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This case describes the journey that led to the creation of Saaf Sehatmand Services (SSS), a business founded by leaders from five consumer goods companies and the largest non-profit grassroots mobilization organization in Pakistan. SSS is a service company focused on distributing health, hygiene, and food products to low-income rural consumers. Its distribution model relies on local entrepreneurs (called Aapas) going door-to-door selling a basket of goods to other women in rural communities. The case tracks the SSS founding story from the viewpoint of the Pakistani operations of Reckitt-Benckiser (Reckitt), one of the world's largest FMCG companies. It examines the challenges faced by two new leaders in mid-2019 as they consider next steps to reach scale throughout Pakistan. These two leaders, Fahad Ashraf (chief executive at Reckitt Pakistan and chairman of the board of SSS) and Ayesha Janjua (head of marketing for English Biscuit Manufacturer and CEO of SSS), are focusing on developing a scalable business as opposed to launching another pilot project. They recognize that a "successful" pilot does not necessarily translate into an enterprise that can scale.

In 2017, Tim Kleinebenne, managing director of Unilever Ethiopia, and Buks Akinseye, senior global sustainability manager in Unilever's Rotterdam headquarters, had collaborated to develop and launch a Shakti initiative, creating a last-mile distribution channel that targeted rural Ethiopia. While serving rural Ethiopia presented Unilever with a substantial market opportunity and the promise of achieving greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in its business strategy, the rollout had proved challenging. To facilitate the initiative, Unilever Ethiopia's search for a partner had led to Kidame Mart, a local social enterprise founded by Shani Senbetta. With funding from Unilever, Senbetta and her team recruited economically vulnerable women in rural Ethiopia to be Shakti entrepreneurs and provided them a basket of goods to sell locally. This basket included mainly Unilever products, along with a few non-competing items from other companies. But, creating demand for Unilever products and in rural markets was difficult.

Madison Ayer, Honey Care Africa (HCA) CEO, is looking to scale the business to generate more benefits for Kenyan small-holder farmers. He is seeking a better assessment of HCA's impacts on farmer families, especially children age 8 and under, to attract investors for the expansion. Ayer is also attempting to reduce side-selling by building stronger relationships with farmer families and perhaps hiring brokers. Students are asked to identify opportunities to generate greater impact and enhance the enterprise's value proposition.

Winner of the 2012 Oikos Foundation Casewriting Competition. Swiss Re, a large global reinsurance company, has partnered with Oxfam America, an international relief and development organization, to provide the poor with risk reduction support. The partnership's evolution shows students many common inter- and intra-organizational challenges. For example, the need to overcome internal biases, adapt to organizational differences, and build the capacity to learn from one another. Students will experience what is required to maintain this type of relationship, as well as understand adjustments needed when partnerships scale.

This case continues the story from the revised 2006 case study "CEMEX's Patrimonio Hoy: At the Tipping Point?" This case describes CEMEX's Patrimonio Hoy in 2012, which is a startup initiative designed to help low-income customers construct their own homes. Israel Moreno, Director of Patrimonio Hoy, must present his recommendations to CEMEX's top management that outline a growth strategy for the initiative and its expansion into new markets.

Who are the right investors for a for-profit company targeting the world's poor? Before this start-up spends hundreds of hours pursuing venture capital (VC), Movirtu must decide whether a profit-oriented VC investment will fit its vision for both growth and social impact. Movirtu's "Cloud Phone" software is designed for the nearly one billion people who cannot afford mobile phones and, as a result, borrow phones from friends and family. Movirtu provides phone sharers with a private number that sends and receives calls. Movirtu already secured two seed-round impact investors, Gray Ghost Ventures and Grassroots Business Fund. For its next round of financing, Movirtu was approached by TLcom Capital, an experienced VC. Students must decide: will having TLcom as an investor allow Movirtu to not only survive but achieve maximum financial and social impact?

Though they have feel-good stories and data on milestones, most ventures that serve the world's poor don't have a systematic way to gauge how well they're achieving their goals. To address that need, London, the director of the University of Michigan's Base of the Pyramid Initiative, has devised a new tool. London's Base of the Pyramid Impact Assessment Framework explores how ventures influence the well-being of local buyers, sellers, and communities. It guides managers through a detailed look at an organization's effects on those constituencies in three areas: economics, capabilities, and relationships. The framework examines negative as well as positive effects - for instance, whether activities that increase the income of the poor also prompt them to mistreat arable land. It helps managers focus success measures on the most likely high-magnitude outcomes. VisionSpring, which trains rural women to provide affordable eye care in India, knew it had improved the economic fortunes of its microentrepreneurs. After applying the framework, however, the venture had an appreciation of its impact on some of its buyers: artisans whose eyesight had deteriorated with age. The nonprofit's glasses boosted the artisans' productivity, income, and dignity. VisionSpring also uncovered negative effects - strife and jealousy in families that weren't used to women's working outside the home. The organization helped ease those tensions by encouraging the women's spouses to become involved in product distribution, thus improving their relationships and reducing the risk that sellers might quit. The more holistic, fact-based view provided by London's framework has helped VisionSpring make better decisions about how to enhance positive effects, mitigate negative ones, and demonstrate clear value to potential funders and partners.

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., the hybrid corn company division of Dupont, has engaged with PEACE (People's Action for Creative Education) to serve the base of the pyramid markets in India. The partnership between Pioneer and PEACE allows Pioneer to distribute its quality seeds to village farmers through PEACE. This is an example of a for-profit/non-profit partnership serving BoP markets. The case provides an inside look at the impact of the Pioneer/PEACE partnership through interviews with Indian farmers using Pioneer's engineered seeds. It also sheds light on the advantages and limitations of the venture's efforts to reduce production and transactional constraints of the Indian farmers.

Hindustan Lever Limited, principally owned by Unilever, operates Shakti, a program which aims to extend the reach of HLL's products to the 742 million rural consumers in 637,000 villages in India. Critical questions the program faces: Will Shakti and the BoP markets it targets deliver to HLL much-needed long term growth and become a key source of a future sustainable competitive advantage? Is the program really making a social impact?

CARE is an international, humanitarian, non-governmental organization (NGO) composed of twelve member countries that manage field operations in over seventy countries offices around the world, reaching more than fifty million poor people. In 2005, CARE started a pilot initiative in Central America to access whether its support of revenue-generating ventures provides sustainable and scalable poverty alleviation outcomes as well as an opportunity to generate excess revenues for the organization. This case focuses on CARE's challenges to explicitly incorporate a market-based approach within its portfolio of poverty alleviation solutions.

In Africa, the usage of insecticide treated bed-nets (ITNs) has shown to be one of the best ways to prevent malaria. USAID, the principal U.S. agency for providing assistance to countries, has just announced that by mid-2008, it will provide an additional $5 billion for malaria prevention and treatment in Africa. Specifically, the agency would like to see Tanzania improve not only ITN coverage (currently at only 14%) but more importantly ITN usage by the country's 35 million citizens. As of 2004, only 10% of children under the age of 5 were sleeping under bed-nets. USAID's goal for 2010 is to increase this to 80%. In this simulation, students need to develop a compelling proposal for USAID for reducing the malaria burden in Tanzania. View Video.

This case explores management's challenge of how to best use a $10 million contribution to make the greatest impact for the poor. Acumen Fund is global philanthropic venture capital fund that seeks to prove that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with large doses of business acumen, can build thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor at the base of the pyramid. In recent years, the organization has expanded its work into talent building and knowledge creation. Students learn the different roles intermediary organizations like Acumen Fund play in facilitating the development of successful BoP ventures and why are these efforts needed.

Awarded 1st place in the 2008 oikos Casewriting Competition. VisionSpring sells affordable reading glasses to the poor at the base of the pyramid through Vision Entrepreneurs and, more recently, through franchise partners. Winner of the prestigious 2008 Oikos Case Competition, this case explores how to scale VisionSpring's approach to serving the poor. (Note: In 2008, The Scojo Foundation changed its name to Vision Spring.)

This case sets the stage for the 2012 case study "Constructing a Base-of-the-Pyramid Business in a Multinational Corporation: CEMEX's Patrimonio Hoy Looks to Grow." This revised 2006 case study explores Patrimonio Hoy in 2006, the sales, distribution, and savings program of CEMEX intended to serve Mexico's large self-construction housing market. CEMEX is currently the world's third largest cement producer. Over the years, Patrimonio Hoy has gone from a small, centrally-funded project to a US$25 million revenue generator for CEMEX. This case explores the initiative's opportunities for growth and expansion into new markets.