapid international expansion. To achieve Walton’s mission of “Walton at every home,” the company established various specialized support units both inside and outside of Bangladesh. Government tax incentives in Bangladesh had boosted Walton’s cost competitiveness, but how else could Walton compete with other international brands to achieve is goals and become a household name worldwide?

9B15M062 – 12 pages
The Children's Place, Inc.: Challenges in a Post-Rana Plaza World
Ram Subramanian

The Children’s Place was a New Jersey-based specialty retailer of apparel and accessories for children up to age 12. Starting in fiscal 2013, the company was moving from a clearance-centre model, where it sold a variety of national brands, to a made-for-outlet model that emphasized its own brands. This was necessitated by intense price competition in its market. The new strategy involved developing, coordinating and controlling its own global apparel value chain. When the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh collapsed on April 24, 2013, killing and injuring a large number of workers, products destined for The Children’s Place were found in the debris. The adverse publicity that ensued meant that the company’s top management had to re-evaluate its strategy. What should be their response?

9B09M052 – 23 pages
Baring Private Equity Partners India Limited: Banking Services for the Poor in Bangladesh
Ram Kumar Kakani, Munish Thakur

From the 1970s onward, after the emergence of microfinance, lending for the poor started shifting from informal sources (e.g. moneylenders) to formal sources. The Grameen Bank (Grameen) led this change, primarily due to its chief executive officer (CEO) and his innovative microcredit model. On the basis of the CEO's rich understanding of on-the-ground realities, he began to experiment and modify the business model for microfinance, which, in the past few years in Bangladesh, was largely dominated by a few big players. As a result of some very interesting and insightful experiments that had been conducted, the microfinance landscape was changing the way banking services were modeled for the poor, not only in Bangladesh but throughout the world. The case profiles a situation wherein Baring Private Equity Partners India, one of the largest private equity players in emerging markets, was looking to invest in the high-growth, profitable microfinance industry of South Asia. This case is oriented toward helping students understand the credit needs of the poor and their perspective on money management, hunger, investment and savings. Students should be made to appreciate how an innovative business model can be developed through a deeper understanding of the local context combined with conceptual thinking. The case strongly vouches for the development of sustainable solutions that require both financial viability and sensitivity to the conditions of the poor. The most important point to be highlighted about the microfinance landscape is that the entrepreneurship model is changing from being socially focused to being business focused. Earlier, most players entered the microfinance arena as a not-for-profit venture; however, many for-profit organizations have now entered this sector.

9B13N012 - 9 pages
Contrasting China's Yunan Model with Bangladesh's Yunus Model for Microfinance
Yuping Du, Randall O. Chang, Meng Wu, Chun Li

In 2008, about the time when the Yunus Model of microfinancing was under attack in its home country of Bangladesh, the Yunan Model was begun in rural China. The original model suffered from inefficiencies, high interest rates and allegations of improprieties against the founder, Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. By contrast, the Yunan Model relied on social capital and mechanism design theory to enlist the rural population, financial institutions and government in a cooperative effort to increase the financial stability and entrepreneurship level of one of the poorest areas of the country. Could "microfinance with Chinese characteristics" offer a plan to reduce poverty across China?

9B13M071 – 4 pages
Loblaw Inc. and Rana Plaza
Michael Sider

A business professor who teaches sustainability must decide whether to sell his shares in the Canadian company, Loblaw Inc., after learning that the company produced garments for its clothing line in a Bangladeshi garment factory that collapsed, killing 1,127 workers.

9B04A030 – 17 pages
Eastern Bank Limited (A) 9B04A030
Terry H. Deutscher, Kaiser Islam

Eastern Bank Limited has taken over the Bangladesh operations of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International after its collapse. The new chief executive officer of Eastern Bank must make decisions about which corporate banking clients to target, how to develop and position the Eastern Bank brand, what products to emphasize, in what price structure and whether to centralize or decentralize the bank's operations. The supplement Eastern Bank Limited (B), product 9B04A031 updates the situation. This case provides a good vehicle for discussing relationship management in a complex service analysis of market segments and the present and future profitability, so that the marketing strategy decisions are customer driven.

Zhangfeng Fei, Xiaokang Zhao, Kejing Zhang, Alex Beamish

In mid-June 2011, the Chinese president of the China–Benin joint venture Benin Textile Company (Compagnie Béninoise des Textiles, or CBT) was deeply worried about the supply of cotton in Benin. Since 2009, CBT had faced significant challenges in obtaining a reliable cotton supply. In 2010, the company had already placed its cotton orders, but local Beninese cotton producers were unwilling to deliver cotton at the earlier agreed-on price due to the rising market price. CBT was forced to stop production for five months and could not deliver on numerous contracts. The president of CBT was unsure whether to stay in West Africa and if so, how to improve the cotton supply situation. He had four options: maintain the status quo and hope for improvements, withdraw from West Africa, buy cotton contracts from other countries, or invest in cotton production. Which would be the best option for his company?

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B20M079 - 14 pages
Technologies Ecofixe: Green Wastewater Treatment for Africa
Roxanne Lavoie-Drapeau, Gwyneth Edwards

In September 2018, Marisol Labrecque, president of Technologies Ecofixe Inc. (Technologies Ecofixe), was heading to Ain Taoujdate, Morocco, in order to supervise the installation of the company’s second ECOFIXE system in Africa. Technologies Ecofixe was a small, socially responsible Québécois company that had developed and commercialized a cost-effective system for the treatment of wastewaters in aerated ponds. With her eye on Africa’s ever-expanding market, Labrecque considered entering the French-speaking countries of Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. However, given her limited resources, Labrecque knew that she would have to choose. Which country should Technologies Ecofixe enter next?

9B14C018 – 17 pages
Sewa (A): Ela Bhatt 
Sonia Mehotra, Oana Branzei

In February 2014, a McKinsey Global Institute report proposed tracking an empowerment line that could enable India’s citizens to get out of poverty by providing the resources they needed to build better lives. This prompted Ela Bhatt, founder of the India-based Self-Employed Women’s Association, to take stock of her initiative to empower women working in India's informal sector. Since 1972, her organization has been widely acclaimed as a global first mover and active champion of grassroots development. Quickly approaching two million members in India and six neighbouring countries, and inspiring similar efforts in South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, it exemplifies a unique form of positively deviant organizing by speaking to the centrality of human beings at work. Given resources, support and encouragement, its many members have used their own human agency even in the direst of circumstances to better their lives in ways most meaningful to them, for instance, by creating childcare, health care, banking, farming and education cooperatives. However, as she reaches retirement and contemplates the future, Bhatt wonders if the new generation of Indian leaders will take up the Gandhian socially minded path or follow the commercial careers opening up in the country’s multinational sector. 

9B14M131 – 11 pages
LifeNet International's Transformation of African Healthcare via Social Franchising
Ilan Alon, Raul Carril

LifeNet International was a social conversion franchise concept aiming to provide basic, quality and sustainable healthcare to poor and underserved populations in sub-Saharan Africa. The founder and president had relied on the assistance of others to help bring about his idea of affordable healthcare. In 2012, the executive director for LifeNet International’s operations in Burundi, began focussing on developing the company in Burundi. She was excited to see LifeNet International’s presence expanding into Uganda. Her vision for LifeNet International, however, was much bigger. She envisioned LifeNet International as a sustainable organization that could provide quality healthcare and medicine to millions of people around the world.

If it planned to expand internationally and bring healthcare to more of the world’s population, LifeNet International needed a solution to tie its services together to further scale, replicate and measure its social impact. How could LifeNet International bring its social conversion franchising model to other African nations and internationally? Would LifeNet International’s model work logistically, financially and culturally? What adaptations would LifeNet need to make and what legal challenges would it face in the process of expansion? Furthermore, what structures would LifeNet need to put in place to manage the complexity of its growing network of partner clinics and operations?

9B18M196 - 6 pages
Sunton Manufacturing in Cambodia: Exit or Remain?
Zhangfeng Fei, Paul W. Beamish

In January 2017, the founder of Sunton Manufacturing in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, boarded a flight to Cambodia. He had to tackle the performance issue of the company’s garment manufacturing joint venture (JV) there—after two years in operation, it had run out of cash. After meeting with his JV partner, he concluded that the existing JV in Sihanoukville was beyond repair. He now needed to decide whether to exit Cambodia or to remain there, albeit in a different city and with a new partner. A new factory would require further investment. If he quit Cambodia, could his company survive and develop in the future?

9B20M182_P - 11 pages
SafeMotos: Scaling up Innovations in African Ride Hailing
Darren Meister, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar

In April 2018, the two co-founders of SafeMotos, a motorcycle taxi service in Rwanda, in Central Africa, were examining their expansion plan. Their start-up had not yet become profitable, but they were already making plans to expand into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were also driven by the larger goals of replicating their tried and tested growth model in other cities on the African continent and moving quickly into the underserved city transportation markets of Asia and the Far East. As they reviewed their four-year experience of working in Africa, they were facing a singular question: What should be the roadmap for scaling up their ride hailing service?

9B18C031 - 5 pages
Griffiths Energy International: The Board's Dilemma (A)
Gerard Seijts, Dawn Oosterhoff

In 2012, Griffiths Energy International Inc. had secured the land leases needed to begin drilling for oil in Chad and was preparing for an IPO. During the due diligence, the company’s lawyers found consulting contracts that appeared to be payments to a public official to gain a business advantage. While bribing officials was not uncommon in Chad, it was a criminal offence in Canada. The company’s senior executive team was new, and the founder and former chairman, who might have been able to explain the contracts, had died in a boating accident. The directors needed to decide what to do: continue with the IPO and deal with disclosure if the matter did surface at some point later or report the findings to the authorities now and bear the consequences.

9B18C032 - 6 pages
Griffiths Energy International: The Board's Dilemma (B)
Gerard Seijts, Dawn Oosterhoff

Supplement for product 9B18C031.

9B20M079 - 14 pages
Technologies Ecofixe: Green Wastewater Treatment for Africa
Roxanne Lavoie-Drapeau, Gwyneth Edwards

In September 2018, Marisol Labrecque, president of Technologies Ecofixe Inc. (Technologies Ecofixe), was heading to Ain Taoujdate, Morocco, in order to supervise the installation of the company’s second ECOFIXE system in Africa. Technologies Ecofixe was a small, socially responsible Québécois company that had developed and commercialized a cost-effective system for the treatment of wastewaters in aerated ponds. With her eye on Africa’s ever-expanding market, Labrecque considered entering the French-speaking countries of Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. However, given her limited resources, Labrecque knew that she would have to choose. Which country should Technologies Ecofixe enter next?

9B17M048 - 6 pages
DeliverMeal Ivory Coast: Addressing Headquarters' Demands
Benoit Decreton, Phillip C. Nell, Alison E. Holm

9B20M182_P - 11 pages
SafeMotos: Scaling up Innovations in African Ride Hailing
Darren Meister, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar

In April 2018, the two co-founders of SafeMotos, a motorcycle taxi service in Rwanda, in Central Africa, were examining their expansion plan. Their start-up had not yet become profitable, but they were already making plans to expand into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were also driven by the larger goals of replicating their tried and tested growth model in other cities on the African continent and moving quickly into the underserved city transportation markets of Asia and the Far East. As they reviewed their four-year experience of working in Africa, they were facing a singular question: What should be the roadmap for scaling up their ride hailing service?

9B20M139_P - 12 pages
Fair Trade Jewellery Co.: Establishing an Ethical Global Value Chain
Anthony Goerzen, Luke Fiske

In August 2019, Fair Trade Jewellery Co., a mid-size jewellery retailer based in Toronto, Canada, was wondering how to ensure that its customers received responsibly sourced gold and diamond jewellery. The company had already devoted considerable amounts of time, energy, and expense to develop a responsible supply chain. Its activities toward that goal had included various initiatives beyond jewellery retail, such as providing inventory financing for artisanal miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo. After discovering that a key US partner along the supply chain may have not been following a clear chain-of-custody system in its refinery, the company was unsure how to proceed. Responsibly sourced gold was potentially being contaminated by other gold at the refinery, which led Fair Trade Jewellery Co. to consider opening its own local small-scale refinery. However, that initiative could mean considerable strategic risk and financial burden for the company. It could also have potential effects on its employees, who relied on the company for their livelihood. Did the company’s ethical mission require vertically integrating to such a considerable extent?

9B18M031 - 17 pages
Banro Corporation: Recapitalization for Sustainability In the Congo’s Gold Mining
Wiboon Kittilaksanawong, Kabi Olivier Katabaruka

9B20M185 - 6 pages
Chiban Leather: Designing The Next Chapter
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Jennifer Dobrowolski, Jasmyn Dossa, Michelina Aguanno, Jessica Orchin

In May 2019, Chiban Leather, a socially conscious leather manufacturing firm based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was undergoing an expansion and the company’s chief executive officer was contemplating its strategic future. She wanted to take advantage of opportunities in the Ethiopian leather industry and expand her client base to include 10 primary wholesalers. She was proud of the social impact the company had achieved so far, and she hoped to be able to focus more on this by expanding the company’s production process. She was also considering other options, including developing Chiban Leather as a retail brand, focusing on trade shows, and pursuing alternative exposure through diversified products and subscription boxes. She wondered if this was the right time to establish the brand and sell directly to clients. She also had to consider whether this option would align with her current goals and strategy.

9B14M005 –14 pages
Ethiopian Airlines: Bringing Africa Together
Paul W. Beamish, Yamlaksira Getachew  

Ethiopian Airlines plans to expand its African market base to become a leading airline in the continent. As part of the airline’s multi-hub strategy, the vice-president of alliances and corporate strategy and his team must identify a suitable hub location and decide on the appropriate mode and level of ownership. Success in the first hub is essential as it will both validate the viability of the multi-hub strategy and set the tone for the establishment of subsequent hubs throughout the continent. The vice-president and his team need to resolve three issues: location of the first hub, entry mode and ownership level.

9B18M076 - 5 pages
Liyu Ethiopia Tours: Growth and Expansion Options
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Andrew Patton, Desmond Chan, Joseph Hoekstra

In late May 2014, the founder of Liyu Ethiopia Tours was considering his options to grow the company. The small but reputable tour company had become successful in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in only seven months. The founder, who faced the challenge of continuing to grow the business on a limited budget, was considering several strategic decisions: should he increase the company’s online presence by using the services of Google AdWords or TripAdvisor; expand local and national partnerships with hotels or with tour companies in neighbouring countries; or participate in a major trade show, with the hope of developing international partnerships. The founder wondered how to align his company’s goals with its capabilities.

9B18M102 - 6 pages
Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Carmen Leung, Jensen Liu, Katherine Tan

In mid-2015, the managing director of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports PLC (FGE), one of Ethiopia's leading export companies, faced a pivotal decision. FGE specialized in herbs and spices, and the price of one of FGE's major products, paprika, had skyrocketed in the past six months. As a result, FGE had sustained a massive loss. This problem had taken a toll on FGE's profitability, and the company's future was on the line. The managing director needed to mitigate this problem and prevent it from occurring again. He saw three alternatives: FGE could maintain the status quo, operate its own farm in one of two locations, or purchase its spices directly from local farmers. Maintaining the price and quality of the products and providing excellent customer service were the company's main priorities, regardless of which option it chose.

9B17C040 - 4 pages
Leadership Problems at Ganzeb Microfinance Institution
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Wubeshet Bekalu, Emmag MacDonald, Darren Hall, Ahsan Syed

Ganzeb Microfinance Institution (Ganzeb) was formed as an extension of an indigenous non-governmental organization, and provides loans to rural Ethiopians to fund their business ventures. The microfinance industry is heavily regulated by the Ethiopian government, and the political landscape is not very stable. Since its inception in 2000, Ganzeb has been run by the same chief executive officer. The company flourished until 2006, when its financial performance declined as a result of an increasing number of defaulting loans from clients. Many other organizational problems have also emerged, which are quickly degrading the institution’s work. Now, in late 2008, the chair of the board of directors is faced with threats from the National Bank of Ethiopia: he must fix the problems or lose Ganzeb’s licence to operate. The board chair is being asked to meet with the bank to talk about the situation and the proposed solutions. He must figure out how to fix the problems of high turnover among staff, poor financial performance, and a lack of communication between the different levels of the organization.

9B17M083 - 4 pages
Femu Advertising: The Expansion Opportunity
Cathy Chen, Eric Morse

In May 2016, a business student from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was considering expanding his print advertising business, which he had been operating out of his home for the past five years. He was about to graduate from the School of Commerce at Addis Ababa University, and he needed to put together an action plan for his company’s potential expansion. His options were: (1) continue operating his business as is; (2) invest in an office location and move the business out of his home; and (3) invest in new machines that would allow him to bring banner printing operations in-house. Now it was time to consider the pros and cons of these options and prepare an action plan, including how to obtain the financing for fixed asset investments.

9B21M035 - 12 pages
Ecobank Ghana: Change Management in an Acquisition
Helena M. Addae, Kwesi Amponsah-Tawiah

Ecobank Ghana had branches in every region of Ghana and wanted to expand its client base to include more small and medium enterprises. At the end of 2011, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, Ecobank Ghana’s parent company, acquired the Trust Bank Ghana Limited, a bank that primarily serviced small businesses, which it planned to merge with Ecobank Ghana through a share swap. Integrating the two banks would involve merging different organizational cultures and operational technologies. The employee appointed as the manager responsible for ensuring a seamless integration of the two banks needed a plan to integrate the staff, standardize the operational systems, and establish a converged culture. How should he prioritize the changes, and what challenges should he anticipate from the merger?

9B19M124_P - 9 pages
Ghana Investment Fund Limited: Ethical Issues
Darrold Cordes, Won-Yong Oh

The chief executive officer of RenY Corporation (RenY) based in Hong Kong, had just established the Ghana Investment Fund Limited (GIF) as a subsidiary of RenY in Ghana. GIF aimed to invest in the entrepreneurial ideas of university graduates in Ghana under a model that brought together the intellectual capital of the graduates, e-commerce, and investment capital under an umbrella of mentoring and collaboration. Access to Ghanaian government contracts to provide products and services was an important aspect of the CEO’s sustainable development plans for low income communities, but he was faced with ethical issues on the way government business was done in Ghana—to be successful in gaining some of these contracts, extra payments were required. He had to decide if his investment was going to result in nothing or if there was a way to move forward.

9B15M080 – 13 pages
UT Financial Services: Looking for the Next Mountain to Conquer
Anthony Ebow Spio, Anthony Essel-Anderson

An entrepreneur and co-founder of a private, non-deposit-taking, non-bank financial firm in Africa took his company public following a decade of phenomenal growth and strong performance. Established in an era when the traditional financial institutions would not grant credit to small and medium enterprises, the company successfully pioneered a wide variety of unique services in the non-bank financial services industry. Capitalizing on the failure of formal institutions to meet the needs of the informal sector, the entrepreneur had achieved organic growth by providing short-term loans and complementary services to customers in the neglected segment of the financial services market. The image of a high-performing company, coupled with the successful initial public offering surpassing all expectations, put tremendous pressure on the company to continue to grow the enterprise and deliver superior performance. To obtain substantial funds from the investing public, the onus is on the entrepreneur to select and pursue an appropriate strategy to keep the enterprise on a growth trajectory.

9B14C018 – 17 pages
Sewa (A): Ela Bhatt 
Sonia Mehotra, Oana Branzei

In February 2014, a McKinsey Global Institute report proposed tracking an empowerment line that could enable India’s citizens to get out of poverty by providing the resources they needed to build better lives. This prompted Ela Bhatt, founder of the India-based Self-Employed Women’s Association, to take stock of her initiative to empower women working in India's informal sector. Since 1972, her organization has been widely acclaimed as a global first mover and active champion of grassroots development. Quickly approaching two million members in India and six neighbouring countries, and inspiring similar efforts in South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, it exemplifies a unique form of positively deviant organizing by speaking to the centrality of human beings at work. Given resources, support and encouragement, its many members have used their own human agency even in the direst of circumstances to better their lives in ways most meaningful to them, for instance, by creating childcare, health care, banking, farming and education cooperatives. However, as she reaches retirement and contemplates the future, Bhatt wonders if the new generation of Indian leaders will take up the Gandhian socially minded path or follow the commercial careers opening up in the country’s multinational sector. 

9B05B006 – 4 pages
Exporting to Ghana
David J. Sharp, Ken Mark

A loan assessment officer at Export Development Canada is evaluating a proposed deal involving the export of refurbished machines used in the forestry industry. He must decide whether Export Development Corporation should extend loans to a foreign firm that is interested in purchasing from a Canadian supplier. Issues include international business risk and the role of an export development agency in facilitating a country's exports.

9B13D009 – 6 pages
Bella Springs
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Francis Ayensu, Jesse Brame, Chris Lau, Gerry Li

The founder of a water purification, packaging and distribution company in Ghana, Africa, faces some operational issues. Demand has increased for the company's water sachets, but the founder needs to develop strategies to increase the firm's current operational capacities to meet this demand. He and the operations manager need to determine how the company can position itself as a successful high-growth company in a developing and sometimes uncertain Ghanaian economy.

9B13M076 – 13 pages
Hello Healthcare: Taking a Cooperative Business into Africa
Albert Wocke

A retired Swiss banker has decided to bring primary healthcare to Africa by using a cooperative business model that brings together complementary firms. The model has proven successful in the United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Ghana. He now faces the decision of whether to expand into new African countries, and if so, which countries to enter, how to select partners and how to recruit country managers. The case also illustrates the challenges and misconceptions of doing business in Africa.

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B14M041 – 5 pages
Scuby’s Enterprises: Starting a Business in Ghana
Francis Ayensu, Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Julianna Faircloth, Helen Fisher, David MacNicol  

In October 2011, a young entrepreneur in Ghana faced a critical moment. Given his degree in marketing from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration and his past work experience running a retail clothing store, he was confident he could branch out and start his own photocopying service in his hometown of Koforidua, where there was a distinct undersupply of photocopying services. The proposed store would be located near All Nations University, whose students and faculty would provide a stable demand for his offerings. Now he must perform a breakeven analysis and return on investment calculation to assess whether he should go forward with the venture.

9B14M042 – 9 pages
EA Financial Services
Francis Ayensu, Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Logan Burnett, Stephanie Lachance-Coward, Taylor Klimosko   

EA Financial Services is a microfinance institution in Koforidua, Ghana. In its seven months of operation, it has done well to establish a client base, but it now lacks sufficient capital to meet the growing demand for new loans. Although having a growing client base is a positive sign, the lack of capital is a significant burden — the company has had to begin turning down loan requests. The owner knows that potential clients will likely deal with one of his many competitors if he cannot provide financial services for them. He wonders if he should first explore obtaining additional operational capital or concentrate on improving current operations. Several alternatives to addressing these issues have presented themselves. What is his best course of action?

9B18M125 - 6 pages
Leisure Gardens: Expanding a Tourism Business in Ghana
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Jenny Min, Gena Zheng, Christine Ward

The owner of Leisure Gardens, a restaurant and accommodation business in a small town in Ghana, faced problems with his business. Approximately 40 per cent of his restaurant customers were paying on credit and not paying on time, causing cash flow problems. His sole employee was unreliable, often absent when the restaurant was busy. This two-part problem hindered the restaurant's success and owner’s ability to expand the business. Moreover, the owner faced external pressures from competitors in the restaurant market. The owner was considering three options to sustainably reduce bad-debt accounts and ensure profitability in the future: implementing an employee contract, changing the payment options, and expanding the business to generate more revenue. Which option would be the best course of action for the future of Leisure Gardens?

9B18M049 - 5 pages
Burro: Tools for a Better Life in Ghana
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Francis Ayensu, Amy Lin, Caleb Chan, Michelle Yick

Burro was a growing start-up in Ghana with a mission to provide “tools for a better life” to Ghanaians by distributing products that addressed local needs. In February 2015, after seven years of operation, the company had finally become profitable. Demand for Burro’s sustainable products was growing quickly in the booming Ghanaian market. The country manager wanted to determine a strategy for growth to maximize the success of Burro's future.

9B18D018 - 5 pages
Fastjet: Strategy and Expansion
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, James Spillane, Jocelyn Carabott, Cheryl Mok, Nicole Wiebe

In 2012, Fastjet acquired Fly540, a low-cost airline with operations in Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, and Ghana, and began operating as a low-cost carrier with the goal to become the most successful pan-African low-cost airline. Since starting operations, Fastjet had grown tremendously, achieving strong market acceptance and a reputation for reliability and punctuality. Although yield per passenger had increased over its first two years, Fastjet had continued to report operating losses due to its poorly performing operations in Kenya, Angola, and Ghana. In September 2014, Fastjet had the opportunity to expand into other African regions, and the company’s chief executive officer needed to consider his options to successfully grow the company’s operations.

9B18M097 - 7 pages
iSpace: Expanding a Start-Up Hub for West African Entrepreneurs
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Darkwah Joseph Asante, Emma Hogeterp, Ali Beres, Hui Fang

iSpace, a start-up hub that focused on women in technology, was founded in 2013 in Ghana’s capital, Accra, and provided space, technology, and funding to 62 entrepreneurs. In May 2017, the co-founder wanted to expand the business to maximize social impact by empowering a greater number of entrepreneurs who lacked technical skills, emotional support, and access to funding. iSpace had four strategies to choose from to meet its goal: create new programs to attract more entrepreneurs in Accra, establish a presence on university campuses, expand into other regions or countries, and collaborate with government programs. In addition, the company needed a plan to address the financial and human resources constraints it would face in executing an expansion strategy.

9B18C014 - 5 pages
The Linda Dor: Building a Culture of Customer Satisfaction
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Mark Boadu, Allie Zuccon, Zoe Woods

The general manager of operations and interim general manager of human resources at Linda Dor Restaurant and Rest Stop (Linda Dor) was facing challenges recruiting, training, and retaining staff at the lower levels of the organization. These customer-facing positions, which include wait staff, cashiers, and runners, are responsible for delivering the high level of customer service enshrined in Linda Dor Enterprises’ corporate values. Providing a positive customer experience is becoming increasingly important for Linda Dor because the company is expanding into the hotel industry and needs to ensure that its reputation for high-quality customer service is untarnished. How could Linda Dor improve employee retention and build a strong corporate culture?

9B18A052 - 13 pages
Wendy's: A Plan for International Expansion
Fabrizio Di Muro

In the summer of 2018 in the United States, Wendy’s faced an important decision related to its international markets. The company had a small international presence; of its 6,537 restaurants worldwide, only 637 restaurants were located in international markets. The company was faced with a saturated and stagnating U.S. market and fierce competition from a number of fast food rivals, including McDonald’s Corporation, Burger King Corporation, and Carl’s Jr. Restaurants LLC, and the surest path to growth seemed to be an expansion into foreign markets, where fast food was still growing. Wendy’s chief executive officer needed to determine which international market(s) to target and how many restaurants to open in each international market.

9B18N007 - 3 pages
SIC Insurance Company Limited: Corporate Governance
Joshua Yindenaba Abor, Elikplimi Komla Agbloyor, Agyapomaa Gyeke-Dako, Lydia Adzobu

In March 2013, SIC Insurance Company Limited (SIC), a Ghanaian insurance company, appointed its first female chief executive officer, Doris Awo Nkani. Under her tenure, SIC issued a credit guarantee bond to ITAL Construct International in favour of Ivory Finance for a six-month period. However, ITAL Construct International defaulted on the loan, and Ivory Finance called on SIC to redeem its credit guarantee bond. Due to the failure of SIC and ITAL Construct International to honour their obligations, Ivory Finance proceeded to court in November 2013. Over a year later, in November 2014, the parties agreed on an amount to be paid to Ivory Finance through a consent judgment. This event culminated in the board considering in February 2015 whether to retain or fire its chief executive officer. How had this situation occurred? Should the board of directors have taken action earlier? How could the company ensure that a similar situation would not recur in the future?

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B17M046 - 12 pages
Haiti: Energizing Socio-Economic Reform
Gwyneth Edwards, Rene Jean-Jumeau

The minister of Haiti’s Department of Energy Security needed to prepare a presentation for the country’s prime minister that proposed a solution for transforming Haiti’s energy infrastructure. Haiti wanted to attract foreign direct investment that would spur socio-economic reform; however, the opportunities depended on a solid energy infrastructure providing reliable electricity to businesses, which Haiti did not have. Also, the residents of Haiti were in dire need of a low-cost, reliable energy solution that would allow them to move away from biomass and petroleum products, which were expensive and bad for the environment. How should the minister structure his proposal? What criteria would be required to support a strategy that considered the energy value chain, types of public-private partnerships, and need for socio-economic reform?

9B14E010 – 9 pages
Ushahidi
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Alex Jepson

As the co-founder of a software platform called Ushahidi, Ory Orykolloh watches the unfolding catastrophic earthquake crisis in Haiti and must decide how her company’s crisis-mapping software might assist international authorities as they move into Haiti to provide help and relief. Ushahidi was developed as an open-sourced mash-up platform combining Google Maps with publicly reported (text-based) incidents of election violence during the Kenya 2007 elections, and thus, the system effectively managed to bypass government censorship. Expansion into other uses during both political crises and a variety of national/international events provided opportunities for growth. Now, with Haiti, Ushahidi’s management team must consider how its software could be used to provide assistance during a catastrophe like an earthquake.

9B01C035 – 10 pages
Kate Archer in Haiti (A)
Joerg Dietz, Kate Archer

Helped the Aged Canada, a non-profit organization, has hired Kate Archer to manage their prosthetic clinic in Haiti. After her arrival in Haiti she learns that its key employee does not meet her performance expectations. Communicating with the employee, a deaf-mute, however, was very difficult and required the use of another employee as translator. She must communicate her performance expectations to the employee. The supplement to this case, Kate Archer In Haiti (B), product number 9B01C036 describes how Kate develops a contract and finalizes the agreement with the employee.

9B12A037 – 17 pages
Foundation for International Development Assistance/Productive Cooperatives Haiti: Increasing Organizational Capacity
Colleen Sharen

Since the 2010 earthquake, the executive director of the Foundation for International Development Assistance (FIDA) had been managing exploding demand for economic development from Haitians, the international development community and from individual Canadians. While there was a lot of money available for earthquake relief and micro-finance, far less was available for sustainable long-term economic development. FIDA needed an additional $2 million over the next three years to support projects that had been approved by both FIDA and its Haitian partner, productive cooperatives Haiti (pcH). FIDA needed to find investors who understood and supported the unique vision, principles and methods of FIDA/pcH.

9B13M040 – 11 pages
KayTek: Manufacturing Housing and Livelihoods in Haiti
David Wood, Taylor Sekhon

After a massive earthquake destroyed many buildings in Haiti, reconstruction has become a source of opportunity and competition for non-governmental organizations, international business and local companies. The Haitian chairman and CEO of a very successful, multi-million dollar information technology company wants to provide affordable quality housing, especially for the disadvantaged poor, using steel frame technology from his start-up, KayTek. What he has not yet determined is how to get his product to market. He has three options: to keep sales and construction in-house, to outsource, or to franchise in order to create opportunities for young Haitian engineers to become entrepreneurs. Each option has costs, in terms not only of finances and time but also of control of brand quality and accessibility.

9B12B015 – 8 pages
Café Xaragua
Mary Heisz, Robert Lehnert

While on a visit to Haiti, a student entrepreneur realized the potential for economic development in a country that was rich in certain resources and virtually unexplored by the private sector. The entrepreneur decided on coffee as a business opportunity and he and his three partners imported their first burlap sack. By November 2011 the product was for sale - a premium coffee from Southeastern Haiti with a brand focused on assisting the redevelopment and sustainability of the Haitian coffee industry. After the product met success, the entrepreneur and his partners were ready to make an additional investment. They believed that a café focused on their own brand of Haitian coffee would be a great way to generate sales and further develop their product offering before pursuing a grocery-store strategy. However, they also knew that such an investment would be risky.

W25058 - 3 pages
The Farming Dilemma
Nicole Haggerty, Ryley Mehta, Angela Du, Teddy Kassa, Melissa Shang, Maanit Patel

In early 2019, Chrystopher Jesse, a student at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Nakuru, Kenya, inherited a 10-acre piece of land outside the city. With his degree in procurement nearing its completion and a competitive job market awaiting him after graduation, Jesse now faced the decision of whether to sell the land or use it to begin operations as a small-scale farmer. This venture, if successful, had the potential to represent a portion or all of Jesse’s full-time income over the long term.

As part of his overall decision, Jesse needed to consider two key options: Assuming he chose to start the farm, Jesse needed to decide whether to plant potatoes or carrots. After deciding which crop to plant, he would then have to decide whether to irrigate the land or not.

9B20M034 - 6 pages
Kamoriongo Poultry Co-operative Project
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Charles Lagat, Tony Ma, Zain Kalsi

W25060 - 7 pages
Hastening Growth at Swift Mobility
Nicole Haggerty, Ryley Mehta, Angela Du, Teddy Kassa, Melissa Shang, Maanit Patel

In 2018, the founder of Swift Mobility in Nakuru, Kenya, Africa was considering her options for the future of her company, which was a Safaricom Plc dealership. The founder was reflecting on how much her business had progressed in the past ten years and wondering if this was the right time to expand or invest in the company’s future. She had just spoken with the property owner of a potential new store in Mombasa, Kenya, but was also considering other options. In addition to potentially expanding to a new location, the founder could choose to invest further to grow her current operation, or sell the business and exit the highly competitive telecommunications industry in favour of a more moderate lifestyle. Which option would be her best path forward?

9B14M043 - 5 pages
Lilgaa Property Management: Property Investing in Eldoret, Kenya
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Charles Lagat, Loice Maru, Daniel Korman, Ivan Liu, Sherry Xie

In 2013, a successful entrepreneur in Eldoret, Kenya was considering her options. In 2007, after a history of operating several small businesses, only one of which failed, she founded Lilgaa Property Management Ltd., a real estate and property management business. She had focused her energies on the real estate industry in spite of its many challenges, which included corruption and lack of regulation, enforcement and trust. In 2013 she needed to decide how to grow her business, specifically, whether she could buy a building in Eldoret and rent it out or buy a plot of land on the outskirts of town and build a hotel; if the latter, would it cater to the middle or upper class? She had to assess the various elements of the business, political and social environments and consider the potential risks that could affect the outcome of her investment.

9B19M019 - 6 pages
Uber Africa: Making Cash and Alternative Payments Work in Kenya through Contextual Leadership
Caren Scheepers, Anastacia Mamabolo

On September 30, 2017, the general manager (GM) of Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) for sub-Saharan Africa, arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, and paid for his Uber service with cash. This functionality of the Uber app represented a new business model for Uber. The GM had to convince global management of the business case for offering cash payment options in Africa; he did so by conducting experiments and showing data that indicated rider numbers had tripled with adoption of the cash payment option. Uber’s driver-partners were concerned about safety when they transported passengers who paid by cash, both because credit card payments offered Uber rider identification and because the driver-partners were concerned about driving around with large amounts of cash. In spite of their concerns, the rationale for introducing a cash payment option was relevant, and it had to be considered carefully in the context of African locations with high crime rates. The GM considered various initiatives for utilizing data from their technology platform to safeguard their riders and drivers. They needed to address local needs in Africa while adhering to global Uber standards.

9B18D018 - 5 pages
Fastjet: Strategy and Expansion
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, James Spillane, Jocelyn Carabott, Cheryl Mok, Nicole Wiebe

In 2012, Fastjet acquired Fly540, a low-cost airline with operations in Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, and Ghana, and began operating as a low-cost carrier with the goal to become the most successful pan-African low-cost airline. Since starting operations, Fastjet had grown tremendously, achieving strong market acceptance and a reputation for reliability and punctuality. Although yield per passenger had increased over its first two years, Fastjet had continued to report operating losses due to its poorly performing operations in Kenya, Angola, and Ghana. In September 2014, Fastjet had the opportunity to expand into other African regions, and the company’s chief executive officer needed to consider his options to successfully grow the company’s operations.

9B15A012 – 7 pages
Enhancing Competitive Strategy at Darling Kenya
Pamela Odhiambo, Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Ali Kanji, Brandon Swartz

In September 2013, the managing director of Darling Kenya, a hair care product company headquartered in Nairobi, was pondering his next move. As a leader in the beauty hair care industry in Africa, the company needed to stay a step ahead of increasing competition from both local and multinational firms. With limited room to grow in the industry, he was looking at a set of alternatives to protect Darling’s brand from losing market share. Which option would benefit the company the most: exploring new advertising channels, especially on the Internet and in social media; reinvigorating the brand with new packaging and higher quality; or entering the rural market through road shows?

9B14E010 – 9 pages
Ushahidi
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Alex Jepson

As the co-founder of a software platform called Ushahidi, Ory Orykolloh watches the unfolding catastrophic earthquake crisis in Haiti and must decide how her company’s crisis-mapping software might assist international authorities as they move into Haiti to provide help and relief. Ushahidi was developed as an open-sourced mash-up platform combining Google Maps with publicly reported (text-based) incidents of election violence during the Kenya 2007 elections, and thus, the system effectively managed to bypass government censorship. Expansion into other uses during both political crises and a variety of national/international events provided opportunities for growth. Now, with Haiti, Ushahidi’s management team must consider how its software could be used to provide assistance during a catastrophe like an earthquake.

9B15M008 – 11 pages
Tata Chemicals Magadi: Confronting Poverty in Rural Africa
Michael Valente

In the summer of 2013, the managing director of Tata Chemicals Magadi, Africa’s largest soda ash manufacturer and one of the oldest and largest export earners in Kenya, was wondering how he was going to respond to a growing number of challenges. As a producer of a commodity product, the company was vulnerable to escalating energy costs, oversupply and economic cycles. Global growth had been sluggish since the 2008 economic recession and competition was intense, especially since the emergence of Chinese producers. Magadi Township, where the company’s production facility was located, was one of the poorest in the country, subject to droughts and without many of the basic public services typically provided by government such as roads, health care, electricity, water and education. To address these needs, the company migrated from a top-down, paternal, ad hoc and resource-intensive approach to a bottom-up, collaborative, holistic and resource-sharing style that focused on community capacity building and self-governance. However, the issue now is how to best balance the strong need to reduce costs while remaining committed to the sustainability of the surrounding community.

9B08M059 – 16 pages
Microfinance and the Kipsigis of Southwest Kenya
Glenn Brophey, Robin Wiszowaty

A group of business students and their professor travel to rural Kenya to work with Free The Children (FTC), an in-situ, non-governmental organization (NGO) that is focused on generational social change through education for children. This Canadian NGO has had considerable success in meeting this original objective and now sees health care and economic development concerns as being the next barriers to expansion of its educational thrust for the local population. The business group has focused on microcredit for hardcore poor mothers (mommas) as a means to economic development, as this approach has proven successful with similar populations in other parts of the world. At the level of the momma, the charitable NGO is considering loans or grants to implement some joint liability financing. The business students have been asked to gather the data, consider the implications of their analysis and make a recommendation as to which financial structure will be more effective to the NGO's management group within Kenya. The students also have been asked to create an action plan for implementation of their recommendation that considers the broader context of the organization's overall activities in Kenya.

9B09M051 – 22 pages
Yogurt Mamas: Probiotics in Tanzania 
Oana Branzei, David J. Sharp, Jessica Kelly, Osama Siddiqui

This case illustrates a grassroots enterprise's path to self-sufficiency in a subsistence market context. It explores the gradual evolution of a business model with strong social mandates (pro-health, pro-women) and asks which growth options best marry profitability and positive social change. The Mwanza, Tanzania-based Yogurt Mamas emerge as entrepreneurial role models in their communities, with funds from Western donors and an exciting new technology.

The Yogurt Mamas produce and locally distribute a probiotic yogurt to their small community; they are interconnected in a local value chain and benefit from annual inflows of expertise from Western partners, including free access to patented technology and free culturing of probiotic bacteria in a local lab. The case asks students to critically analyze the hurdles to profitability and suggest working solutions to scale up the venture. Challenges include funding sufficiency, clarity of roles and responsibilities, patent restrictions, kitchen ownership, food safety and quality concerns, and liability concerns. Options include technology/model licensing and franchising, organic growth and expansion to gain higher margins and greater control over the milk supply, and extending their distribution reach. If the Yogurt Mamas cannot find an attractive and feasible growth option, the partners will have to contemplate venture termination once the grant funding comes to an end, or consider alternative exit options.

9B12M033 – 9 pages
Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (A)
Kevin McKague

This case examines how CARE, a non-profit international development organization, begins to pursue a market-based approach to meeting its poverty-reduction mission. Specifically, a CARE project manager explores how previous work with low-income livestock herders in drought-prone eastern Kenya might offer an opportunity to work with value chain actors to improve access to markets and increase farmers' incomes.

With the Kenyan livestock project as the pilot for this new approach, Case (A)'s main decision point concerns a strategic choice on what role CARE should play in the value chain to support low-income pastoralists. Options include 1) becoming directly involved in value chain transactions, buying and selling livestock, and providing inputs to farmers or 2) acting as a value chain facilitator to provide the information and incentives to existing actors to make the value chain more efficient and inclusive for low-income producers. This strategic decision is part of a larger proposal that students are tasked to create for CARE's market-based livestock project.

9B12M034 – 5 pages
Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (B)
Kevin McKague

This case is a supplement to Value Chain Development: Care Kenya's Challenge to Make Markets Work for the Poor (A).

9B13M044 – 8 pages
Cool Pastures Dairy and Kenya's Changing Market for Milk (A) 9B13M044
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Pamela Odhiambo, Tom Collins, Robert Freele, Andrea Leung

This three-part case highlights the strategic decision-making and growth management challenges in the suddenly liberalized Kenyan dairy industry. Following the collapse of the nation-wide distribution system on which small-scale dairy farmers in Kenya relied to reach the market, the resulting gap in the value chain between supply and demand created an opportunity for one entrepreneur. Cool Pastures Dairy was founded and rapidly expanded in an atmosphere not only of little competition but also corruption and lack of infrastructure, especially poor roads, limited banking and almost non-existent cell phone accessibility. Although the company considered various alternatives to expanding, the business was overcome by problems with inefficient or corrupt retailers and accountants, as well as the owner's lack of business experience, and went bankrupt. When conditions improved as the government invested in infrastructure, the entrepreneur considered restarting his business. Is this a viable enterprise in light of improved conditions? Which expansion alternative should the resuscitated company pursue? The B case 9B13M045 discusses managing corruption and the C case 9B13M046 re-considers the business model.

9B09A015 – 10 pages
Making Waves in Rural Kenya
Sebastian Herrmann, Glenn Brophey, Denyse Lafrance-Horning

The developers of a simple, inexpensive, locally produced rain water harvesting system tackle the social marketing issues in the undeveloped market of rural Kenya. The benefits of the product are obvious but the poverty levels and entrenched traditions create significant and unique marketing challenges.

9B05M056 – 12 pages
Care Kenya: Making Social Enterprise Sustainable
Pratima Bansal, Tom Ewart

CARE's Rural Entrepreneurship and Agribusiness Promotion project is a new, market-driven approach to development in Kenya. While the project has been successful from a development standpoint, it is not commercially viable. The sector manager must determine how to improve the project and make it commercially sustainable. Students will understand the advantages and opportunity for profit/nonprofit partnerships and social enterprise as complementary entities for social and economic development. PowerPoint slide presentation is available, product 5B05M056.

9B13M045 – 3 pages
Cool Pastures Dairy and Kenya's Changing Market for Milk (B)
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Pamela Odhiambo, Tom Collins, Robert Freele, Andrea Leung

Part B of a three-part series. See 9B13M044 and 9B13M046.

9B13M046 – 2 pages
Cool Pastures Dairy and Kenya's Changing Market for Milk (C)
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Pamela Odhiambo, Tom Collins, Robert Freele, Andrea Leung

Part C of a three-part series. See 9B13M044 and 9B13M045.

9B13M052 – 14 pages
Milango Financial Services
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Fridah Theuri, Meera Haji, Nurin Jamal, Nadeem Nathoo

The co-founder of a Kenyan microfinance institution is troubled. Although his company has experienced great success in the past three years, it now faces cash flow problems. The co-founder has exhausted his personal resources and seeks an investor, local or international banks, or a process improvement program to ensure the company's long-term success. He needs to evaluate his options and propose a solution to the other board members.

9B09M050 – 28 pages
Social Enterprise Under Adversity: Bridge EXP in Kiberia (A)
Oana Branzei, Eduardo Zarate

The case illustrates the opportunities, challenges and trade-offs involved in developing a pro-social business venture in emerging economies by outlining the interplay between a Nairobi-based venture by Insta Products (Insta) and a Toronto-based non-profit volunteering consultancy for sustainable new ventures with a high potential to accelerate local development. The case is set in the midst of social unrest in the spring of 2008, as the consulting team prepares to give their strategic recommendation based on detailed entrepreneurial, financial and marketing considerations. Focused on the commercial introduction of enriched flours to the retail market in Kenya, the opportunity presented in the case is expected to double the production of Insta in five years while building a stable Ksh 2.1 billion business. The new venture represents a pro-social corporate venture by a 15-year old company with strong capabilities in relief food aid. Insta had been engaged with CARE Kenya and Acumen Fund to solicit funding, and had commissioned independent market research. The Bridge Expedition Partners stepped in to critically review the business plan and offer financial modeling and market analysis to assess Insta Products in opportunity evaluation and the implementation of the new venture. The decision boils down to how Insta framed the venturing opportunity. If Insta focused on affordability, they would minimize pack size and focus on kiosk distribution (potentially supported through high frequency bicycle deliveries). If, however, the most important driver for low-income families when purchasing the porridge-like product uji was price sensitivity instead, Insta could be better off launching with larger packages, with better value per kilogram, distributed through dukas and supermarkets, where Insta's products and prices would be compared against established uji producers. The latter value proposition could still appeal to low income consumers and economize on distribution costs by pushing buyers to save for a weekly/monthly uji mix purchase rather than buy it as needed from local kiosks. The two strategies were radically different. The former tasked Insta with developing new distribution networks and likely investing in promotional activities that would have kiosks owners at the centre of its business model. The latter would expose Insta to fierce competition in the supermarket uji niche, and pit it against strong (and resource rich) competitors, putting the onus on Insta to differentiate its offering (on nutrition, price or likely a combination of product attributes and brand promise). There was no middle of the road - the two approaches required dramatically different models, and Insta was unlikely to have the managerial capability, let alone acquire the resources to finance both. The case ask students to make this decision, taking on either the roles of Insta's representatives and/or the Bridge consulting teams as the three recent Ivey MBAs engage in complex modeling and draw on the expertise of local and international students.

9B07M022 – 16 pages
Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

The founding entrepreneur of Honey Care Africa revitalized Kenya's national honey industry by focusing on small-holder farmers across the country. Central to success was an innovative business model: a synergistic partnership between the development sector, the private sector, and rural communities that drew on the core competencies of each party as well as their complementary roles. This tripartite model was combined with local manufacturing of beehives, effective beekeeping training, a guaranteed market for small-holder farmers through forward contracts, and prompt payments. Four years later, Honey Care had achieved a 68 per cent market share in Kenya and distributed several brands of organic, fair-trade honey internationally, and was a lead distributor of beeswax. The business model had been successfully replicated in neighbouring Tanzania, and there were plans to expand to Uganda and Sudan.

9B13M021 – 14 pages
JKUAT Nakuru-CBD Campus: Managing Growth in the Kenyan Public Sector
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Juma Wagoki, Pamela Odhiambo, Eric Richmond, Marc Soberano, Adam Levine

The director of a subsidiary campus of a national university is faced with many problems: he is personally overworked as both manager of the new campus and as a lecturer; there are too many part-time lecturers as compared to full-time lecturers on staff, leading to a loss of commitment and morale; a decision has to be made about buying or leasing the newly renovated building in which the campus is located; and, most importantly, all of his decisions are subject to approval by the main administration of the university, which manages the funds allotted by the government and raised through tuitions. Without controlling the campus's own bank account, the director is unable to implement the initiatives he believes will allow the school to grow in a sustainable manner. The issues that arise as a direct result of this arrangement provide an interesting perspective on the difficulties involved in managing a small subsidiary of a large public organization.

9B07M060 – 19 pages
Honey Care Africa: A Tripartite Model for Sustainable Beekeeping
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

The director and co-founder of Honey Care Africa (Honey Care) looks back over the six years of operations and describes the original business model and several sequential changes based on feedback from rural communities, partner organizations, and learning by doing through field operations. Increasing international recognition highlights the potential impact of the model on inspiring sustainable grassroots ventures in the agriculture sector in Kenya. For Tanzania and other developing countries, he ponders the potential opportunities and challenges in replicating the Honey Care model elsewhere. The case also tackles alternative routes for scaling up the model in East Africa. Students are presented with several specific challenges which illustrate the growing tension between Honey Care's original commitment to the farmers and its prospects for international take-off, and are asked to propose alternative model reconfigurations to resolve this tension.

9B07B003 – 9 pages
Moolani Foundation
Elizabeth M.A. Grasby, Anuj Chandarana

A non-profit organization, partnered with a microfinance organization would send undergraduate students from a business school to teach entrepreneurship in Third World countries: Kenya, India and South Africa. The case requires students to develop fairly straightforward cash budgets and to consider sensitivity analysis based on exchange rate fluctuations. Students are introduced to the concept of micro financing as an effective tool for improving the socio-economic status of entrepreneurs in Third World countries. Students are encouraged to think about relevant issues in gaining sponsorship for a non-profit venture.

9A85B008 – 7 pages
Sapphire Beach Hotel Limited
Randy P. Kudar, Larry Wynant, Steven Cox

The general manager of a financial services company is examining a request for a loan to finance the completion of a hotel on the ocean shore in Kenya. Projected costs and revenues for the first three years are presented. The manager is trying to assess the validity of these estimates and whether he should recommend the loan.

9B14D002 – 7 pages
Helio Polymer Enterprises
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Juma Wagoki, Clarke Eaton, Wesley Hunt, Matthew Smart  

Helio Polymer Enterprises, located in Nakuru, Kenya, is a company that manufactures synthetic polymer gunny bags used in the transportation and handling of animal feed. The owner wants to expand her business operations so she can serve more clients. She has three options: to add a night shift, buy a new printing machine or start producing laminate gunny bags for other markets. Before she makes the decision, she must understand her current operational capacity and determine what aspects of customer service she believes are important for the long-term success of her company.

9B07M023 – 9 pages
Honey Care Africa (B): Opportunity Knocks
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

This is a supplement to Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model.

9B07M024 – 3 pages
Honey Care Africa (C): Growth Alternatives
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

This is a supplement to Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model.

9B07M037 – 18 pages
Malawi Business Action Against Corruption
Oonagh Fitzgerald, James Ng'ombe

The founding executive director of the African Institute for Corporate Citizenship (AICC), felt very tense as he typed the last revisions to the speech he would be giving to a Llongwe merchants' association later in the week. He really enjoyed proudly describing his initiative, "Business Action Against Corruption", and the Business Code of Conduct for Combating Corruption in Malawi, to potential new partners. However, the founding executive director was beginning to feel concerned about its slow pace of adoption. He was particularly worried about how to manage the delicate relationship with the government.

9B17M093 - 9 pages
Sunrise Power: Charting Growth in Unexplored Areas
Sanjeev Kumar Prasad

Sunrise Power, a first-generation mid-sized power and mining company in India, was considering geographical diversification in the African continent. While many African nations were rich in resources, they often lagged in economic indicators, and global companies hesitated to invest in infrastructure due to limited risk appetite. However, this left an opportunity for mid-sized firms such as Sunrise Power, so long as they could attain regulatory support and ensure high returns. Sunrise Power needed to evaluate the complexities in identifying the right market in Southern Africa. This included examining indicators like population, gross domestic product, energy demand forecasts, and electrification capacity. The firm also had to identify the critical success factors and assess the risks in the strategy planning process. Finally, it needed to design an organizational structure for its African venture so as to realize the benefits of diversification.

9B14C018 – 17 pages
Sewa (A): Ela Bhatt 
Sonia Mehotra, Oana Branzei

In February 2014, a McKinsey Global Institute report proposed tracking an empowerment line that could enable India’s citizens to get out of poverty by providing the resources they needed to build better lives. This prompted Ela Bhatt, founder of the India-based Self-Employed Women’s Association, to take stock of her initiative to empower women working in India's informal sector. Since 1972, her organization has been widely acclaimed as a global first mover and active champion of grassroots development. Quickly approaching two million members in India and six neighbouring countries, and inspiring similar efforts in South Africa, Ghana, Mali and Burkina Faso, it exemplifies a unique form of positively deviant organizing by speaking to the centrality of human beings at work. Given resources, support and encouragement, its many members have used their own human agency even in the direst of circumstances to better their lives in ways most meaningful to them, for instance, by creating childcare, health care, banking, farming and education cooperatives. However, as she reaches retirement and contemplates the future, Bhatt wonders if the new generation of Indian leaders will take up the Gandhian socially minded path or follow the commercial careers opening up in the country’s multinational sector. 

9B14M026 – 11 pages
Beer for All: SABMiller in Mozambique
Margaret Sutherland, Tashmia Ismail

SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer, has developed a business model in Mozambique that represents a radical departure from the firm’s traditional approach to beer production. Despite this multinational’s well-developed global supply chains and heavily centralized processes, it has disrupted both established processes and products and has, instead, innovated to produce a cassava-based beer in an effort to serve the low-income consumers who comprise the bulk of the African economic pyramid. In a marked departure from corporate best practices, the manufacturing process begins outside of the brewery and in the vicinity of the scattered and rural cassava farming plots.

9B17M093 - 9 pages
Sunrise Power: Charting Growth in Unexplored Areas
Sanjeev Kumar Prasad

Sunrise Power, a first-generation mid-sized power and mining company in India, was considering geographical diversification in the African continent. While many African nations were rich in resources, they often lagged in economic indicators, and global companies hesitated to invest in infrastructure due to limited risk appetite. However, this left an opportunity for mid-sized firms such as Sunrise Power, so long as they could attain regulatory support and ensure high returns. Sunrise Power needed to evaluate the complexities in identifying the right market in Southern Africa. This included examining indicators like population, gross domestic product, energy demand forecasts, and electrification capacity. The firm also had to identify the critical success factors and assess the risks in the strategy planning process. Finally, it needed to design an organizational structure for its African venture so as to realize the benefits of diversification.

9B20A016 - 8 pages
Sarva Pharmaceuticals: International Expansion to Myanmar
Sandeep Puri, Sven Dahms, Shraddha Puri, Ritvik Nalamothu

In 2019, the managing director of Sarva Pharmaceuticals Private Limited, a pharmaceutical company based in India, was considering an expansion of his company by entering the growing pharmaceutical market in Myanmar. He needed to identify the best way to execute this expansion plan, assess whether his company’s product range was adequate and suitable for the Myanmar market, prepare for possible risks and cross-cultural marketing issues, and plan the management staffing approaches in Myanmar.

9A97G003 – 12 pages
Siam Canadian Foods Co. Ltd.
John R. Kennedy, Tony S. Frost, Tom Gleave

The managing director and founder of Bangkok-based Siam Canadian Foods Co., Ltd., was considering the emerging business opportunities in neighboring Burma (also known as Myanmar). Although relatively undeveloped compared to the rest of Southeast Asia, Burma had been experiencing increasing levels of foreign investment activity in recent years. Siam, who had considered entering Burma in the past but declined, needed to determine if the time was now appropriate for the company to enter the market.

9B18M080_P - 6 pages
Mekong Capital and Mobile World (C): Venturing into New Countries and Segments
Andrew Karl Delios, Markus Taussig

In 2016, with success in its two main business lines, mobile phones and electronics retailing, Mobile World Joint Stock Company (Mobile World) faces the challenge of expansion. It is considering geographic expansion into the nearby markets of Cambodia and Myanmar. It is also considering business line expansion into either pharmaceutical or mid-market fresh produce. The founders of Mobile World and the partners of its private equity investor, Mekong Capital, are debating the chances of success of entry into one or more of these new geographic or product areas. Use with 9B18M078 and 9B18M079.

9B20A080 - 13 pages
Seroflo in Nepal: Sustaining Brand Leadership in Covid-19 Times
Servjaeta Verma, Vinay Verma

In Nepal, which primarily relied on the use of oral therapy for the treatment of chronic respiratory conditions, Nirparaj Joshi, country manager for Nepal at Cipla Limited (Cipla), had been successful in creating a market plan for the inhaler brand, Seroflo. After consistent efforts, Seroflo had risen to the top market position in fiscal year (FY) 2019–20. This had established the brand not only as a category leader in the respiratory segment but also as a leader in the overall Nepalese pharmaceutical market. Joshi had planned a massive outreach campaign in FY 2020–21 to further push the absolute sales, increase the prescriber base, and boost patient enrollment. However, when everything seemed to be on the right track, the entire world was gripped by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This forced Joshi to re-strategize so as to adapt the brand to the “new normal” and sustain brand leadership. He was faced with many challenges and needed a revised roadmap to navigate the crisis. He was also evaluating whether or not this was the right time to transition to an Agile marketing approach.

9B20M028_P - 14 pages
Prabhu Bank Limited: The Challenges of Merging with Ailing Banks
Wiboon Kittilaksanawong, Rashmi Regmi

In FY2018–19, Prabhu Bank, an ‘A’ class Nepalese commercial bank, reported its operating profit of Rs1.74 billion, a significant decrease of 34 per cent from the previous year. The bank had aggressively grown through several mergers with local banks. In 2014, it merged with the problematic Kist Bank, and to everyone’s surprise, managed to recover a large amount of bad debts. In 2016, it decided again to merge with another ailing bank, which raised doubts about the health of the combined entity. The central bank of Nepal had continued to raise the paid-up capital and tighten the rules to strengthen the financial stability. Could Prabhu Bank continue to achieve its ambitious growth and profitability through such aggressive mergers?

9B18M009 - 10 pages
Sun Café & Bar: A Ray of Opportunity
Dominic Lim, Eva Xu

In May 2017, the owner and co-founder of the Sun Café & Bar (Sun Café) contemplated the future strategic direction of the restaurant, which offered both Nepalese and continental cuisine. Though Sun Café had shown growth since its opening in 2013, it had not achieved the revenue or brand reputation that the co-founders had hoped for. Facing mediocre financial performance within a fiercely competitive industry, the co-founders wondered where they should go from here, should they pursue new avenues for growth. They had six months before the fourth-year anniversary of the café to discuss strategic issues and come to a decision.

9B17M084 - 7 pages
Kaffeine: The Nepalese Café Opportunity
Kevin Xo, Zach Hamel, Eric Morse

In early 2013, three young Nepalese entrepreneurs were deciding whether to launch Kaffeine, the first of a large chain of coffee shops, in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. As experienced entrepreneurs, the partners were interested in a recently vacated location near Durbar Marg, a major street and shopping destination in Kathmandu that represented a unique opportunity to build a highly successful coffee chain. Coupled with the increasing trend in Nepal toward coffee drinking rather than tea, this was an opportunity the trio felt they could not pass up. The entrepreneurs had many things to consider, such as location, competition, target market, and how to measure the feasibility of this new venture.

9B12A030 – 14 pages
Royal Bhutan Airlines – Drukair
Ron Mulholland

The chief executive officer of Royal Bhutan Airlines (Drukair) is concerned about growth and the seasonality of demand for Bhutan's national airline. The Kingdom of Bhutan, with a population of approximately 700,000, is located east of Nepal between India and China (Tibet). It has recently embarked on a program of modernization, including a move to democracy and promotion of tourism.

The tourism initiative is described as "high value, low volume," meaning that tourists must contract with a local tourist operator and pay minimum daily tariffs. Drukair has witnessed a steady growth in passengers, which is correlated closely with tourist visits, mostly from the West and Japan. Tourist tickets are booked by in-country tour operators; there are no Internet bookings at the time of the case.

The CEO is wondering what can be done to improve overall business. He is considering interlining, the practice of joining with other airlines, in order to give passengers the opportunity to book tickets from their home countries. Marketing for growth is also a concern, and as Drukair is the only carrier in Bhutan, the CEO wonders if he should be promoting tourism in the country as part of his marketing plan.

9B04C012 – 7 pages
The 1996 Everest Tragedy
Khushwant K. Pittenger

In May 1996, two world renowned climbers, along with some of their clients and guides, perished on Mount Everest in the mountain's deadliest tragedy to date. The accounts of survivors imply that biased decision making contributed to the tragedy. Did a decision lead to this tragedy or was it an unfortunate mountaineering accident? The case provides the opportunity to explore decision biases such as framing, escalation of commitment, anchoring, and over confidence and the issues of leadership style, group behaviour, team management and communication.

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B20M182_P - 11 pages
SafeMotos: Scaling up Innovations in African Ride Hailing
Darren Meister, Ramasastry Chandrasekhar

In April 2018, the two co-founders of SafeMotos, a motorcycle taxi service in Rwanda, in Central Africa, were examining their expansion plan. Their start-up had not yet become profitable, but they were already making plans to expand into the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were also driven by the larger goals of replicating their tried and tested growth model in other cities on the African continent and moving quickly into the underserved city transportation markets of Asia and the Far East. As they reviewed their four-year experience of working in Africa, they were facing a singular question: What should be the roadmap for scaling up their ride hailing service?

9B15M034 - 8 pages
Sawdust, Co.
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Murty S. Kopparthi, Chris Janssen, Salima Ladhani, Jamie McKeown

In May 2013, the owner of Sawdust, Co., a small woodworking business outside Kigali, Rwanda, has to decide on a new strategic direction for his company while not compromising its past success. He had started the company in 2007 with the goal of revolutionizing the sawdust industry in his country while also promoting social welfare in the region by offering employment to both survivors and perpetrators of the 1994 genocide. Although the company has achieved modest profits, he is eager to do more. However, some tough decisions lie ahead. He can choose to go alone and take out bank loans to invest in the three lines of machinery needed to expand the business; he can engage in a joint venture in which he will have to give up an equity stake in return for the required capital; or he can follow the status quo. How can he achieve top line revenue growth, remain profitable and socially responsible and withstand international competition?

9B14A035 – 17 pages
A Public Relations Campaign for Rwanda 
Mary Weil, Ken Mark

On February 5, 2012, the founder of McDonald Kinley Emerson, a consultancy in Toronto, Canada, was asked to give a talk about country branding. She decided to focus on the efforts of Racepoint, a U.S. marketing services agency, to reshape the image of Rwanda. As it attempted to shift perceptions of the country from war-torn and chaotic, Racepoint’s campaign attracted controversy amid allegations that wrongdoings were being glossed over in favour of a tourist- and business-friendly image. In August 2011, the publication of documents outlining the contractual agreement between Racepoint and the current Rwandan government sparked scrutiny of the government’s perceived remaking of the country’s image. Can a country overcome its reputation for genocide and violence? Should countries actively use public relations tactics to change or reinforce their reputations in the same way that corporations do?

9B07M063 – 9 pages
Rwanda and David Cechetto
Frederick Keenan

Dr. David Cechetto, a University of Western Ontario (UWO) medical professor, left Rwanda after a distressing week. Having seen first-hand the impact of the 1994 genocide and the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Cechetto committed himself to accept the request from UWO and the Rector of the National University of Rwanda to direct a project to help rebuild Rwanda's health sector. As he was flying back to London, Ontario, he began to prepare a proposal for funding to be submitted within six months. His first decision was who his Rwandan partner or partners should be in this project.

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B13A046 – 8 pages
Rwanda Backpackers
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Dan Hernden, Annika Wang

After conducting thorough research, two young entrepreneurs in Rwanda realize they have the opportunity to target the international budget tourists commonly referred to as “backpackers.” Only one European-style backpacker hostel currently exists in the capital city of Kigali, and the low-budget tourism industry remains significantly underdeveloped throughout the country. The partners have seen how successful this type of tourism has become in neighbouring countries and desire to replicate it in their homeland. One of them has inherited a piece of land in a quiet nature area by a lake only five minutes’ drive from a major international bus terminal. Although they have very few financial resources between them, they realize that a hospitality business providing tent accommodation and basic services will be cheap to operate and will attract budget-conscious travelers. Now, in order to start construction, they must not only raise $19,000 within the next six months before Rwanda’s high tourist season begins but design a successful marketing plan to attract customers once the business opens.

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague 

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B20M079 - 14 pages
Technologies Ecofixe: Green Wastewater Treatment for Africa
Roxanne Lavoie-Drapeau, Gwyneth Edwards

In September 2018, Marisol Labrecque, president of Technologies Ecofixe Inc. (Technologies Ecofixe), was heading to Ain Taoujdate, Morocco, in order to supervise the installation of the company’s second ECOFIXE system in Africa. Technologies Ecofixe was a small, socially responsible Québécois company that had developed and commercialized a cost-effective system for the treatment of wastewaters in aerated ponds. With her eye on Africa’s ever-expanding market, Labrecque considered entering the French-speaking countries of Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. However, given her limited resources, Labrecque knew that she would have to choose. Which country should Technologies Ecofixe enter next?

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B19N014_P - 13 pages
London Mining Plc: The Offer from Blackrock World Mining Trust
Walid Busaba, Ken Mark

On March 29, 2012, the chief executive officer of London Mining, an iron ore mining firm based in the United Kingdom, was considering an innovative financing offer from BlackRock World Mining Trust, an investment firm owned by asset manager BlackRock. The offer was a royalty agreement that would see BlackRock pay US$110 million to London Mining in exchange for 2 per cent of iron ore revenues from the Marampa mine in Sierra Leone. The company was looking at raising $250 million in debt and funding the remainder through a combination of free cash flow, convertible debt, or an equity issue. The opportunity to sell a portion of the revenues as part of a royalty agreement seemed appealing. The chief executive officer’s challenge was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of agreeing to the royalty arrangement.

9B11M104 – 9 pages
Ransom on the High Seas: The Case of Piracy in Somalia
Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, Michael Train, Jeanne McNett

In recent years, incidents of piracy have increased dramatically off the coast of the failed state of Somalia. In this case, a group of 14 pirates have hijacked a cargo ship full of machinery, but have yet to make any demands. They hold hostage a multinational crew of 20 (whose captain and two officers are American), the ship, and the cargo. The chief operating officer of an international shipping company must choose among alternative strategies to get the crew, cargo, and ship back safely with as little cost as possible.

9B20A006 - 8 pages
Exotic Expeditions Tanzania Ltd.: Competing in Highly Saturated Markets
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Serena Virani, Caroline Wu, Victoria Stopar, Fatima Haq

Based in Mwanza, Tanzania, family-owned and operated Exotic Expeditions Tanzania Ltd. was a leading tour operator in East Africa. The company was purchased in December 2014 and experienced considerable success the following year. The owners felt that there was an opportunity for growth within the company and believed that the best way to realize this growth was to improve their marketing efforts and service offerings. The family wanted to remain profitable and reach the company’s goal of offering the best service in the industry while increasing revenue by 25 per cent within the next three years. To do this, the owners had to reach a consensus on the best marketing plan to help them differentiate against numerous competitors and continue to deliver optimal service offerings.

9B20M039_P - 12 pages
Karatu Coffee Company in Tanzania: What Strategy Next?
Manuel Siegrist, Gary Bowman, Colette Southam, Paul W. Beamish

In 2018, the founder and owner of the Karatu Coffee Company needed to decide what to do next with his company. He was considering several options: increasing the tourism part of the business, growing the original farm, pursuing a property development project in the capital city, or simply selling out and walking away. The company, located in Tanzania, began as a coffee farm, expanded into tourism with a remote, idyllic coffee lodge, and then brought coffee and tourism together with a bustling inner-city coffee house, which also housed a boutique hotel. The final phase of expansion included the purchase of high-quality coffee equipment and highly-prized roasting facilities to capture a larger share of the coffee value chain. The owner's decision would require insights into both the coffee industry and Tanzania itself.

9B20M220 - 11 Pages
Ruaha  Farm (T) Ltd: Engaging Local Beekeeping Communities in Tanzania
Wim Vanhaverbeke, Nicholaus Tutuba, Jasinta Msamula, Pulkeria Pascoe, Jerum Kilumile, Hawa Petro Tundui

The chief executive officer of Ruaha Farm (T) Ltd (Ruaha Farm), in Iringa, Tanzania, established his honey business, in 2012. The company’s business model relied on the engagement and empowerment of neighbouring communities of low-income beekeepers, creating mutually beneficial relationships with local beekeeping communities in the Iringa region. The business model was unique, asset-light, and scalable. In contrast with an integrated business model in beekeeping, where a company typically owned all assets (land, beehives, processing machinery, and routes to market), Ruaha Farm not only commercialized the honey from its own farms but also reached out to all beekeepers in the region to support them in the production and collection of their honey. By 2019, amid the challenges of managing the company’s relationship with the beekeeper communities, the chief executive officer had to consider how to increase Ruaha Farm’s annual production volume from 10 to 100 tons in five years.

9B18D018 - 5 pages
Fastjet: Strategy and Expansion
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, James Spillane, Jocelyn Carabott, Cheryl Mok, Nicole Wiebe

In 2012, Fastjet acquired Fly540, a low-cost airline with operations in Tanzania, Kenya, Angola, and Ghana, and began operating as a low-cost carrier with the goal to become the most successful pan-African low-cost airline. Since starting operations, Fastjet had grown tremendously, achieving strong market acceptance and a reputation for reliability and punctuality. Although yield per passenger had increased over its first two years, Fastjet had continued to report operating losses due to its poorly performing operations in Kenya, Angola, and Ghana. In September 2014, Fastjet had the opportunity to expand into other African regions, and the company’s chief executive officer needed to consider his options to successfully grow the company’s operations.

9B18A028 - 4 pages
Gold Crest Hotel: Filling Room Vacancies
Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Mackenzie Schmidt, Matt Bradley, Glen Thomson-Bullock, John Paul Belmonte

In 2015, the general manager of the Gold Crest Hotel (Gold Crest) in Mwanza, Tanzania, had only three days to present a compelling marketing strategy for the hotel at the executive board meeting. Though the hotel had recently experienced revenue growth from its conference room bookings, management wanted to increase average yearly hotel occupancy. A new marketing strategy had to include a target consumer segment, a marketing plan, and options that would attract customers to book guest rooms at the Gold Crest. Also, the manager had to decide whether to renovate the ninth floor of the hotel and, if so, whether to add additional conference rooms or additional guest rooms, depending on the targeted market segment.

9B07M028 – 6 pages
City Water Tanzania (D): Things Fall Apart
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This is a supplement to City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam, product #9B07M025. This case summarizes the decision of the negotiation: the breakup of City Water Tanzania and its aftermath, including litigation and forgone opportunities to meet the needs of the local residents.

9B07M027A – 3 pages
City Water Tanzania (C): The Private Sector Experiment
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This is a supplement to City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam, product #9B07M025 and is a two-part role-play. In this part (A) role-play, students take the position of Edward Lowassa, Tanzania's Minister of Water.

9B10M020 – 15 pages
Barrick Gold Corporation – Tanzania
Aloysius Newenham-Kahindi, Paul W. Beamish

This case examines the giant Canadian mining corporation, Barrick Gold Corporation (Barrick), (called Africa Barrick Gold plc since 2009), and the way it engages in sustainable community developments that surround its mining activities in Tanzania. Following recent organized tensions and heightened criticism from local communities, media, international social lobbyists and local not-for-profit organizations (NFOs), Barrick has attempted to deal with the local communities in a responsible manner. At issue for senior management was whether there was much more that it could reasonably do to resolve the tensions.

The case considers: how MNEs seek social license and local legitimacy; the relevance of hybrid institutional infrastructures; the evolving global roles for MNEs and their subsidiaries. The case is appropriate for use in courses in international management, global corporations and society, and international development and sustainable value creation.

9B09M051 – 22 pages
Yogurt Mamas: Probiotics in Tanzania
Oana Branzei, David J. Sharp, Jessica Kelly, Osama Siddiqui

This case illustrates a grassroots enterprise's path to self-sufficiency in a subsistence market context. It explores the gradual evolution of a business model with strong social mandates (pro-health, pro-women) and asks which growth options best marry profitability and positive social change. The Mwanza, Tanzania-based Yogurt Mamas emerge as entrepreneurial role models in their communities, with funds from Western donors and an exciting new technology.

The Yogurt Mamas produce and locally distribute a probiotic yogurt to their small community; they are interconnected in a local value chain and benefit from annual inflows of expertise from Western partners, including free access to patented technology and free culturing of probiotic bacteria in a local lab. The case asks students to critically analyze the hurdles to profitability and suggest working solutions to scale up the venture. Challenges include funding sufficiency, clarity of roles and responsibilities, patent restrictions, kitchen ownership, food safety and quality concerns, and liability concerns. Options include technology/model licensing and franchising, organic growth and expansion to gain higher margins and greater control over the milk supply, and extending their distribution reach. If the Yogurt Mamas cannot find an attractive and feasible growth option, the partners will have to contemplate venture termination once the grant funding comes to an end, or consider alternative exit options.

9B07C040 – 18 pages
Human Resource Management in Multinational Banks in Tanzania
Paul W. Beamish, Aloysius Newenham-Kahindi

The case examines how the best practices of two banks were organized and managed to provide financial services to a small niche of foreign customers in the mining, tourism and construction sectors in Tanzania. The two banks claimed to be similar in many ways. They both were from countries whose economies were run broadly on neo-liberal lines, in that there was little state intervention in either economy, however, differences existed with respect to how they managed their operations. The case is ideally suited to illustrate the on-going tension and different types of best practices in cross-market integration. It provides opportunities to explore the challenges faced by multinational company banks in managing global workforces, the evolution of the banking sector, and the influence of technology in shaping work in organizations.

9B07M027B – 4 pages
City Water Tanzania (C): Striking A Deal
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This is a supplement to City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam, product #9B07M025 and is a two-part role-play. In this part (B) role-play, students take the position of Cliff Stone, Biwater's former director of sales for Africa and now chief executive officer of City Water's management.

9B07M026 – 6 pages
City of Water Tanzania (B): Privatizing Dar es Salaam's Water Utility
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This is a supplement to City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam, product #9B07M025. It details the terms of the lease contract with an international operator, Biwater, and discusses the alternatives that were considered and discarded, the bidding process, and the roles and motivations of the parties. The key questions revolve around a) the adequacy of the decision, b) the responsibility for the next steps and c) the milestones and metrics to gauge the success of the privatization.

9B07M025 – 17 pages
City Water Tanzania (A): Water Partnerships for Dar es Salaam
Oana Branzei, Kevin McKague

This case examines how the Tanzania government intends to address a pressing deterioration in the infrastructure and services of Dar es Salaam's Water and Sewage Authority. The decision process unfolds in the spring of 2002, on the heels of the Cochabamba uprising in Bolivia and an increasing dispute over the involvement of the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank in other water development projects in Ghana, Mauritania and South Africa. At that time, the World Bank was already sponsoring similar projects in Angola, Benin, Guinea-Bissau, Niger, Rwanda Sao Tome and Senegal, despite some vocal local opposition. This multi-part case series is ideally suited for core or elective courses in strategy and sustainability to illustrate the types of ongoing tensions and divergent decision angles that influence the formation and performance of public-private partnerships and managing in a global context. It also provides a rich and graphic account of the special threats and opportunities in the water sector - a wealth of complementary teaching resources can also stimulate larger debates by juxtaposing the case decision with a broader crisis of confidence in for-profit solutions to water and sewage provision in Africa and in Latin America.

9B07M060 – 19 pages
Honey Care Africa: A Tripartite Model For Sustainable Beekeeping
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

The director and co-founder of Honey Care Africa (Honey Care) looks back over the six years of operations and describes the original business model and several sequential changes based on feedback from rural communities, partner organizations, and learning by doing through field operations. Increasing international recognition highlights the potential impact of the model on inspiring sustainable grassroots ventures in the agriculture sector in Kenya. For Tanzania and other developing countries, he ponders the potential opportunities and challenges in replicating the Honey Care model elsewhere. The case also tackles alternative routes for scaling up the model in East Africa. Students are presented with several specific challenges which illustrate the growing tension between Honey Care's original commitment to the farmers and its prospects for international take-off, and are asked to propose alternative model reconfigurations to resolve this tension.

9B07M022 – 16 pages
Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

The founding entrepreneur of Honey Care Africa revitalized Kenya's national honey industry by focusing on small-holder farmers across the country. Central to success was an innovative business model: a synergistic partnership between the development sector, the private sector, and rural communities that drew on the core competencies of each party as well as their complementary roles. This tripartite model was combined with local manufacturing of beehives, effective beekeeping training, a guaranteed market for small-holder farmers through forward contracts, and prompt payments. Four years later, Honey Care had achieved a 68 per cent market share in Kenya and distributed several brands of organic, fair-trade honey internationally, and was a lead distributor of beeswax. The business model had been successfully replicated in neighbouring Tanzania, and there were plans to expand to Uganda and Sudan.

9B07M023 – 9 pages
Honey Care Africa (B): Opportunity Knocks
Oana Branzei , Michael Valente

This is a supplement to Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model.

9B07M024 – 3 pages
Honey Care Africa (C): Growth Alternatives
Oana Branzei , Michael Valente

This is a supplement to Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model.

9B20M184 - 6 pages
Wakaliwood: The Hollywood of Uganda
Marcus M. Larsen, Rebecca Namatovu

In early 2020, the founder and operator of Ramon Film Productions—known familiarly as Wakaliwood—needed to manage the tensions of operating as an informal movie production company in a slum in Uganda's capital of Kampala. Although Ramon Film Productions had received much international acclaim for its ultra-low-budget action movies, the company was under increasing pressure from the local authorities to formalize, by obtaining new operating licences and complying with stricter regulations. The founder needed to weigh the costs and benefits of continuing to operate informally, compared with formalizing his business.

9B20M011 - 10 pages
Project Have Hope: Managing Growth, Commitment, Time, Inventory, and Other Challenges
Nardia Haigh, Jamila Gilliam, Frank Smith

Boston-based Project Have Hope was a non-profit social enterprise promoting financial stability for 100 women in Kampala, Uganda, who had been displaced as a result of Uganda’s civil war. Established in 2006, Project Have Hope used revenue from the sale of paper bead jewellery and other products made by the women to provide training, loans, and children’s tuition. The project faced many challenges over the years, including an unplanned expansion of its beneficiaries, staffing challenges, an oversaturated bead jewellery market, rising costs, and the founder’s unsustainable workload. In 2019, Project Have Hope was at a nexus: how could the founder sustain Project Have Hope into the future?

9B14M131 – 11 pages
LifeNet International's Transformation of African Healthcare via Social Franchising
Ilan Alon, Raul Carril

LifeNet International was a social conversion franchise concept aiming to provide basic, quality and sustainable healthcare to poor and underserved populations in sub-Saharan Africa. The founder and president had relied on the assistance of others to help bring about his idea of affordable healthcare. In 2012, the executive director for LifeNet International’s operations in Burundi, began focussing on developing the company in Burundi. She was excited to see LifeNet International’s presence expanding into Uganda. Her vision for LifeNet International, however, was much bigger. She envisioned LifeNet International as a sustainable organization that could provide quality healthcare and medicine to millions of people around the world.

If it planned to expand internationally and bring healthcare to more of the world’s population, LifeNet International needed a solution to tie its services together to further scale, replicate and measure its social impact. How could LifeNet International bring its social conversion franchising model to other African nations and internationally? Would LifeNet International’s model work logistically, financially and culturally? What adaptations would LifeNet need to make and what legal challenges would it face in the process of expansion? Furthermore, what structures would LifeNet need to put in place to manage the complexity of its growing network of partner clinics and operations?

9B07M022 – 16 pages
Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model
Oana Branzei, Michael Valente

The founding entrepreneur of Honey Care Africa revitalized Kenya's national honey industry by focusing on small-holder farmers across the country. Central to success was an innovative business model: a synergistic partnership between the development sector, the private sector, and rural communities that drew on the core competencies of each party as well as their complementary roles. This tripartite model was combined with local manufacturing of beehives, effective beekeeping training, a guaranteed market for small-holder farmers through forward contracts, and prompt payments. Four years later, Honey Care had achieved a 68 per cent market share in Kenya and distributed several brands of organic, fair-trade honey internationally, and was a lead distributor of beeswax. The business model had been successfully replicated in neighbouring Tanzania, and there were plans to expand to Uganda and Sudan.

9B07M023 – 9 pages
Honey Care Africa (B): Opportunity Knocks
Oana Branzei , Michael Valente

This is a supplement to Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model.

9B07M024 – 3 pages
Honey Care Africa (C): Growth Alternatives
Oana Branzei , Michael Valente

This is a supplement to Honey Care Africa (A): A Different Business Model.

9B13M076 – 13 pages
Hello Healthcare: Taking a Cooperative Business into Africa
Albert Wocke

A retired Swiss banker has decided to bring primary healthcare to Africa by using a cooperative business model that brings together complementary firms. The model has proven successful in the United Arab Emirates, Zambia and Ghana. He now faces the decision of whether to expand into new African countries, and if so, which countries to enter, how to select partners and how to recruit country managers. The case also illustrates the challenges and misconceptions of doing business in Africa.

9B09M009 – 13 pages
NFC in Mongolia
Lu Jiang, Michael Frechette, Dongmei Tu, Xia Wang, Marie Cheng

NFC was a state-owned company listed on the China stock exchange. It had operations in Zambia, Iran and Kazakhstan before entering into Mongolia. Most of the prior projects were turn-key operations. Mongolia was the first country in which it had an international joint venture (IJV). The joint venture (JV) agreement was signed in 1998. Due to many delays, it was not until 2005 that it finally started operating. In mid-2007, the Mongolian parliament notified the JV that its 5-year 0 per cent and 5-year 50 per cent of income tax term (starting from 2005) had been cancelled. Not only would it need to pay full tax starting from 2007, it had to pay the exempted tax amount from 2005 and 2006. Inside the JV, the union desired another pay raise despite the fact that salaries had been increased 10 per cent just six months ago. Outside the JV, local shipping companies threatened to block the factory gate if the JV did not sign a shipping contract with them on their terms.

9B04M060 – 19 pages
Divesting the Zambian Mining Industry
Luka Powanga

The Zambian government embarked on a divesture of its mining industry in 1992. However, by July of 2004, 67 per cent of the mining assets were still in government hands and the government is still looking for equity partners. This case can be used as a basis for discussing political and country risk analysis, international negotiations, feasibility study analysis, managing strategic failure, and ethical and social responsibility issues.