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Human resource management; primarily employment law impacting on employment relations.

Second year (or 200 level) students up to post graduate programmes in Business Management, Human Resources Management and Law.

The world is still fascinated by South Africas transition to democracy; what with stories of massacre (Sharpeville, etc.) of those who dared challenge white supremacy and the battle for prominence between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party. Since gaining independence, South Africa has attracted investors from far and wide. Now and again, one hears news stories that report about forms of disgruntlement from whites and blacks, respectively. In some quarters, you may hear stories suggesting the white community has not completely gotten over their resentment of black leadership. In some other quarters, you are likely to hear the blacks insist that the South African land space belongs to them and as a result they should be in charge of the distribution of wealth, one must understand that much of the wealth of the South African land still resides with the Whites. In what is considered as a fair attempt to integrate all the citizens of the republic, the new government of Nelson Mandela came up with a constitution that is hailed as perhaps the best in the world. Carved out of the United Nations Human Rights Charter, it proposes a free society that recognizes all its inhabitants regardless of colour. Within the world of work, the constitution identifies seven very important statutes that not only give effect to and sustain the republics membership of the International Labour Organisation, but also help to realize and regulate the fundamental rights of workers and employers.

Test students understanding of the legal statutes that pertain to employment relations and human resource management in South Africa.

Understand the legislation affecting management and staff. Understand and apply the principles of recruitment and selection of staff. Identify and apply the options open to managers in staff training and development. Identify and apply the appropriate performance management systems. Understand and apply the strategic human resource planning process.

Teaching note.

Marketing.

This case can be used in an international marketing course or module, at executive or MBA level, and is particularly suitable as a case on global branding.

MTN was launched in 1994 as a leading provider of communication services, offering cellular network access and business solutions. After building up a successful operation in South Africa, achieving a market share of some 38 per cent (second only to Vodacom, the dominant mobile telecommunications provider), the group began its expansion into the rest of Africa in 1998. It was the first South African cell phone network operator to do so. The objective of this expansion was, despite the uncertain political and regulatory environment, to take advantage of the market opportunities in Africa, given its underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure and the transferability of MTN's skills into other African countries. At the time of the case (June 2005), MTN had established itself in eight different African countries, with a subscriber base of 14.3 million in South Africa and 2.9 million in the rest of Africa, with plans for further growth in the territory and elsewhere. As a result of this international expansion, a major challenge was to ensure consistent branding in the different countries.

The expected learning outcomes are: to explore the challenges of international expansion into new markets; to understand global brand building strategies, how to create a consistent identity and how to build a services brand; to understand the challenges of implementing a marketing change strategy across different countries with different cultures and with employees with different agendas and to highlight the importance of people in providing a service and in delivering the brand promise.

Teaching note.

At the end of the case discussion, the students should be able to: evaluate the factors influencing entrepreneurship in an African context; discuss the relevance of developmental entrepreneurship in an African context; assess an enabling environment and ecosystem for stimulating entrepreneurship; analyse and resolve practical issues in starting a business under challenging conditions; understand how accelerator programmes work in an African context; appreciate how partnerships can be leveraged to foster entrepreneurship; evaluate relevant business models and their challenges to grow enterprises; and understand the social entrepreneurship journey of a founder.

In March 2019, Elena Gaffurini, managing partner of DEV Mozambique (DEV), sat down to evaluate the business. DEV, based in Maputo and launched in 2015, was a consulting and services company supporting entrepreneurial development in Mozambique, by training and supporting small businesses in agricultural-related sectors to improve food security. Gaffurini – a self-proclaimed purpose-driven person – now questioned whether DEV’s impact on social and economic development was significant enough to justify the effort she and her team put into it and whether DEV should reconsider its current business model to create more impact.

Postgraduate: MBA and Executive Education.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

South Africa had formally introduced a policy of inflation targeting (IT) in February 2000. By December 2001, the governor of the South African Reserve Bank, after reading the latest statistics, was concerned with the disappointing economic data. Economic activity had slowed drastically, to the point that the country appeared to be heading for a recession. The gloomy statistics forced the governor to consider whether the country had pursued the right policy. Persistently high unemployment, one legacy of the apartheid era, meant that South Africa did not have the luxury of waiting for new policies to bear fruit. With the inflation forecast to exceed the mandated target, the governor would have to tighten monetary policy, which would further restrict investment. Was it is time for South Africa to change course?

Amongst other things, at the end of this case discussion, the student should be able to: diagnose situational factors that contribute to a brand’s positioning; explore important issues in implementing brand positioning strategies; use relevant models for understanding a firm’s internal and external environments to inform strategic decisions about customers and competition; demonstrate an understanding of target audience; identify the unique attributes of the competition to inform a firm’s positioning and competitive strategy.

Kaya FM derives its name from the isiZulu word “ikhaya”, which means “home”. The name reflects the mission of the radio station to provide a home for black South Africans who were denied many opportunities during the apartheid era in South Africa. Kaya FM has been broadcasting since 1997, following the deregulation of the media landscape in South Africa. However, by 2018, the radio landscape has become very challenging. Mainstream advertisers still do not consider Kaya FM as a preferred channel to reach their target audience. Overall, radio listenership is dwindling and advertising sales growth is not encouraging. Greg Maloka, Kaya FM’s station manager is considering how to preserve the station’s unique positioning as it competes with both more dominant stations and new entrants so that Kaya FM can truly be a home for Afropolitans for many years to come.

Honour’s and master’s level, as well as executive education delegates.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Winner of the 2014 EFMD competition for best African Business case.

In the 1990s, two entrepreneurs made daring, early entries into mobile telecommunications in Sub-Saharan Africa, both seeing great market opportunities there. One firm, Adesemi, would ultimately go bankrupt. The other firm, Celtel, would ultimately succeed and make its founder, Mo Ibrahim, a star of the global business community. Why the difference in outcome? Emerging markets often present weak rule of law, bringing many challenges to business success—from the demand for bribes to regulatory obstacles, hold-up problems, and even civil war. This case explores strategies that can limit these critical non-market risks in foreign direct investment and entrepreneurship. Students will step into the shoes of both companies by exploring their entry strategies, wrestling with the challenges they faced, and diagnosing the reasons why a shared insight about a new business opportunity turned out to be prescient—and led to extremely different endpoints.

• Identify key challenges to successful entrepreneurship in emerging markets

• Evaluate government officials or competitors that might trigger regulatory obstacles or hold-up problems

• Evaluate potential allies that can help avoid these problems

• Assess strategies to avoid paying bribes

• Understand the importance of incentive alignment in directing investment success, even in the face of difficult challenges

• Identify and appraise the strategic value of partnerships with development agencie

Identify key challenges to successful entrepreneurship in emerging markets

Evaluate government officials or competitors that might trigger regulatory obstacles or hold-up problems

Evaluate potential allies that can help avoid these problems

Assess strategies to avoid paying bribes

Understand the importance of incentive alignment in directing investment success, even in the face of difficult challenges

Identify and appraise the strategic value of partnerships with development agencie

Management: human resources management.

Undergraduate and postgraduate.

This case gives critical insights in the complex issues surrounding the management of employment relationship in Africa, specifically focusing on Botswana. It is set in the context of explosive industrial relations involving Debswana Diamond Mining Company and the Botswana Mine Workers Union over the contentious issues of pay bonus and collective bargaining. Failure to reach an amicable compromise by both parties' results in a debilitating strike which costs the company millions of funds and affected it's the corporate image contrary to its well crafted social responsibility. More painfully, the end game is a loss of employment and dreams shattered for 461 dismissed workers who depended solely on this work as their only source of income.

At the end of reading the case students are expected to: understand the limits of managerial prerogative and the right to manage; appreciate the inherent conflict of interests between labour and capital; consider more equitable compensation schemes in dealing with collective bargaining; and discuss the concept of social responsibility in the context internal customers-employees.

Teaching note.

After completion of this case, students will be able to: define and understand the external and internal components of the strategic management process; define and explain various alternative strategies that help companies create a sustainable competitive advantage; understand and explain the five main choices of entry mode that are available to organisations when considering entry into a foreign market, suggest an entry mode that is relevant to Standard Bank and explain the pros and cons of each entry mode; and understand how a company can offer or phase in its service offerings.

This case situates Sola David-Borha, CEO for the Africa Region at the Standard Bank Group, in April 2018, considering whether and how to expand into personal and business banking in Cote d’Ivoire – a country that Standard Bank had just re-entered, having exited there in 2003 because of the civil war. The bank has operations in 20 sub-Saharan African countries and its growth strategy is focussed on Africa. This strategy is reflected in its slogan: “Africa is our home. We drive her growth”. David-Borha has a number of questions on her mind. These include: can the bank offer financial services that will meet the needs of the Ivorian people, how can the bank expand into personal a business banking – indeed is rapid expansion into this sector the right decision for now?

Advanced/graduate courses in strategic management and international business.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 5: International business.

The subject areas are social entrepreneurship, gender, institutions and emerging markets.

Bachelor, Master, PhD.

Some of the fastest growing economies in the world are situated in East Africa. However, there are many institutional challenges. The societies are, for example, heavily patriarchal. Women are, hence, in a particularly vulnerable situation. This is the case of one woman entrepreneur who views the support of other, less educated, women as a main part of her venture. She is a highly educated woman, who has lived part of her life in the USA. Her father is an influential person in the city. She does not need to work at all for her livelihood. She wants the women in her country to have a chance to become economically independent from men. Therefore, she uses her expertise in chemistry to help groups of rural women to make soap and other beauty products from local plants. The case not only illustrates the institutional challenges and how the macro-level institutions affect micro level action but also illustrates the agency enabled by networks and a more fortunate class background. It is an example of a contextually embedded social entrepreneurship process, with simultaneously good and bad odds.

Main learning objectives are the importance of avoiding both ethnocentrism and androcentrism when analyzing driving forces, processes and decision-making among social entrepreneurs. After having processed this case, students should be able to: critically and independently discuss the context dependence of driving forces and processes of social entrepreneurship; critically and independently discuss the gendering of driving forces and processes of social entrepreneurship; and understand and discuss the prerequisites for social entrepreneurship for different groups in a given society, including the class and gender dimensions and the intersection between these dimensions.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

John Hume, a veteran game farmer and founder of the Mauricedale Game Ranch in South Africa, was deeply troubled by the record upsurge in black rhino poaching incidents and black-market horn thefts in 2010 and 2011. While the endangered black rhino represented only one segment of Mauricedale's hunting and farming businesses in 2011, the animal's survival was an important component of the ranch's and industry's growth potential in the future. As both a businessman and a rhino advocate, John Hume was contemplating an innovative idea that might help stop the decline of the black rhino: the creation of a market for legalized black rhino hunting. As he pondered the possibilities and alternatives to determine what his next move should be, Hume had several questions on his mind: Was the legalization of the international sale and trade of rhino horns a viable solution? Was it Hume's responsibility to save the black rhino, and was the animal a good investment?