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Case study
Publication date: 20 January 2017

Jamie Jones and Grace Augustine

One Acre Fund (1AF) is a nonprofit organization in rural western Kenya that helps farmers lift themselves out of poverty by providing a bundle of products and services that…

Abstract

One Acre Fund (1AF) is a nonprofit organization in rural western Kenya that helps farmers lift themselves out of poverty by providing a bundle of products and services that support farmers with quality inputs, training on farming techniques, access to credit, and assistance in achieving optimal prices. Since the organization's founding nearly a decade ago, it has grown to serve over 180,000 farm families annually as of July 2014. This high level of penetration into rural Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania makes 1AF a potential distribution channel for rolling out new products and technologies that could benefit farmers and their families. The organization prides itself on its innovative culture, and always strives to offer new products and methods to its farmers. In 2011 1AF realized that it needed to formalize its innovation process to ensure it was confident in new products before rolling them out across its entire farmer network. It therefore created a robust, multistep evaluation framework to assess new innovations on four criteria: impact, adoptability, simplicity, and operability.

After reading and analyzing the case, students will be able to:

  • Articulate the importance of understanding the user's needs and perspective throughout the innovation process

  • Identify key factors for a successful product launch into an existing channel

  • Employ an assessment framework to analyze the viability of a potential innovation

  • Design a test pilot for evaluating the launch of new innovations within an organization

Articulate the importance of understanding the user's needs and perspective throughout the innovation process

Identify key factors for a successful product launch into an existing channel

Employ an assessment framework to analyze the viability of a potential innovation

Design a test pilot for evaluating the launch of new innovations within an organization

Case study
Publication date: 6 December 2023

Amit Karna and Aarushi Tiwari

What started as a FMCG distributor in 1967 in Kenya as Export Finance Company, is now a dynamic global conglomerate across 48 countries and 5 continents — Export Trading Group…

Abstract

What started as a FMCG distributor in 1967 in Kenya as Export Finance Company, is now a dynamic global conglomerate across 48 countries and 5 continents — Export Trading Group. ETG was taken over by the then CFO Mahesh Patel after exit of the founding stakeholders. It was then when the company shifted its focus to being a key regional player. In the next 35 years, the company grew systematically. Business focus evolved when Patel saw an opportunity in logistics in remote sub-Saharan Africa. This was followed by business expansion with supply chain diversification and significant infrastructure investments. All the different businesses amalgamated under a single group for better operations and ease of scaling up. They were later divided into six separate verticals for better management. Vamara (FMCG vertical) was launched in 2018 as the company moved towards digitalisation — externally and internally. ETG plans to focus on new business opportunities and continue to diversify across geographies and portfolios.

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 1 December 2021

Richard Thomson, Katherine Hofmeyr and Amanda Bowen

At midnight on Thursday, 26 March 2020, the South African government ordered a three-week lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently extended this lockdown for…

Abstract

Case overview

At midnight on Thursday, 26 March 2020, the South African government ordered a three-week lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently extended this lockdown for a further two weeks until the end of April 2020. Among other measures, businesses not classed as “essential” had to cease operation. This meant that Jonathan Robinson, founder of the Bean There Coffee Company had to close his trendy Cape Town and Milpark coffee shops, as well as the company’s hospitality and corporate business. At the same time, Bean There’s costs increased by 25%, as the rand: dollar exchange rate worsened substantially. A glimmer of hope was that the company was able to continue roasting coffee and supplying its retail clients. Unlike most captains of industry, Robinson was not driven by the bottom line and clamouring shareholders. His corporate strategy was driven by a single, simple purpose: to achieve ethical sustainability aspirations while still running a profitable business. The question for him now, however, was how to ensure that his company could survive in the short term, so that it could achieve these goals in the longer term, and whether he could take this opportunity to think about whether his business was best positioned to achieve these goals when things returned to normal.

Expected learning outcomes

The learning outcomes are as follows: conduct a thorough analysis of a specific company and its industry, including its markets, competitors, and other aspects of the internal and external business environment, using a range of tools, including a Business Model Canvas (BMC), SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis; analyse and explain the market outlook of a company; identify and analyse a company’s competitors; discuss and explain a detailed implementation plan showing the way forward for a company, considering its current challenges, including integrating a range of conceptual and analytical fields of knowledge to assess a management dilemma, and arrive at a creative and innovative management solution; and be able to present information and defend substantial insights and solutions to a management dilemma in oral and written modes, appropriate in standard for both the academic and business communities to analyse and appreciate.

Complexity academic level

Postgraduate Diploma in Management, MBA, Masters in Management, Executive Education.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy.

Details

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2045-0621

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 20 November 2023

Amanda Bowen, Claire Beswick and Richard Thomson

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to apply lessons learned in core readings, analysis and discussion to a specific case study dealing with a current…

Abstract

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this case study, students should be able to apply lessons learned in core readings, analysis and discussion to a specific case study dealing with a current, real-world situation, specifically: critically assess Livestock Wealth’s case facts and present and justify their point of view – based on attentive reading, critical analysis and engagement – about the company; use a range of strategic tools such as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis, PESTLE analysis and the Ansoff matrix to thoroughly evaluate Livestock Wealth’s internal and external business environment for developing strategic options for business growth and improvements to marketing strategy; use strategic thinking to develop a range of creative solutions to guide the company’s business growth and improvements to marketing strategy; and assess their own growth and development in terms of personal preparation and organisation, collaboration, critical thinking, decision-making skills, participation and problem-solving.

Case overview/synopsis

By February 2022, Ntuthuko Shezi, the founder and chief executive officer of Livestock Wealth, had turned his idea of “crowd farming”, which enables anyone to invest in living farm assets and earn a profit at harvest, into a full-fledged business that was creating wealth for both investors and farmers. Underpinning this case study is Shezi’s vision of an African continent where there is “no ground that is not planted with something of value”, local economies are created in those areas, communities are wealthy, there is abundance, there is money for children to attend school and ultimately where “cows (and agricultural produce in general) are seen as money”. Shezi had grown up in a rural area with grandparents who owned a couple of cows, realizing that the cows were the bedrock of the family’s finances. Describing his business, he says, “Cattle are like a walking bank, and we see ourselves as the bank of the future, where every person who owns a cow can access financial services through Livestock Wealth, just like it has always been in Africa.” This case study describes the two key decisions that Shezi needed to make – what direction to take in terms of business growth and how to improve his marketing strategy (with a limited budget) to attract sufficient investment into Livestock Wealth to make his dreams a reality.

Complexity academic level

This case study is suitable for use for a post-graduate diploma in business, master of business administration or master’s in management.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy.

Details

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2045-0621

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 20 January 2017

Anne Cohn Donnelly and Eliot Sherman

A young international nonprofit social enterprise governed by friends of the founder grows rapidly and faces increasing demands for resources and key connections to major…

Abstract

A young international nonprofit social enterprise governed by friends of the founder grows rapidly and faces increasing demands for resources and key connections to major potential donors, expertise in going to scale, and managing expansion. The case presents this issue commonly faced by new nonprofits and details how the organization, led by the board chair, seeks to resolve it through redesign of the board and major changes in board membership.

Identifying issues boards of new organizations face, particularly when they are selected for their commitment to the founder rather than the expertise they would bring to the board; analyzing the range of options for revamping a board so it matches the growth and needs and sophistication of the organization.

Details

Kellogg School of Management Cases, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2474-6568
Published by: Kellogg School of Management

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 30 December 2015

Debjit Roy and Atul Maheshwari

Kunvarji Group is on its way to transform from a commodity trading business to a service-driven business. To become an integrated service provider in the agri-supply chain…

Abstract

Kunvarji Group is on its way to transform from a commodity trading business to a service-driven business. To become an integrated service provider in the agri-supply chain, Kunvarji is by participating actively in procurement, trading, and now eyeing options for providing agri-storage services. Their dilemma reeled around the choice of storage that should be preferred for better returns: warehouse, cold storage, or silos? What should be Kunvarji's growth strategy?

Details

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, vol. no.
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2633-3260
Published by: Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 19 January 2018

Prince Baah Annor

Agricultural Trade, Farm Management, Economics of Food Safety

Abstract

Subject area

Agricultural Trade, Farm Management, Economics of Food Safety

Study level/applicability

Both undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics.

Case overview

The pineapple production sector plays a very significant role in the Ghanaian horticultural industry. Production and export of fresh pineapple has been Ghana’s most developed high-value supply chain. However, the introduction of the GlobalGAP food safety standard in 2007 resulted in a fall in smallholder farmers’ participation in exportable pineapple production and subsequently led to declining trends in pineapple exports. The Ghanaian horticultural industry received quite a number of interventions over the years aimed at revitalizing the horticultural export sector and enhancing international competitiveness. However, the pineapple export sub-sector is still constrained with production and market access challenges meaning the sector struggles to survive.

Expected learning outcomes

The GlobalGAP standard compliance case is an appropriate way of explaining how smallholder farmers make informed decisions concerning the adoption of new farm practices. The case presents a careful evaluation of technical, institutional and socio-economic factors influencing a farmer’s decision to comply or not to comply with the GlobalGAP standard. Students should be able to apply farm management decision-making concepts and tools such as profit maximization and binary choice modelling techniques to explain a farmers’ final decisions on GlobalGAP standard compliance. This case should enable students to appreciate key factors constraining agricultural export trade performance in developing countries. The case should also contribute to students’ understanding of smallholder farmers’ decisions on food safety standards compliance, particularly GlobalGAP, and the challenges associated with the entire compliance process. Moreover, this case should provide students with possible policy considerations geared towards making food safety standards compliance easier, effective and sustainable in developing countries so as to enhance market access while ensuring food quality and safety along high-value food supply chains.

Supplementary materials

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

Subject code

CSS 7 Management Science

Details

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Case Study
ISSN: 2045-0621

Keywords

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