Promigas, founded in 1974, is one of the pioneering companies in the natural gas sector in Latin America. Its role has been fundamental in the process of widespread use of this energy source in Colombia. This case presents its history and that of one of its subsidiaries, Gases de Occidente (1992). The case describes the challenges of innovating to increase gas service coverage in contexts where institutional voids are prevalent. The case provides an opportunity to discuss a lack of intermediaries, or the participation of a few actors in these voids, and how companies can take actions to overcome shortcomings. Provision of public services such as gas distribution implies exposure to risks, including interference from political actors with claims unrelated to collective interests.
The case describes the journey of Ecoflora until 2020. In 2004, the company began to focus on innovation after one of its principal customers became a direct competitor, and produced own-brand products for a niche market. Ecoflora was able to become a biotechnology innovator in an emerging country (Colombia) by intelligently leveraging the region's science and technology ecosystem, and by systematizing its R&D+I process. Althoug this hybrid company created an inclusive supply chain, management quickly found out that company commitment to this supply chain would be conditioned by the need to expand output and meet increasing demand. Ecoflora's success would depend on increasing international sales-not only to capture financial value, but also to catalyze positive social and environmental change.
Arbusta was a social enterprise in the ICT sector, recognized for both the quality of its services and for employing disadvantaged youth. It had more than 300 employees at its headquarters in Buenos Aires and in its offices in Rosario, Montevideo and MedellÃn. By 2020, after six years of building Arbusta, each of its three founders was focusing on an important issue for the organization: i.e., close attention to customer relations, develop the talent of each person at Arbusta, and find better ways to structure Arbusta as a space where social and economic aspects coexisted. Through their testimonies and others from collaborators and clients, the case describes the evolution of this social enterprise. The dilemma faced by the three founders of Arbusta was about how to grow: should Arbusta specialize in a basic service such as testing or should it expand its range of services to include the development of the company's human talent?
The case documents the evolution of Dress Your Home (DYH) into a profitable line of business for Colcerámica. This was a great achievement since, outside of micro-finance businesses, there were very few large companies that had created successful initiatives with the base of the socio-economic pyramid. DYH initially sought to generate positive social effects through a variety of ways. A decade later, the social effects were focused on two proposals: one, on a small scale, to generate labor inclusion for low-income citizens as sales promoters; the other, on a larger scale, to improve the living conditions of thousands of households through their home improvement products. This is the second pedagogical case about the DYH experience. The first one focused on lessons about the logistics needed to reach the "last mile" (case SKS-116 in the HBP case collection).
The case describes how FAVAC emerged and consolidated. During the Foundation's first 15 years, the care of elderly people - many of them with physical and mental disabilities, some living on the streets, displaced by violence or abandoned by their families - was possible with financial support from various sources: state entities, international friends, a French association, local companies, institutional events and self-sustaining profitable projects. In mid-2008, Albeiro received the feasibility study for the construction of a facility for senior citizens belonging to the wealthiest families of Bucaramangan society. This project would finance up to 30% of the care costs of the vulnerable elderly people to whom Albeiro had dedicated his life. The decision to either create the second center to serve the elite or instead remain focused on serving the vulnerable elderly people and consolidating the portfolio of funding sources concludes the first part of the teaching case.
The case describes how FAVAC emerged and consolidated. During the Foundation's first 15 years, the care of elderly people - many of them with physical and mental disabilities, some living on the streets, displaced by violence or abandoned by their families - was possible with financial support from various sources: state entities, international friends, a French association, local companies, institutional events and self-sustaining profitable projects. In mid-2008, Albeiro received the feasibility study for the construction of a facility for senior citizens belonging to the wealthiest families of Bucaramangan society. This project would finance up to 30% of the care costs of the vulnerable elderly people to whom Albeiro had dedicated his life. The decision to either create the second center to serve the elite or instead remain focused on serving the vulnerable elderly people and consolidating the portfolio of funding sources concludes the first part of the teaching case.
In 2016, the Plan Foundation in Colombia was the organization with the largest investment in social programs of all those that made up the global organization of Plan International Inc. Its annual investment budget exceeded 24 million euros, almost three times higher than that collected by other countries in the region. In recent years, the Colombian organization had transformed its role within PII, from being an implementer of programs funded by organizations from economically developed countries, to an organization that combined the roles of collection and implementation.
The case describes the last quarter century in the Foundation's life cycle. During these years, the Foundation developed a governance structure and conditions of governance that allowed it to become the parent company of a group of enterprises in addition to being faithful to its mission, dealing with the moral hazard present in the different agency relationships, and remaining active in the environment in which it competed.In March 2017, 15 months following the withdrawal of the founding religious order, the relevant issue for the Foundation's director -following the validation of the organization's strategic orientation- was whether or not it was time to reconfigure its governance structure.
In 2004, Carlos Fernando Mayorga and a partner founded a company to "reinvent a car washing system in Colombia," by designing and manufacturing a machine to wash cars in parking lots and shopping malls using only five liters of water. In a short while, Global Blue Hydros (GBH) has managed to expand and gain market share in the car washing business. This case looks at the resilience displayed in an entrepreneurial process with several "failures" and the search of a value proposition that appeals to its target segment. GBH has learned about several micro-franchise and license schemes and has striven to find ways to innovate and grow. The evolution of GBH's business model provides significant lessons for entrepreneurs.
Two Colombian entrepreneurs started a restaurant that was very similar to an already existing franchise. Since the case describes the similarity -even in the details- between the business model formulated by these couple of graduates from a private university in Bogotá and a restaurant created in the Netherlands, which already offered franchises in Colombia, it paves the way to discussing dilemmas associated with startups and our role as consumers in society. To what extent is it legitimate to imitate a business model? What potential benefits can be drawn from imitating a business model? In what circumstances does imitation lead to win-win scenarios?
Tin Mining, Inc. was a company located in a developing country called Boldavia mainly dedicated to tin exploitation and production. During its initial thirty-three years of operation (1971-2004), it developed three organizational capabilities (technical, productive, and trust building). The case illustrates three typical characteristics of capabilities: effective solution to complex problems, regular and successful practice, and reliability and development over time. Additionally, it also illustrates the organizational capabilities paradox which emerges during the 2004-2008 period and three of its causes: path dependency (lock in), structural inertia, and the absence of a capability dynamization function. In 2009, Tin Mining, Inc. faced the need to reshape its organizational capabilities, and the arrival of a new president to the company was a propitious moment to analyze this option.
This case describes how Codensa, an electricity company in Bogotá and Cundinamarca (Colombia), developed an easy-access consumer credit business model for low-income populations leveraged by the cost structure of its core business. Codensa offered consumer credit to low income populations through the Codensa Hogar business unit, by linking together a value chain of large retailers and manufacturers of household appliances. Codensa entered into this business as part of its commercial branding strategy, contributing its billing structure as credit collection instrument. During the first five years of the program, 95% of the 450,000 people who took out one or more loans belonged to the lower economic strata, and were between 25 and 45 years old. Sixty-six percent of Codensa users were people who did not participate in the formal banking system. After obtaining a credit history with Codensa, 45% of this population gained access to other financial services. Over the course of five years, Codensa Hogar surpassed the US$250 million mark in its credit portfolio, issuing loans up to three times the salary of electric bill holders. Nearly 50% of clients asked for new credit upon completing their payments. In 2006, the unusual growth rates of Codensa Hogar aroused concern among shareholders. If it were to sustain this rate, the surplus from the electric energy business would not be enough. Growth funds should be sought from within the company or from an outside source. However, members of the financial division disagreed. They argued that the funding cost that Codensa had to pay the electricity company should include an analysis of the risks assumed by the company. The difference between the commercial and financial visions posed a variety of challenges for general management. This case may be used in intermediate courses on financial management and strategy, financial strategy and corporate strategy or courses on business models oriented towards a "double bottom line."
The case describes the ability of Hocol to understand and transform multiple contextual forces, adverse and convergent, to develop internal capacities and to apply its business competencies to achieve positive results in the economic, social and environmental realms. Hocol designed a business model under the following principle: "the success of the company is founded on the success of the people and groups that surround it." While the company claimed "not to have a model," it was clear that it was one of learning, experimentation and incremental and permanent adaptation to the demands of its external context. The conception of a business model with these characteristics redirected the development of Hocol´s activities, in particular the work of the Government and Community Affairs and Industrial Protection team, and shaped the activities of the Foundation wherever it operated. Hocol maintained that to achieve better economic and social results it needed to understand and manage a variety of pressures that stemmed from the environment in which it worked. At the same time, it needed to build internal resources and abilities that would allow it to convert threats into opportunities and to respond to the expectations of shareholders, sub-contractors, surrounding communities and other stakeholders. In sum, Hocol sought to understand the evolution of needs in the society of which it was a part and to help satisfy these needs through strengthening community-based organizations and governmental institutions.
The Association for the Wellbeing of the Colombian Family, Profamilia, is a private, nonprofit organization founded in September 1965 by Dr. Fernando Tamayo Ogliastri with the objective of distributing family planning to low income families. Profamilia was a pioneer in its field; its impact increased as it became both organizationally and administratively stronger, and as its focus on family planning was expanded to include sexual and reproductive health. After four decades of operation, Profamilia continued to offer services to attend to the sexual and reproductive health of Colombians. By mid-2003, Profamilia, spurred by changes in the health sector in Colombia with the implementation of Law 100 of 1993, needed to redefine its strategy. The health sector reform encouraged the entry of other organizations that competed directly with Profamilia, resulting in the organization's loss of its relative monopoly as a provider of reproductive health services and family planning products. The most visible consequence was the reduction of its participation in the market. Changes in the sector gave impulse to the process of strategic redefinition to face critical tradeoffs between social and economic value generation.
Indupalma was managed as a plantation during its first 30 years. Labor cooperatives emerged as a response to a financial and governance crisis that led Indupalma to the brink of bankruptcy at the beginning of the 1990s. Workers and peasants formed associations to create autonomous business units (such as cooperatives, microenterprises, and associations), which sold their services to Indupalma. The company invested a great deal of resources in technical and administrative training and in human resource development for associates. The performance of workers improved, and the financial viability of the company was regained. Today, cooperatives face multiple social and economic challenges; the role of Indupalma in facing these challenges (intervention, paternalism, empowerment, or indifference) will put to the test the solidity and true impact of the development process.
Indupalma was managed as a plantation since its creation in 1961. Labor conditions were grim, and labor unrest was at a peak when the general manager of Indupalma was kidnapped by the guerrilla group M-19 in 1977. Highlights the importance of corporate social responsibility.