Okios Competition Winning Case Studies Now Available Online

Winning case studies from the 2008 and 2005 International Oikos Case Competition are now available online at globalens.com. The competition, sponsored by Oikos International and Ashoka, aims to promote the development of new, high quality, case studies on Corporate Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship.

2008 First Place Winner:
Scojo Foundation: A Vision for Growth at the Base of the Pyramid 

(Note: In 2008, The Scojo Foundation changed its name to Vision Spring) Scojo Foundation sells affordable reading glasses to the poor at the base of the pyramid through Vision Entrepreneurs and, more recently, through franchise partners.  This case explores how best to scale Scojo's approach to serving the poor.  Click here to purchase this case.

2008 Third Place Winner:
LivingHomes

LivingHomes is the brainchild of Steve Glenn, a former Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur. Glenn is attempting to build a world-class, high-end, green residential building company. This case explores the struggles that LivingHomes has faced with merging its numerous lofty goals related to quality and sustainability, and asks students how Glenn should proceed. Click here to purchase this case.

2005 First Place Winner:
The Mountain Institute’s Earth Brick Machine  

The Mountain Institute works to improve environmental conditions and the quality of life for local communities in mountainous regions throughout the world. TMI is exploring options for its patented technology for compressed earth blocks. Relative to other technologies serving this market, TMI believes that its compressed earth block (CEB) machine is price competitive, allows for low-cost construction, and is environmentally friendly. This case explores using this technology as the centerpiece for a new for-profit venture in the developing world.  Click here to purchase this case.

New Case Study Added: 
Acumen Fund: How to Make the Greatest Impact

Founded in 2001, Acumen Fund is a philanthropic venture capital fund that makes investments in base of the pyramid ventures in India, Pakistan, and Africa.  The company has three main pillars: capital investment, management support, and knowledge resources. 

Written by Professor Ted London and Research Associate Moses Lee, this case highlights the tension of where to place a potential $10 million donation.   

“Hopefully this case will help students understand the major issues intermediaries like Acumen Fund face when investing in base of the pyramid ventures.  This case was written with much support from Acumen Fund, so the issues should be very real, timely, and relevant,” said Lee.

To purchase the case, click here.

Sustainability and BoP:
Stuart Hart Adds His Cases to GlobaLens 

Stuart L. Hart, the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise at CornellUniversity, has recently added his teaching cases to the GlobaLens Library. We are excited to include these high-quality pieces in our case collection and feel that they provide a great foundation for GlobaLens to become a leader in disseminating the latest thought in sustainability. Green business practices such as resource management and product stewardship are becoming more important to business, and particularly to international business. Hart and other thought leaders in sustainability know that it is imperative to ed ucate tomorrow’s leaders on this aspect of management.

• DejaShoe describes the struggles facing a green entrepreneur who finds herself quickly under scrutiny and pressure from her investors.
• The McDonalds case series highlights the complications of partnership ma nagement and the intricacies of life-cycle analysis in the multinational.
• The Monsanto case explores the company’s transformation from a chemical company to a leader in life sciences and their subsequent stakeholder management issues.
• The case on Nike’s World Shoe Project, which is also used by Ted London in his Strategies for the Base of the Pyramid class at the Ross School of Business, challenges students to think about effective strategies to design products and business models to reach the global poor.
• Finally, the Weyerhaeuser case asks students to think about plotting the future for one of the world’s largest forestry management companies.

These cases complement the existing sustainability cases in our catalog, for example Parques para ChileVydra: Outsourcing Social Enterprise Management to Maximize Mission Impact. All together, they encompass a large breadth of sustainability issues, and provide and excellent starting point for GlobaLens in the area of sustainability.

Corruption Notes (A) and (B) added to the GlobaLens Catalog

GlobaLens has added a two-part Corruption in International Business note its case catalog. These conceptual notes, which are accompanied by a detailed teaching note*, are designed to facilitate classroom discussion of corruption in international business, options available to managers when faced with corruption, and various efforts to combat corruption, by firms, NGOs, national governments, and international organizations. The material has been used successfully at dozens of business schools and Executive Education programs.

Corruption in International Business (A) takes a personal view, pushing students to define corrupt activity and reflect on how they would react in a series of situations.  The note is organized into 5 sections.  The note:

1. Introduces a global view of corrupt practices across nations by presenting indicators from Transparency International.

2.  Describes the debate surrounding the “costs” and “benefits” of corruption, and presents estimates of the economic consequences of corruption.

3.  Presents an overview of the history of legal efforts to combat corruption, with a detailed discussion of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

4.  The note concludes with ten real-world caselets designed to spark discussion on the legal, ethical, and practical tensions surrounding corrupt practices.

Corruption in International Business (B) presents various strategies for combating corruption. They range from micro-level strategies such as internal firm controls to macro transnational strategies that have been promoted by the United Nations and International Monetary Fund.

The notes and accompanying caselets, as well as the detailed teaching plan, are designed to personalize the different competing dimensions of corruption.

* The teaching note is available to registered educators. If you are an educator, please register here.