This is a two part case study that explores Celtel Nigeria's innovative approach to serving the rural poor. Case A provides an overview of the mobile telecommunications market in Nigeria as of mid 2007, as well as detailed demographic and socioeconomic information. At the time of the case, Celtel Nigeria is the second largest mobile telecommunications company in the Nigerian market. The company has experienced considerable success in serving Nigeria's cities and larger towns, but has only recently shifted its attention to serving poorer consumers in rural areas - a massive but as of yet under tapped market. But this shift from urban to rural has not been easy, and although some 50% of Nigeria's population lives in rural regions the challenges of reaching them sometimes seem overwhelming. The absence of a reliable national electricity grid means that the company's rural telecommunications towers have to be run on diesel generators, resulting in high maintenance and diesel fuel costs. Theft and vandalism of expensive communications equipment and generators has emerged as a major concern, resulting in the need to employ full-time security guards on virtually every base station site outside of urban areas. At the end of case A, Celtel Nigeria's chief operating officer Lars Stork is pondering the challenges of bringing the benefits of mobile telecommunications to Nigeria's rural poor, setting the scene for analysis by students in suggesting potential route to market approaches for the company. Case B demonstrates how Celtel has been able to implement a highly innovative marketing strategy to serve low-income rural customers. At the heart of this marketing approach is what is called the Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI), a micro-franchising model involving partnerships with local entrepreneurs.
This is a two part case study that explores Celtel Nigeria's innovative approach to serving the rural poor. Case A provides an overview of the mobile telecommunications market in Nigeria as of mid 2007, as well as detailed demographic and socioeconomic information. At the time of the case, Celtel Nigeria is the second largest mobile telecommunications company in the Nigerian market. The company has experienced considerable success in serving Nigeria's cities and larger towns, but has only recently shifted its attention to serving poorer consumers in rural areas - a massive but as of yet under tapped market. But this shift from urban to rural has not been easy, and although some 50% of Nigeria's population lives in rural regions the challenges of reaching them sometimes seem overwhelming. The absence of a reliable national electricity grid means that the company's rural telecommunications towers have to be run on diesel generators, resulting in high maintenance and diesel fuel costs. Theft and vandalism of expensive communications equipment and generators has emerged as a major concern, resulting in the need to employ full-time security guards on virtually every base station site outside of urban areas. At the end of case A, Celtel Nigeria's chief operating officer Lars Stork is pondering the challenges of bringing the benefits of mobile telecommunications to Nigeria's rural poor, setting the scene for analysis by students in suggesting potential route to market approaches for the company. Case B demonstrates how Celtel has been able to implement a highly innovative marketing strategy to serve low-income rural customers. At the heart of this marketing approach is what is called the Rural Acquisition Initiative (RAI), a micro-franchising model involving partnerships with local entrepreneurs.
A venture capitalist must decide whether to invest in a medical technology company that licenses intellectual property from a privately held IP holding company based on a platform technology. Entrepreneurs Amar Sawhney and Fred Khosravi founded Incept LLC to commercialize their multi-use hydrogel technology. The pair then spun off Confluent Surgical to develop some, but not all, of Incept's IP. The specifics of which IP Confluent would develop were described by a licensing agreement between Incept and Confluent. Venture capitalist Charles Warden of Schroder Ventures Life Sciences was deciding whether to invest in a Series A financing round in Confluent. Initially very excited about the deal, Warden becomes concerned about Confluent's valuation and its ability to succeed as a business when he learns about restrictions placed upon Confluent by the licensing agreement. The case describes Incept's business model and its approach to managing risk in early stage ventures. The case also addresses issues such as diversification and options preservation as well as the importance of trust and long-term relationships in decision-making in entrepreneurial arenas.
On 18 August 2008, Liu Xiang, China's biggest celebrity sports icon, withdrew from the 110-meter hurdles event at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games due to an Achilles injury. Liu was China's first-ever Olympic gold medalist in men's track and field; his victory at the 2004 Athens Olympics had made him an instant national hero. Since then, he had become the most marketed individual in China. Liu's withdrawal from the Beijing Olympics not only caused disappointment among Chinese people who had high expectations for him defending his title on their home soil, but was also a blow to his sponsors, including Nike, who had invested millions of dollars in his celebrity. As soon as the news broke, Nike tweaked its advertising campaign and launched a new tagline: "Love competition. Love risking your pride. Love winning it back. Love giving it everything you've got. Love the glory. Love the pain. Love sport even when it breaks your heart." Would Nike be able to turn Liu's withdrawal from the Beijing Olympics into an opportunity to further boost its brand image? Against the backdrop of increasing nationalist sentiment in China, what were the implications of Liu's withdrawal? How could Nike avoid or minimize the losses that might result from Chinese consumers' disappointment?
Chantale and Clinton have purchased a new refrigerator from The Canadian, one of the largest department store chains in Canada. It subsequently began to malfunction. After receiving poor service from the vendor's repair division, they were wondering what to do next. Do nothing, and assume it was an isolated incident? Vow never again to deal with this vendor and brand? Write a letter of complaint to the vendor and demand an apology or other compensation? Underlying all these questions was the issue: Was it worth the trouble? The case can be used to illustrate consumer behavior in marketing management, with emphasis placed on controllable and uncontrollable factors that influence individual buyer behavior. It can also be used in a service marketing setting, where issues of service failure and recovery can be emphasized.
In March 2008, Olam faced a rating downgrade by Merrill Lynch, which caused a dramatic plunge in its share price. The management of Olam needed to respond to Merrill Lynch's rating downgrade, manage the impact of shift in growth strategy on short-term performance and balance leverage with long-term sustainable growth.
The sport of cricket is an obsession in India, the country that is the most important economic force in the cricket world. In 2007, top-level cricket was played primarily by national teams. Domestic leagues were controlled by national governing bodies, using domestic players, the best of whom also played on the national team. In September 2007, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that it was forming the Indian Premier League (IPL). It would consist of city-based franchises, and play its first season beginning in mid-April 2008. The six-week season would have 59 games, including a playoff to determine the overall champion. Teams would include the best international players. Much was required to make this happen. Eight team franchises were auctioned in January 2008, for a total of $718 million. Television rights for ten years were sold for $1 billion. The top 75 international players were selected by the team in an auction that paid them over $45 million. This turned the global cricket salary structure upside, with players getting more in six weeks than they could expect for a year or more from their national governing bodies. The league drew from India's other passion, Bollywood to increase the entertainment value of games. The league and teams faced many challenges, which are discussed in the case. The league's first season captivated India, as well as much of the rest of the cricket world, and was a tremendous success. Following its first year, the IPL faced the challenge of maintaining its momentum into the future, and building on the success of its inaugural season. Both international and national cricket covering bodies pondered how to adapt to the changes caused by the IPL's success. Finally, the economic recession and major terrorist attacks in India (November 20008) and Pakistan (March 2009) threatened the ability of the league to proceed with its second season, which was scheduled to start in mid-April 2009.
A shareholder and employee of a small laser and water jet cutting corporation in Toronto, Canada must make decisions regarding expansion, purchase of new equipment, hiring of more personnel and a move to a larger location. Students are expected to 1) complete an industry analysis of the manufacturing industry, including the current economic outlook; 2) perform a thorough company size-up; 3) identify the qualitative pros and cons of each decision; 4) perform two differential analyses, one with sensitivity and one without, after identifying items relevant to the expansion decision and categorizing them as either recurring or one-time flows; 5) assess the financing, timing and any other relevant factors to each option; and 6) use their analysis to make their decisions.
A successful third-generation family business explores whether or not to continue in business as a family into the fourth generation. If they do decide to move forward as a family business, how can they cultivate knowledge and interest among the forty-plus fourth-generation family members?
This note addresses the question of valuation in the venture capital setting. It discusses the methodologies most commonly in practice for arriving at valuation. Because valuation methodologies can yield widely varying results, this note looks at valuation from many different angles. The note addresses critical questions including: What value should the entrepreneur put on his/her company when first raising capital? What should the venture capitalist (VC) pay to invest in the company? What is the appropriate valuation for subsequent rounds of financing? What is the right value at which to exit the investment?
Steel Partners is a U.S.-based hedge fund that has made a large investment in Japan-based wigmaker Aderans. The case is set at the close of the annual meeting in May 2008, when shareholders have voted against all incumbent board members. Steel Partners must act quickly. The case serves as an overview of corporate governance issues in Japan, as well as describing the costs and benefits of the "stakeholder" view of corporate governance.
State Street Corp. reports a 13% gain in EPS in 2008 amidst a global financial crisis. The stock price declines 59% on the day of the earnings report. This one day decline was exceeded in the prior 12 month period by only one non-bankrupt S&P 500 company. That company was AIG, Inc. which declined 61 % on the day Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy. While State Street reported $5.0 billion in profits over the 4-year period 2005-2008, the company also sustained $10.0 billion in after tax mark-to-market losses on its "available for sale" investment portfolio and the investment portfolios of its conduits. The question is, how has the firm performed over the past four years? Has it earned $5.0 billion or lost $5.0 billion? Fair value accounting plays a key role in the dilemma. How should a financial services firm measure and report income in the face of disorderly and illiquid markets for its principal assets? The case also examines how management at State Street responded to the deterioration in its capital ratios generated by "fair value" accounting.
The note describes how fair value accounting applies to debt securities that are classified by financial institutions as (1) "trading" securities, (2) "available for sale" securities, or (3) "hold to maturity" securities. It explains the hierarchy for inputs used in valuing Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 financial assets. Finally, it notes the percentage of assets held by four types of financial institutions that are (a) accounted for at "fair value," (b) the hierarchical categorization of the assets, and (c) the percentage of assets held by each institution category where changes in the fair market value affect that institution's reported income.
Zopa, a U.K.-based peer-to-peer lending company, connected individual lenders and borrowers via an online interface. The company charged a small fee for completed loan transactions but has not turned a profit. Zopa offered two platforms, Markets and Listings. Markets was an automated system that assembled loans by combining lowest loan offers from different Zopa lenders. Zopa Listings allowed prospective borrowers to post eBay-like listings explaining who they were, how much money they needed, and how they would use it. Lenders then made offers specifying how much they were willing to lend and at what rate. Neither platform met with much success. In February 2009, the CEO of Zopa is considering withdrawing from Listings, and focusing on Markets, even though a company in the U.S., Prosper, had attracted many users with a product akin to Zopa Listings.
In 2005 new legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress, and signed into law by the President, that introduced a number of major amendments to U.S. bankruptcy law, affecting both business and consumer bankruptcies. This legislation, called the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), became effective on October 17, 2005. This note summarizes key provisions of the new law that affect business bankruptcy reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, contrasting these provisions with corresponding provisions in the old law.
By 2006, Phillips Food Inc. had grown into one of the largest seafood businesses in the United States and was the number one U.S. brand for crab meat. The company comprised a restaurant division, a foodservice products division that sold to restaurants, and a retail products division that sold to grocery stores. In August, 2006, Phillips' product manager was responsible for defining the communication strategy decisions required to launch its new product: first-to-market pasteurized king crab. The product manager had already spent half of his advertising budget promoting the product to buyers in the foodservice and restaurant channels. He had to decide how to spend the remaining portion of his budget to best reach seafood buyers in the consumer retail channel. He had an opportunity to showcase the product at an upcoming major industry food show; however, he had already planned to spend his budget on advertising in a trade publication for the retail grocery channel. He had to examine the relative merits of each option and present an overall recommendation on how to best launch and sell the product. Qualitative, quantitative and financial aspects were to be considered; as well, the product manager had to determine the costs, returns and qualitative benefits that each option provided.
Daniel Birnbaum, new CEO of Soda-Club, has taken charge of a company with significant market penetration, brand equity, and revenues in certain European markets. The company is also plagued with hostile relationships with major distributors. He needs to decide how to turn the situation around and create opportunity out of crisis.
A large bank is attempting to cost justify a proposed, large (60,000 sq. ft.) data center based upon energy savings achieved through "green" technology, principally through water cooling and energy recovery. The investments total about $100 million, offset somewhat by funds recouped from the closing of an older facility. The new building is expected to open with 700 racks of server computers. The power consumed by each rack costs more than the amortized cost of the computers themselves. The bank expects a 12% return on discounted cash flows.
In 2003, PNC Financial focused its corporate citizenship and philanthropic resources on a ten-year, $100 million investment in early childhood education called PNC Grow Up Great. The case tracks the origination of Grow Up Great, how it was developed and implemented within PNC, and some of the key challenges and successes of the program during its first 5 years of operation. Key elements of the case are the process by which PNC decided to focus on Grow Up Great as its signature program, and how the program was designed to provide extensive volunteering opportunities for employees. The case also explores how PNC leadership has engaged in extensive advocacy on the issue of early childhood education. The branding and marketing issues associated with Grow Up Great and how it fits in PNC's organizational structure are also highlighted in the case. =