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After discussing this case, students will be able to understand the challenges faced by social entrepreneurs in starting a health-tech start-up in Africa; create and evaluate lean business models of health-tech companies as a social enterprise; evaluate how health-tech start-ups were developing innovative business models and supply chain networks to make prescription drugs accessible and available in Africa; understand how inorganic growth strategies can help health-tech start-ups scale up; and evaluate what promises investors were seeing while investing in social enterprises in the health-care sector in Africa and what social wealth they were creating.

In August 2022, Gregory Rockson (Rockson), social entrepreneur and founder of for-profit health technology (health-tech) social enterprise in Ghana, mPharma, stated that he had plans to replicate the company’s business model, which provided people access to drugs and at affordable prices, to other African nations, beyond the company’s existing footprint. However, analysts pointed out that the fragmented drug supply chain and poor regulation in the health-care market across Africa could act as a challenge for mPharma to replicate its business model successfully across the African continent. People in Africa were forced to pay higher prices to buy life-saving drugs due to the continent’s fragmented drug supply chain. To add to their woes, pharmacies struggled to keep life-saving and life-sustaining medicines in stock. Often, patients traveled miles to a pharmacy only to find out that the drugs they needed were not in stock. In addition to this, the markets were flooded with counterfeit drugs. And the Covid-19 pandemic only exacerbated the situation. mPharma managed the prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and drug suppliers using its proprietary vendor management information system. By using the technology infrastructure it had built, the company connected patients, pharmacies and hospitals through a cloud-based software. The system enabled doctors to track in real-time which drugs were available and at which location, thus giving patients reliable access to medicines. Patients registering with mPharma with their prescriptions and medical history received an alert on their mobile phones notifying them where the drugs they needed were available. mPharma bought drugs from major drug manufacturers such as Novartis International AG, Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) and Bayer AG, on behalf of the pharmacies. This enabled the pharmacies to save on the up-front costs of stocking the drugs, reduced supply constraints and ensured availability of drugs to consumers in these underserved markets. The company had a consignment model wherein member pharmacies had to pay only for what they sold. Most pharmacies forecast the number of drugs they needed and purchased them from mPharma at pre-agreed rates. The company took the inventory liability to prevent pharmacies from going out of stock. As mPharma used its purchasing power to buy drugs in large quantities from drug manufacturers and suppliers, it was able to help patients realize cost savings of 30% to 60% in the purchase of medicines. mPharma was focusing on achieving its ambitious goal of dominating the health-care market in Africa in future. However, analysts felt that the company would face challenges related to poor regulation in the health-care market, high prices of drugs and the fragmented pharmacy retail market in the continent.

This case is intended for use in MBA/MS level programs as part of a course on Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability, Business Model Innovation, Disruptive Business Models, and Supply Chain Management in the Drug Industry.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The pandemic induced lockdown lead to supply and manufacturing disruptions that were swiftly dealt with by the Indian Pharma Industry through successful industry-government collaboration. By May 2020 production was back to normal and exports were higher than the same period in May 2019. The case deals with the processes that enabled this to happen, the policy responses and the changes that happened in the period from March 2020 to August 2020.

In January 2013, small biotechnology firm Orexigen was in the final stages of testing Contrave, a promising new pharmaceutical product for the treatment of obesity. At the time, Orexigen had no products in the market, so all its hopes of financial success rested on this new treatment. Contrave had proven to be highly effective in clinical trials, and Orexigen executives were confident it would receive FDA approval.

At the same time, a much larger pharmaceutical company was considering acquiring Orexigen. Because the decision to acquire would ultimately be a financial one, the project team from the large company had to complete a valuation for Orexigen's only significant product in its pipeline, Contrave. What was the new product actually worth?

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows: use advanced frameworks and tools to convey complex ideas related to corporate social responsibility and ethics; apply relevant concepts and theories of ethics and corporate governance to a practical situation while making decisions; demonstrate understanding of the importance of stakeholders when developing socially responsible thinking; and analyze ethical and legal conflicts that need to be considered by employees in situations of whistleblowing.

Sara Khan was a Pakistani-American who had moved to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2015 to pursue her Bachelor’s degree in accounting. After graduation, she started working for a baked products manufacturer, Dough Fresh, which was a business unit of Dubai-based Fresh Foods Co. Three years later, she enjoyed her work in the company that embraced strong ethical values and socially responsible practices. She was recently given the task of delivering a financial statements’, investment projections’ and cost-cutting presentation to the senior management of Dough Fresh. Her performance at completing this task was of critical importance for her obtaining the eagerly awaited promotion to the senior accountant position. One day, while Sara was looking through some files to update the financial statements’ records, she came across a deleted purchase order of poppy seeds that amounted to AED 680,000. While poppy seeds were widely used as ingredients in baked products in other countries, they were illegal in the UAE. After approaching her colleague from the purchasing department, she realized that the purchasing manager, who was the grandson of the chairman, was closely involved in the matter. Moreover, it appeared that poppy seeds were used unwashed, which triggered deleterious health consequences and made them highly dangerous to consume. As Sara spent more time researching about poppy seeds and whistleblowing laws in the UAE, she questioned whether she should divulge this information or keep it for herself. Making this decision was extremely challenging. Because the UAE laws regarding whistleblowing were not comprehensive and constantly evolving, she was not certain whether her identity and reputation would be protected in case she decided to blow the whistle. Even more, she worried immensely about the prospect of her colleagues losing their jobs if this information became public, as many of them needed the money to support their families back home and to finance expensive health-related treatments of their relatives. At the same time, she was also aware that if poppy seeds were consumed by people unknowingly, this could lead to serious and even fatal health consequences. All things considered, Sara was caught between deciding what was the right thing to do.

This case study can be used in a higher level undergraduate business course on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The learning objectives of using this case are as follows: to understand the concepts of organizational structure, organizational culture and organizational change; to expose students to the problems that may encounter organization when it intends to bring changes in culture; to stimulate students’ understanding of the necessity to build positive organizational culture; to advance students’ knowledge about oil and gas industry; to develop students’ understanding of using Levin’s model of cultural change; and to illustrate the challenges that an organization might face while changing its existing culture.

This case teaches about the importance of boosting positive organization culture to accept organizational change. Stardust was established in 2013 as Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd’s subsidiary. The company was established to manage small and marginal field in Malaysia which was under the oil and gas field that had smaller reservoir and lasted for four to five years. On 2014, Stardust was given an opportunity to take over one of the fields to manage. However, during the process of handing over the facility and field from the parent to the new company, the tanker caught fire in one of its pump in the pump room. The fire resulted substantial damage to the pump room; two out of four pumps were totally damaged. It delayed the oil production for more than a month. Total estimated damage due to the fire incurred RM19m losses. Direct cost included replacing two new 400 kW pumps, repairing the damaged pump room with new manifolds and painting, and cost of shutdown production for 40 days. Investigation was initiated to identify the causes of the fire which revealed that human error, mostly peoples’ negligence was one of the major reasons along with location, equipment and procedure. The Health, Safety and Environment department of the company was given the task to create ‘Living Safety’ culture among the crew. Being the head of this department, Tarmizi found it very challenging to inculcate the culture ‘Action Today, Perfect Day Tomorrow’ and was thinking how to instill this culture with zero failure by the end of the calendar year which is December 2016. The time was running fast as the parent company emphasized to handle the situation urgently and to ensure that the similar incident will not happen in the future. If it re-occurs, it will jeopardize the trustworthiness of Stardust with the other parties involved and also the parent company might not allow the company to operate other facilities, which will put the company at stake to remain competitive in the oil and gas business.

This case is suitable to use in advanced undergraduate level, MBA and MSc to teach organizational behavior and organizational theory courses.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS 7: Management Science.

Founded in 1971 and acquired by CEO Howard Schultz in 1987, Starbucks was an American success story. In forty years it grew from a single-location coffee roaster in Seattle, Washington to a multibillion-dollar global enterprise that operated more than 17,000 retail coffee shops in fifty countries and sold coffee beans, instant coffee, tea, and ready-to-drink beverages in tens of thousands of grocery and mass merchandise stores. However, as Starbucks moved into new market contexts as part of its aggressive growth strategy, the assets and activities central to its competitive advantage in its retail coffee shops were altered or weakened, which made it more vulnerable to competitive threats from both higher and lower quality entrants. The company also had to make decisions on vertical integration related to its expansion into consumer packaged goods.

Understand how strategy needs to be adapted to new contexts. Understand how to manage tradeoffs involved in growth. Be able to identify possible threats to competitive advantage as a result of growth.

Understand the dynamics of the diabetes supplement market and carry out an industry analysis using Porter’s five force analysis. Understand the challenges faced by a small entrepreneur in setting up distribution channels and examine the channel powers that come into play in the given context. Discuss the merits and demerits of traditional vs online channels. Understand the factors that are important to succeed in a highly competitive diabetes supplement industry (this would include aspects such as value sought by end customer, business-to-business [B2B] buyers, expertise required to handle B2B customers and also the price and salesforce reward approaches). Enumerate the merits and demerits of individual product branding vs an umbrella brand for a company selling over-the-counter (OTC) drugs online. Understand the various considerations for export marketing for OTC drugs.

Sushruth Ayurved Industry (SAI) is a proprietorship firm owned by Girish Banvi who always dreamt of being an entrepreneur. He had set up SAI to produce diabetes supplement by the name “Sugar Knocker” to give wings to his dreams. Notwithstanding competition from corporate players and demands from health-care practitioners, he had to abandon his traditional route to selling his product and open his eyes to online marketing. He believed it could provide him the perfect medium to reach his prospects directly without any middlemen within a cost-effective budget. SAI registered revenue of INR 24m per year, completely attributable to online sales. With a firm footing in the online space, Girish was now exploring physical marketing to expand his audience reach in the B2B market and also add new products to his portfolio. He was also worried about the low capacity utilization of his manufacturing unit, which stood at 20%. With only 30% of the 40 formulations used, there was much scope for expansion. With his plant capacity underused, the time was ripe for Girish to trace his footsteps from where he had begun in the first place.

This case can be used in marketing management course under the marketing strategy module. It can also find use in the elective course on marketing channels, and in sectoral programs such as health-care management or MBA in health care. This case can also be used in the health-care products marketing course.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Suitable for both MBA- and undergraduate-level courses such as “Integrated Marketing Communications,” this case series traces a product from idea to established, successful brand. In this A case, a spirits industry executive perceives a gap between the under-$10 and the $25-and-up vodkas. Could a midpriced vodka capture some volume from each of those markets? Decisions on pricing, target, distribution, branding, and promotion are considered.

Ethical Entrepreneurship; Internationalization of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Bachelor and Master courses in International Management and Entrepreneurship.

A German medical scientist developed a product which was able to absorb alcohol in blood and consequently reduced the alcohol-level. He tested it with the participation of 170 volunteers at a private party. The product was consumed after alcohol consumption and the result was an alcohol reduction by 20-70 per cent. In addition, the volunteers had either no or only small symptoms of a hangover. The students shall discuss the different business models the medical scientist could implement by taking into account ethical issues. To give them necessary working data, the case includes European environmental data (including information about the European food industry and the functional drink market), an insight into the European legal issues of starting a business in the food segment (including definitions of “food”, “food supplement” and “health claim regulation” and how these factors impact entrepreneurial decisions), current events in the European food branch and examples of possible competitors. The case is built on a real product development and on current information and facts.

To become involved with entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurial decision-making. To debate ethical issues in the entrepreneurial process. To become aware of the complexity of internationalization in the field of SME as well as to reflect upon and sketch appropriate strategies.

Teaching note.

Operations Management

MBA/Post Graduate

This case attempts to highlight a very common resource allocation dilemma in a real-life scenario. The majority of today’s problems are solved by the methodology of trial and error. This case shows how a generic trial-and-error solution, if buttressed by a proper quantitative methodology, can have substantial impact on the bottom-line of an organization. The case concentrates on three disparate focus areas in a didactic fashion, namely, the ability to retrieve raw data and convert it into a utilizable form if a quantitative method is to be applied; the ability to comprehend the resource constraints of a typical real-life situation; and the skill required to develop and solve an optimization problem in Excel Solver, a product which can easily be accessed by any practitioner.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: students learn to formulate a Mixed-Integer programming model; to interpret optimal solutions and appreciate the application of “Optimization”; to recommend a resource allocation strategy; and to understand the importance of cost minimization in organizations.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

CSS: 9: Operations and Logistics