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International Business Institute

Cases Involving the 46 Eligible Countries

 

Featured Cases...


Where Have You Been? An Exercise to Assess Your Exposure to the Rest of the World’s Peoples (2023) W34034
This annually updated exercise assesses one’s exposure to the rest of the world’s peoples. A series of worksheets require respondents to check off the number and names of countries they have visited and the corresponding percentage of world population that each country represents. The summary of a group’s collective exposure to the world’s people will inevitably be the recognition that together they have seen much, even if individually some have seen little. The teaching note provides discussion questions that consider why there is such a high variability in individual profiles, the implications of each profile for one’s business career, and what it would take for respondents to change their profile.


African Entrepreneurship: Weighing Adventure Travel Business Opportunities W31908_P
It was June 2021 and the international tourism industry was beginning to show signs of revival after the COVID-19 global pandemic. Small business owner Tony Byarugaba was surveying the scenic grounds surrounding his tourist lodge in Uganda. Byarugaba had built his enterprise by offering international clients a superior African vacation that included Uganda and the neighbouring countries of Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. From his beginnings as a self-taught tour operator, Byarugaba had diversified into the hotel business. His two early-stage companies, Mamaland Safaris and Woodland Lodges, had already survived very tough times—a global recession, the outbreak of Ebola, and, most recently, the pandemic. Byarugaba now had to weigh the potential risks and rewards of a number of options for ensuring the growth and stability of his businesses. As a small entrepreneur with limited access to capital and labour, he could only afford to choose one direction to pursue. The future of his company depended on making the right choice.

This case was the first prize winner of the 2022 John Molson Business Ownership Case Writing Competition.

 

Street Business School: Social Entrepreneurship for Women Living in Poverty W34902
Street Business School (SBS) employed an innovative social-franchise model aimed at providing entrepreneurship training to one million impoverished women worldwide. Originating as BeadforLife, a non-profit organization that connected women in Uganda who produced recycled paper jewellery with international markets, SBS developed a tailored entrepreneurship program while working with small groups of bead producers. With aspirations to expand globally and impact more women, SBS adopted a social franchising model and certified other organizations to implement its valuable approach and curriculum. However, generating earned income proved challenging, and SBS relied heavily on funds raised from individuals and philanthropic organizations. In addition, the organization faced the dilemma of balancing its focus on scalability and global expansion with the depth of impact it aimed to achieve. In January 2023, the chief executive officer (CEO) wondered what she should recommend to the board as the most appropriate business model for scaling SBS’s impact.

 

Imaam Spinning Mills: Cost of Capital of a Private Company W34046_P
On January 2, 2018, the chief executive officer of a private company in Karachi, Pakistan, Imaam Spinning Mills (Imaam), was planning to expand the company’s product line and enter the weaving business by setting up a new weaving plant. He asked his chief financial officer to conduct a financial evaluation financial evaluation of the project. To do so, she needed to calculate the weighted average cost of capital, using the comparative method to calculate the cost of capital for the unlisted firm based on financial data from Imaam and comparable firms, and determine the feasibility of the project.


Doodlage: Toward a Sustainable Future W27322
Doodlage Retail LLP (Doodlage), a sustainable fashion brand based in India, was based on an idea that had come to the co-founder while she was interning with export houses. There, she witnessed large-scale discarding of fabric waste, which found its way to landfills and became a major source of pollution. Doodlage utilized the practices of circularity—repairing, reusing, refurbishing, and recycling—to transform industrial waste into women’s apparel. With time, the company came to collaborate with numerous players and extended into categories like home furnishings, accessories, and men’s apparel. Relying primarily on social media and e-commerce sites to market its wares, Doodlage slowly built a niche for itself. After nearly a decade, awareness of sustainable fashion, ethical fashion, and slow fashion had risen, and a number of competitors had emerged, heating up the competitive landscape. Doodlage thus faced multiple future challenges and needed to decide whether to continue to focus on the niche it had created for itself or to go mainstream. What was the optimal way forward?


Brics: Introducing the Clicks! W30141
On New Year’s Eve of 2018, Amjad Dar, head of Brics Online, is considering alternatives going forward for operating Brics Online, a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce arm of Brics Pakistan (Brics). The main decision to be taken is whether Brics Online should be operated centrally (through a dedicated warehouse) or merged with stores to allow for decentralized operations. Centralized operations in the first year of Brics Online produced considerable losses due to various factors, including the lack of planning, follow-up, and resource capabilities. The managing director of Brics Pakistan, Yoso Manovo, has asked Dar to give his decision on a proposal put forward by two other experienced company personnel to decentralize Brics Online’s operations. Dar knows that his decision will impact the future of not only Brics as a retail organization but also Brics Online and its sustainability. Whatever decision Dar takes should ideally result in optimized operational costs while supporting future growth and expansion for the Brics Online venture.

 

Pergah Transport Limited: Compensation Fairness in a Multinational Context W29247_P
A female entrepreneur in Ghana developed a transportation company that provided services for national and large multinational organizations in the country. A key service that Pergah Transport Limited (Pergah) offered was vehicles and drivers for the executive expatriates of multinationals. The drivers for that service were employed by Pergah but embedded with the contracting companies. Pergah’s remaining employees—mechanics, other drivers, and support staff—were based out of the company’s premises in Accra. The employees at Pergah’s premises were paid above the employment standards for Ghanaians; however, the drivers who were embedded with the multinational companies were compensated according to the standards established by those companies. The variance between local and multinational standards for employees of the same company led to differences in job satisfaction, motivation, and compensation. The Pergah-based employees were paid fairly, and increasing their rate to the multinational level would have posed financial challenges to the company. How, then, could Pergah address the discrepancy and resolve these issues?

 

Championing EDI and ESG While Using Child Labour: The Hershey Paradox W34978
As she prepared for the Hershey Company Investor Day, CEO Michele Buck knew the importance of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices; and that EDI within corporate social responsibility (CSR) was key to Hershey’s valuable brand image, engaged employees, and effective business relationships. “Children’s wellbeing is at the heart of who we are as a company. This goes back to our founder, Milton S. Hershey, who cared deeply about children.” However, the company depended on cocoa beans from West Africa and had not yet honoured a 2001 industry-wide pledge to uproot child labour in global supply chains. Hershey was committed to improved practices but had not yet reached its goals. What if Hershey’s largest customer in its largest market decided to drop Hershey products? What if socially conscious institutional investors decided to sell their shares? How could the CEO avoid these disastrous scenarios and reassure both customers and investors?


Wilderness Safaris: Leveraging Technology for Impact W28393
Headquartered in Botswana, Wilderness Safaris was an ecotourism operator that organized several camps and mobile safaris in Africa. Recently, Wilderness Safaris, and the industry in which it operated, had suffered from significant revenue loss because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although Wilderness Safaris had managed to remain operable, the pandemic had changed the industry’s long-term landscape. The vice-president of Wilderness Safaris was interested in applying for an award designed to financially support organizations in solving wildlife conservation problems through technologies. She needed to assess and prioritize several technology innovations and communicate a clear strategy for balancing business profitability with social impact.


Makoye Safaris: Marketing Tanzanian Safari Tours W32228_P
Makoye Safaris, a jungle safari tour company based in Tanzania founded by Vicent Makoye, offered fully guided, safe, and environmentally friendly tours largely to international tourists. The tours were private, custom designed, and flexible and included airport pick-up and drop-off, accommodation, transportation, and three meals daily. Makoye wanted the company to grow and acquire a larger market share. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic spread worldwide, and Tanzania’s tourism sector went into a downturn. Although the number of tourists started to increase in 2021, Makoye Safaris needed a good marketing plan to achieve its target of doubling the number of international tourists it served by 2025.


The Kiri Group: A Social Enterprise Tackling Poverty in Kenya W25472_P
Makena Wanjiru, chair of Kiri Mount Kenya Conservation Network and Resource Centre (Kiri), wondered whether turning Kiri’s loans business into a co-operative bank would be in the group’s best interest. The challenge was to convince the rest of the board members of the idea. The board of directors would meet on July 18, 2019. Wanjiru had to draft a report before then explaining how the idea was consistent with the group’s current strategy and would benefit Kiri for years to come. Wanjiru also needed to consider strategies to grow Kiri’s agribusiness beyond the Mount Kenya community.

 

Ethical Crossroads: Genetix Solutions’ Bioweapon Conundrum W34803
In the rush to develop vaccines, many strains of viruses are used in laboratories in an effort to help humanity. However, the same samples used to develop life-saving vaccines could potentially be used to develop weapons of biological warfare. This case looks at the scenario from multiple perspectives in an effort to discuss the ethics of virus usage, storage and regulatory oversight given the differing economical situations and motivations of the actors.

 

Merafuture: Building an Ed-Tech Start-Up in Pakistan W34302
Maria took a final glance at the company accounts, then closed her laptop. On New Year’s Eve of 2022, she had mixed emotions reflecting on the journey of the past two years. In just fifteen days, it would be Merafuture's two year anniversary as a registered company. 2020 and 2021 were anything but normal for the world, and it was no different for Merafuture. In August 2021, after struggling for the first year and a half, the company began to show progress by picking up sales when schools and colleges reopened across Pakistan. Yet, still operating at a loss, she wondered if the company could afford to stay afloat for another year while waiting to make a profit.


Hyundai’s Fate in Pakistan W34884
In 2022, the manager of Hyundai Nishat Motor (Private) Limited was ambitious to expand the company in Pakistan and continue its hard-earned growth. His first step was determining whether the expansion plan was worth it. But how could he estimate the cost of equity of a privately held firm? Although the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) and dividend discount model (DDM) were most commonly used to calculate the cost of equity, neither of those models could be used with an unlisted company, which had no stock price and hence no stock returns and beta. Financial consultants thus advised the manager to research the weighted average cost of capital (WACC) and the cost of equity of Hyundai’s competitors in a comparable company analysis.

 

A Primer on Risk Management in International Trade W27168
A new entrepreneur planning to start a new exports and/or imports business is confronted with the issue of managing and mitigating various risks in international trade. Risks are inherent to any business, be it domestic or international. However, when business becomes international, the dimensions, complexities, and quantum of risks get amplified. This technical note discusses the nuances of various risks faced by the exporters, such as; credit risk, country risk, and currency risk faced by the exporters, popularly known as the three C’s of international trading risks, and the strategies of mitigating those risks. The note also discusses the various risks encountered by the importers, such as; currency risk, supplier risk, and product risk and the methods of managing such risks.

 

Data Modelling with Barker Notation W38454 
Entity-Relationship (ER) data modelling is a critical technique used by data experts to help design new systems, utilize existing systems, and replace old systems. This note describes the different levels of data modelling, as well as its objectives and benefits, provides a brief history of graphical modelling approaches, and focuses on a particular graphical rule set for creating logical data models called Barker notation.

 

VTION AdTech: Disrupting the Cookie-Less World W37201

Manoj Dawane founded an advertising technology (AdTech) start-up in Delhi, India in 2020 that provided digital consumer behaviour intelligence for targeted digital advertising without using third-party internet cookies. His patented technology solved the issue of personal data privacy created by cookie-based targeting. His unique competitive advantage would not last long and he faced three dilemmas. First, to define a clear business model that would be a balance between the core competency of the company and the emerging market opportunities. Second, to identify an alliance partner for a faster growth. Third, to redefine his go-to-market strategy for seven times growth in two years, as demanded by investors.

 

Exide Industries Limited: The Metaverse Decision Dilemma W36908

In July 2023, managers at Exide Industries Limited (EIL), a prominent player in India’s power-storage industry, faced a pivotal decision during a strategic workshop led by the company’s managing director and chief executive officer. The company had been presented with a groundbreaking yet uncertain opportunity: to develop a metaverse-powered platform for battery customization and testing. This initiative, championed by the chief information officer, aimed to address specific challenges faced by EIL’s original-equipment-manufacturer clients. However, the decision to invest in the metaverse was complex and laden with uncertainties regarding the technology’s future and its alignment with EIL’s strategic goals. The company would have to evaluate the potential risks and benefits of adopting this new technology in order to decide whether or not to proceed with this ambitious project.

 

 

 

Ivey Publishing Cases Involving the 46 Eligible Countries

 

The poorest countries in the world have received far too little attention by business school case writers. Even in Ivey Publishing's current collection of over 8,700 cases, there are only 170 cases which reference any of the 46 Countries.

 

Country

Number of Relevant Cases

All countries

1

Afghanistan

1

Bangladesh

9

Benin

1

Burkina Faso

1

Burundi

1

Cambodia

6

Cameroon

1

Central Africa Republic

1

Chad

2

Comoros

1

Democratic Republic of Congo

2

Congo Republic

1

Côte d'Ivoire

2

Eritrea

1

Ethiopia

1

Gambia

1

Ghana

18

Guinea

1

Guinea-Bissau

1

Haiti

7

Kenya

27

Kyrgyzstan

1

Lesotho

1

Liberia

1

Madagascar

1

Malawi

2

Mali

1

Mauritania

1

Mozambique

2

Myanmar

1

Nepal

6

Niger

1

Pakistan

34

Rwanda

5

Sao Tome and Principe

1

Senegal

1

Sierra Leone

1

Somalia

1

South Sudan

1

Sudan 

11

Tajikistan

1

Tanzania

17

Togo

1

Uganda

7

Zambia

2

Zimbabwe

1

 

As of August 4, 2024

 

W34034 - 11 pages
Where Have You Been?: An Exercise To Assess Your Exposure To The Rest Of The World’s Peoples (2023)
Paul W. Beamish

This annually updated exercise assesses one’s exposure to the rest of the world’s peoples. A series of worksheets require the respondents to check off the number and names of countries they have visited whether for business, family or tourism reasons, and the corresponding percentage of world population which each country represents. The summary of a group’s collective exposure to the world’s people will inevitably be the recognition that together they have seen much, even if individually some have seen little. The teaching note provides assignments and discussion questions which look at: why there is such a high variability in individual profiles; the implications of each profile for one’s business career; and, what it would take for the respondent to change his/her profile.

For marketers, it underscores the need to gather greater base knowledge about opportunities in 211 countries spread across 8 regions: Africa; North America and Caribbean; South America; Western Europe; Eastern Europe; Central Asia and Indian Subcontinent; Middle East; Asia Pacific.

9B19M012 - 15 pages
Roshan and M-Paisa: The Promise of Mobile Money in Afghanistan
Farah Kurji, Ning Su

In 2008, Roshan, Afghanistan’s leading telecommunications provider, launched M-Paisa, its mobile money transfer service, which allowed Afghans to use their mobile phones to transfer funds, receive and repay microfinance loans, make purchases, and disburse and receive salaries. The company was committed to building a financial ecosystem for transparent, safe, convenient, and secure services, which would also contribute to the long-term development of Afghanistan’s society. Utilizing technology from Vodafone Group Plc, which had been successful in Kenya, Roshan enjoyed several successful pilots, but it still faced a myriad of issues as it sought to scale the service amid a challenging operational environment. In 2011, three years after its launch, the M-Paisa service had yet to make a profit. Roshan’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer wondered what more they could do to turn M-Paisa around and, ideally, make an even more significant social impact.

9B14M057 – 13 pages
Military Arsenal Systems: Preparing to Lead a Team (A)
Lyn Purdy, Ken Mark

In March 2010, a newly promoted engineering area manager at Military Arsenal Systems, a Vancouver-based defence contractor, has just become team leader for a key program at the firm. His biggest challenge is how to lead his team, given that he is dealing with a range of personalities and the fact that he was a peer before he became their leader. How can he prove himself to be an effective leader not only to his team but to senior management? Can he rally the team quickly enough to meet the stringent deadlines for supplying the sophisticated armoured vehicles contracted by the U.S. Army for its mission in Afghanistan? See supplement 9B14M058.

9B12C009 – 18 pages
Defence Research and Development Canada – Toronto (A): The Organizational Alignment Program
Gerard Seijts, Helen Wojcinski

The world had changed as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Canada was engaged in the Afghanistan War, and the first casualties were being felt. It was November 28, 2005, as Rene LaRose, the director general of Defense Research and Development Canada (DRDC) Toronto, sat in his office preparing for an all-staff briefing the following day. He knew that for his research institute to remain relevant and be a major contributor to the emerging needs of the Canadian Forces and national security in this rapidly changing landscape, a major transformation of his centre was required. The Canadian Forces was undergoing its own metamorphosis under its new Chief of Defense Staff, General Rick Hillier, and DRDC Toronto needed to be in synch with this development. LaRose had spent several years trying to convey the message that profound changes at DRDC Toronto were needed — changes that were as much cultural as they were structural. The sense of urgency was now acute with Canada at war, and DRDC Toronto was poised to embark on a major organizational alignment program.

 

 

 

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