Dhriiti: Developing the Perfect Plate

The case is about Dhriiti–The Courage Within (Dhriiti), a non-governmental organization founded in 2004 in Assam, India, to help rural communities in northeastern India generate income by producing areca tableware. In 2009, Dhriiti established the for-profit social enterprise Tamul Plates Marketing Private Limited (Tamul) to manage the entire value chain of the tableware. As Tamul expanded, it decentralized its production model to better promote rural entrepreneurs and to supplement its existing centralized factory-based production unit. However, women’s participation in these decentralized units remained low. In response, Dhriiti established Project Pragati, which successfully empowered 29 rural women entrepreneurs and inspired many more. The case highlights the dilemma of the co-founders in December 2022. They can expand the capacity of Tamul’s existing centralized production unit to grow the enterprise, which will generate more direct employment for local women. Alternatively, they can invest in more decentralized production units to establish a longer-term, more empowering model of promoting rural entrepreneurs, which will both engage women and transform them into change agents in their communities.

The case is suitable for undergraduate or graduate courses on entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, business management, and rural marketing in emerging markets. It can also be employed in courses on strategic-venture design, resource management, and rural supply chains. By working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<br><br><ul><li>Understand the characteristics of a social enterprise.</li><li>Analyze the approaches a social enterprise can take to scale up its operations and thereby achieve its social goals while ensuring financial viability and growth.</li><li>Consider the social and financial trade-offs of employing in-house, centralized production versus decentralized, entrepreneur-driven production.</li><li>Identify the factors hindering women entrepreneurs in an emerging economy.</li><li>Assess the social impact of women-owned enterprises.</li></ul>

• social enterprise
• woman entrepreneurship
• Social impact