Banca Comunitaria Banesco (BCB) was the microfinance business unit of Banesco Banco Universal (BBU), the largest private bank in Venezuela. By 2016 BCB was one of the leading microcredit institutions in Venezuela, serving more than 85,000 people in more than 8,000 low-income neighborhoods throughout the country, with 10% market share. However, there were concerns about the sustainability of BCB's inclusive business model and distribution channel. Serving BOP customers (80% of the Venezuelan population) posed several challenges. Venezuela was facing an economic and social crisis, combined with a decreasing GDP and skyrocketing inflation rates, a scarcity of essential goods, the plunging purchasing power of its population, and raising security issues, all of which had an overall negative impact on BCB customers' businesses. In this context BCB had to streamline the use of BBU's banking operative platform, build synergies and apply stricter customer risk assessment to gain financial viability. The necessity to be more cost-efficient went hand in hand with the need to evaluate new service models, that combined technological and human factors, to broaden BCB's reach and customer satisfaction and its social impact. Some questions needed to be addressed: Should BCB try to preserve the current omnichannel in place? Should BCB risk reducing its presence in the barrios and adopt a cost-efficient alternative as mobile banking technology?

Propais is a non-profit organization founded in 1994 in Bogota by the public and private sectors and supported by 76 partner organizations. In October 2018, Maria Lucia Castrillon, general manager of Propais, was concerned about the future of the micro-franchising project (MFP) that had been active since 2012. The MFP was core to Propaís's mission of promoting "the development of micro and small businesses through strategic work, carried out jointly by public and private agents". It promoted the creation of 70 new enterprises that generated 350 direct jobs and produced over USD 1 million in annual sales. The IDB-MIF, a co-financer of the project with a total investment of USD 2,540,150, had recently announced its decision to withdraw in May 2019, generating great uncertainty about future feasibility. Propais had invested time and money to become a reference point in franchise structuring. Without MFP support both franchisers and franchisees could lose the opportunity to do business, and the potential would be lost to create five direct jobs at each franchise. Two options to keep the project going were: 1. Propaís could continue to manage the project but would need new financial resources from donors and investors, and 2. Propais could transfer its knowledge and processes to its partners (such as the Ministry of Commerce, Medellin Chamber of Commerce, private foundations or companies) so that they could in turn scale up the micro-franchise model. However, both options implied a long negotiation process and IDB-MIF support would end in just seven months. Moreover, Propais did not have enough resources to support the project alone during a transition.

Founded in 2009 by Tyler Gage and Dan MacCombie, Runa was the result of their experience living with local communities. After six years of operation, Runa had built new markets for teas and energy drinks based on guayusa. Their marketing efforts in the United States had put their products in over 5,800 stores and had doubled their revenues between 2014 and 2015. Tyler and Dan decided to shape their start-up on the principles of fair trade and sustainable business models, with the aim of improving the livelihoods of the Kichwa and contributing to the development and sustainability of the guayusa value chain. Their business had a commercial for-profit branch led by Runa LLC in the United States and Runatarpuna Exportadora S.A. in Ecuador. Fundación Runa in Ecuador and the Runa Foundation in the United States constituted Runa's nonprofit branch. The RG supported the development of local economic capacity by offering producers a 15% premium on all purchased guayusa. This premium was placed in a Fair Trade Social Premium Fund to be administered by the farmer associations. RG increased the incomes and favored the inclusion of small indigenous producers in the guayusa value chain. The foundations focused on research, improvement in the farmers' productive activities and community development, and on the promotion of fair public policies, while the for-profit companies focused on the production, marketing, and sales of the final products for the United States market. From the perspective of RG founders, 2017 would be critical to demonstrate that their business model could be sustainable, and that they could keep on growing as a business while benefiting the farmers and protecting the environment. This teaching case focuses on the challenges and dilemmas of modeling a sustainable business that is founded not only on the pursuit of the entrepreneurial venture's economic consolidation and growth, but also on a multiple stakeholders' view of value creation.

This case illustrates the dilemma faced by the president of EGA, a Latin American business school, who chooses to innovate and has to make some controversial strategic, organizational and financial decisions. The case focuses on the challenges posed by product innovation, following the Stage-Gate model and describing its phases, from business case preparation, through protocol definition and product architecture, to identifying operation requirements. It explores the difficulties and dilemmas involved in starting and executing an innovation project.