Education/General Management Archives

BD and WDI, in partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), created an 8-part online course for 34 participants from laboratories across Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda based on the curriculum of the in-person APHL Foundations of Laboratory Leadership and Management. The course provides management and leadership skills to laboratory staff via videos, assignments, tests, and office hours. It leverages the ExtendEd portal, a learning management system custom developed by WDI for our education programs. The course represents the first collaboration between WDI’s Education, Healthcare, and Performance Measurement and Improvement sectors.

Winning case writers will be published and could receive up to $10,000 in prize money

In recognition of recent events across the world, it is an extremely important time to support and strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) skills and knowledge for today’s students, who will become tomorrow’s global business leaders. That’s why WDI Publishing and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and its Sanger Leadership Center are joining together to address this important movement by launching the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Global Case Writing Competition.

Open to university students and educators from around the world, this competition is seeking academic case studies about a DEI-related business dilemma within one, or across multiple, business disciplines. It is designed as a catalyst to generate new teaching materials that increase student understanding and inspire critical thinking for implementing effective DEI within businesses and organizations – across the globe.

“With this global case writing competition, we aim to support and augment the DEI commitments of Michigan Ross as well as the University of Michigan,” said David Wooten, Michigan Ross associate dean and co-chair of the Michigan Ross DEI Curriculum Task Force. “The competition is an exciting strategy to generate new, relevant cases about DEI that can then be adopted into courses at not only Michigan, but universities around the world.”

The contest is divided into two tracks, each of which will award prize money of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second place and $2,500 for third place, and an honorable mention, as deemed by the competition judges. The top three winners for each track also will be honored with the publication of their cases by WDI Publishing or the Sanger Leadership Center.

“It is very gratifying for WDI Publishing to help support and manage this global DEI case writing competition,” said Sandra Draheim, WDI Publishing manager. “For nearly three decades, the William Davidson Institute has worked to provide students in the U.S. and globally with the educational tools for commercial success. A strong understanding of how to build and sustain DEI in a business or organization is critical to that success.”

The competition’s first track involves the creation of a traditional business case study and an accompanying teaching note. The second track requires a submission for the Sanger Leadership Center’s flagship Leadership Crisis Challenge (LCC). An LCC case is based on a traditional case study, however, is written and designed as a real-time, role-playing event that offers students a rigorous opportunity for action-based learning.

Initial “intent to enter” forms are due Dec. 31, 2020. Final submissions are due March 24, 2021.

“Sanger is very excited to support the DEI case competition,” said Lindy Greer, faculty director of the Sanger Leadership Center and associate professor of management at Michigan Ross. “Our center is committed to teaching and advancing inclusive leadership. Publishing the winning cases in a future LCC will help all students who take part think critically about the ways their actions can contribute to a more just, tolerant and diverse society.”

Competition Tracks and Global Eligibility

Key details on eligibility:

Individual students or student teams (graduate or undergraduate) may enter but must enter in collaboration with a faculty member or instructor from an accredited university/college, in the U.S. or internationally.
Individual faculty/instructors or teams from an accredited university/college (in the U.S. or internationally) may enter.
Others may enter, but must do so in collaboration with a faculty member or instructor from an accredited university/college, in the U.S. or internationally.

Key deadlines and dates:

Dec. 31, 2020: Entry forms due. (Entry form only, NOT final submissions.)
March 24, 2021: Final submission documents due.
June 2, 2021: Public announcement of winners.

For more information, please contact:

Case Publishing Manager Sandra Draheim: 734-615-7319; draheims@umich.edu

About Michigan Ross

The Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan is a vibrant and distinctive learning community grounded in the principle that business can be an extraordinary vehicle for positive change in today’s dynamic global economy. The Ross School of Business mission is to build a better world through business. Through thought and action, members of the Ross community drive change and innovation that improves business and society.

Ross is consistently ranked among the world’s leading business schools. Academic degree programs include the BBA, MBA, Part-Time MBA (Evening, Online, and Weekend formats), Executive MBA, Global MBA, Master of Accounting, Master of Supply Chain Management, Master of Management, and PhD. In addition, the school delivers open-enrollment and custom executive education programs targeting general management, leadership development, and strategic human resource management.

About the Sanger Leadership Center

At the Sanger Leadership Center, we believe that leadership is a skill, like reading or math, that everyone can learn. We seek to democratize the leadership development process by providing students, alumni, and external affiliates with the bold ideas, transformative experiences, and inclusive communities needed to self-guide and accelerate leadership development. Empowering students across diverse backgrounds to develop the character and skills needed to become principled, inclusive leaders is now more important than ever in today’s unpredictable world.

About WDI and WDI Publishing

Established at the University of Michigan in 1992, the William Davidson Institute is an independent, non-profit research and educational organization. Serving both profit-seeking and non-profit firms, WDI is guided by our founding principle that thriving businesses drive economic development and improve social welfare in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). With a unique blend of field-based experience and academic rigor, WDI works to build stronger economies and healthier societies.

Established in 2007, WDI Publishing is part of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan. We work with faculty to professionally edit, distribute, and market high quality, cutting edge, business case studies for adoption into courses at top-ranked universities globally. Through our e-commerce site, wdi-publishing.com, we offer a large, searchable catalog of over 400 cases within core business disciplines, as well as international business and social impact topic areas. WDI Publishing cases have been adopted by over 400 universities worldwide.

Participants in the Communication workshop post their selfies to the ExtendEd portal.

How does an educator convene a global classroom across a dozen countries, numerous cultures and differing perspectives? Sometimes, it’s better to instead let the students set the pace.

WDI’s Education Sector team recently tailored two fully online courses for The Ford Motor Company Fund as part of the Ford Community Impact Fellows Training program. Students accepted into the program work together to advance understanding and new thinking around topics such as innovation and entrepreneurship.

The courses were tailored to the students’ needs by key personnel at WDI’s Global Virtual Learning Center (GVLC), which was established to advance the field to create international linkages and promote economic growth in emerging markets. Students hailed from a dozen countries including Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco and Sierra Leone.

“In this day and age, we all need to be continuous learners,” said Amy Gillett, vice president of the Education sector. “In a time when it’s difficult or impossible to bring people together face to face, this format is really effective and it also sets students up for making long-term connections with one another.”

The two fully online courses include one module on developing leadership qualities and a second on improving interpersonal communication skills. About 130 students participated in the leadership module, offered for seven weeks ending April 11, and 179 students are taking part in the five-week communications module, set to end July 12. The leadership course helped participants understand themselves as leaders on both personal and team levels, and drew on the Michigan Model of Leadership. The communications course emphasized cross-cultural communication, managing emotions and interpreting body language across different nationalities and traditions.

WDI produced the content for the courses, which were hosted on the ExtendEd portal – the Institute’s proprietary learning management system. Students viewed a series of instructional videos on ExtendEd, followed by quizzes to check for comprehension. Students were assigned to teams across countries to work on a project together and practice their new leadership skills.

While the students were from many different countries, pursuing a wide variety of degrees and occupations – from business to medicine – a well-designed online learning environment was a perfect vehicle for bringing them together.

“It’s an efficient way to reach people with targeted training, and it’s the way people prefer to learn,” said Gillett. “They want to learn when they have time to learn, even if it’s in 15-minute increments. Students log in at their own pace, learn at their own pace, and take the modules on any device.”

The course is a perfect example of a small private online community – or SPOC – which is designed to nurture an intimate learning environment where students can interact and get to know one another other.

Learn more about WDI’s approach to online learning

At the conclusion of the modules, WDI hosts a live webinar to summarize the learning. This is followed by sending participants a series of reminders on what they learned in the course. Such reminders — “Memory Pings” — also prompt them to apply what they learn in the course back on the job.

“It’s vitally important to provide opportunities for tomorrow’s leaders to share new ideas and brainstorm sustainable solutions to make people’s lives better,” said Farah Harb, Global Education Programs Analyst, Ford Motor Company Fund. “Learning and leadership are essential as we navigate and adapt to our constantly changing world.”

Many students found the WDI courses very valuable.

“Giving back to society and creating positive (impact) has always been my passion. In the world, there are so many challenges facing us,” … to fix these problems, the world needs great leaders with great leadership skills and this course has shown me surely that great leaders can be created or trained,“ wrote one student of the Leadership workshop.

Another student noted: “This workshop has been an eye opener and I am certain I am ready to work in every environment.”

As a final assignment, the students submitted videos exploring cross-cultural learning and how to apply that knowledge to real-world scenarios. The finalists for the contest and their video stories, can be found below:

1st Place:

Team 11, Learning Group C:

https://youtu.be/laznpNIkgrE

2nd Place:

Team 2, Learning Group A:

https://youtu.be/63eZmtafXx8

3rd Place:

Team 20, Learning Group D:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqeAv39OrVo

The University of Michigan’s 2020 Spring Commencement was unlike any other in its more than 200 years, with graduates across the university accepting their degrees at home via online ceremonies. While U-M and universities around the country hosted virtual celebrations, the hard work and sacrifice of students and their families in pursuit of higher education were very real.

The William Davidson Institute, which expected to host year-end events honoring students who participate in WDI-sponsored programs, was unable to do so given the closure of campus due to COVID19. The Institute nevertheless is formally honoring this year’s cohort of Davidson Field Scholars for their hard work and dedication.

WDI established the Davidson Field Scholars program in 2019 as a way of recognizing students who had committed and completed multiple WDI-supported projects. The program is open to all U-M graduate students. All of this year’s Davidson Field Scholars are 2020 graduates of the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, each earning their MBA.

These students rose to the challenges of their projects, but also to the disruptive challenges presented by COVID19, noted WDI President Paul Clyde.

“Although we are disappointed we were not able to host a celebration in person, I want to take this opportunity to personally thank all of this year’s Davidson Field Scholars,” Clyde said. “Each of their individual and collective contributions have been important, and have been greatly appreciated by WDI’s partner organizations around the world.”

All of the students completed a Multidisciplinary Action Project (or MAP) as part of completing their MBA at Ross. WDI sponsors multiple MAPs, internships and the course BA685: Healthcare Delivery in Emerging Markets, which is another vehicle for students to complete project work as a field scholar. The course provides students with on-the-ground experience in a foreign country while also contributing to the success of partner health clinics and hospitals. The class is composed mostly of second-year MBA students, but is open to all graduate students and is taught by WDI President Paul Clyde and Pascale Leroueil, Vice President for Healthcare at WDI.

Clyde highlighted the students’ contributions to two specific WDI projects: The Michigan Academy for the Development of Entrepreneurs (MADE) and the International Investment Fund. MADE was founded by WDI, the Zell-Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan and Poornatha Partnering Entrepreneurs LLP in Madurai, India. MADE provides Entrepreneurship Development Organizations (EDOs) in emerging economies a repeatable, scalable, transferable and profitable service platform to develop entrepreneurs in their home countries.

“Four years ago it was just an idea, but today we are engaging organizations in India, Ukraine and Senegal. MADE is almost completely run by students,” Clyde said. “It wasn’t going to be easy, but we knew that when we tried to start something that doesn’t really exist anywhere. If it was easy, someone else would have already done it.”

A year ago, WDI also partnered with Ross Business School and Finance Professor Gautam Kaul to establish a curriculum-based, student-run international investment fund at the University of Michigan. Believed to be the first of its kind at a U.S. university, International Investment Fund (IIF) is targeting small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India. Graduate students enrolled at Ross and in joint-degree programs with other U-M schools and colleges took an active role in assessing potential investments, providing guidance to make organizations investment-ready and, after filtering a number of potential investments, developing a recommendation for an investment in a specific company. That recommendation led to the development of a term sheet and legal due diligence, which student teams are currently conducting. WDI has worked closely with Kaul to develop the fund and made an initial financial commitment to the fund.

Click here for eligibility rules and other information on the Davidson Field Scholarship program.

Below is the complete 2020 cohort of WDI Field Scholars and brief summaries of their work. Click here to see a regularly updated list of Davidson Field Scholars.

WDI congratulates all of our Davidson Field Scholars on their graduation and future endeavors.

2020 Davidson Field Scholars

Lawrence Chen

During his Ross Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP), Chen worked with Poornatha, a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) accelerator in Madurai, India, to develop a five-year growth strategy for organization in the state of Tamil Nadu. Chen also served as director of investments at the U-M Social Venture Fund and led financial vehicles research for the International Investment Fund. As a Davidson Field Scholar, he also provided consulting services to the nonprofit pediatric orthopedic hospital, CURE International on how to extend services in Ethiopia through the WDI-sponsored course, BA685.

Chen previously worked at Boston Consulting Group in the summer of 2019. He holds a B.A. in Religious Studies and Communication Studies from Westmont College.

BEN DESMOND

Ben Desmond participated in a WDI-sponsored MAP, working with hospital leadership and a local financial technology company to integrate mobile money payments at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana. The team collaborated closely with hospital leadership and a local financial technology company to integrate mobile money payments into hospital operations.

Desmond graduated from Colby College in 2011, majoring in Economics. After graduation, he joined Teach For America, working as a middle school math teacher and grade level administrator at KIPP Academy Lynn, a charter school in Massachusetts. He later joined Bridge International Academies, an education tech company with schools in Africa and India.

Sid Mahajan

Sid Mahajan worked on a WDI-sponsored MAP project with Aravind Eye Care System in Chennai, India to create a five-year strategic plan. Aravind is one of the premiere eye hospitals in the world and the strategic plan studied increasing the volume of patients from 800 a day to 3,000. Mahajan also was a student in BA685, where he worked to develop an equipment plan for a gastrointestinal center of excellence in Chincha, Peru.

Prior to enrolling at the Ross School of Business, Mahajan worked at Abbott Laboratories in various finance functions. At Ross, he is vice president of education for the Health and Life Sciences club and is co-president of Sling Health, a cross discipline healthcare incubator consisting of students focused on bringing innovation to the medical device space. Mahajan received bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

Brittany Minor

Brittany Minor was part of a WDI-sponsored MAP team in Ethiopia where she worked with the Infra Group to conduct due diligence on local small and medium enterprises. She also served as partnership manager on the International Investment Fund, where she conducted due diligence on potential investee companies in India. Finally, she worked with MADE on two projects: a new consulting model for MADE’s India partner (Poornatha) and a succession planning consulting project for African Institute of Management in Senegal.

Prior to her graduate studies, Minor spent six years working in frontier and emerging markets consulting in Washington, DC. primarily with federal government clients, including the US Agency for International Development, the UK Department for International Development and the U.S. State Department. She holds a B.A. in International Relations and French from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in International Economics from Johns Hopkins’ School for Advanced International Studies.

Erdong Shi

Erdong Shi served as the co-managing director of the International Investment Fund where she played a central role in establishing a foundation for the fund. She also participated in BA685 and traveled to Rwanda to evaluate the efficiency of a healthcare data reporting system and created a tool for ongoing evaluation at Ruli Hospital, a long-time WDI partner.

Prior to enrolling at Ross, Shi worked in the financial services industry for five years, where she helped corporate clients grow and thrive in China by providing comprehensive banking solutions. She holds a B.S. in Statistics from East China Normal University.

Emma Kwenu Smith

Emma Kwenu Smith was a 2019 WDI Global Impact summer intern. During her internship, Emma developed a framework for finance and leadership training programs for management of MSMEs for the Indian human capital firm Poornatha. She continued working with MADE throughout her second year helping to establish marketing consulting services for MADE’s partner in Ukraine, Lviv Business School, and a business model for Poornatha in India.

A native of Ghana, Smith worked as a telecommunications revenue analyst before graduate school and then transitioned into advertising, where she created traditional and digital media marketing strategies for tech and telecom companies and financial institutions. She has volunteered for several non-profit organizations in human capital development, education and media advocacy across Africa. She also is the co-founder of a social enterprise that crowdsources educational materials for marginalized children in Ghana. Smith is a 2015 graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a BA in Economics and Sociology.

Aman Suri

Aman Suri worked on a WDI-sponsored MAP for Awash International Bank in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The project focused on expanding financing opportunities for Ethiopian small and medium-sized enterprises, by leveraging remittances from diaspora communities to meet loan collateral requirements. Also a student with BA685, Suri developed an equipment plan for a gastrointestinal center of excellence in Chincha, Peru.

Previously, Suri held numerous positions throughout his career. His experience includes developing market growth strategies at TransUnion, managing product operations at Cars.com, and supporting the build-out of two new business verticals at Conversant Media. Upon graduation from the University of Michigan, Aman Suri plans to work for West Monroe Partners as a Senior Consultant within their Customer Experience practice. Suri holds a Bachelor of Business Administration – Finance degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Olga Vilner Gor

Olga Vilner Gor worked on a WDI-sponsored MAP project with CURE International that involved assessing CURE’s hospitals in Kenya and Malawi and developing a strategic evaluation framework for a new hospital location. She also played an important role in developing WDI’s first case competition held in February of this year.

Vilner Gor received her nursing degree in 2012 from the University of Haifa School of Nursing in Israel. She previously worked as an emergency room nurse in Tel Aviv, Israel, where she grew up after immigrating there from her native Russia at the age of five. Vilner Gor then moved to the U.S. in 2014 and worked in the healthcare field before resuming her studies at U-M.

Image courtesy of Uber.

Competition launched by WDI Publishing at the University of Michigan rewards unique academic case studies about doing business in the MENA region

WDI Publishing, part of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan and publisher of cutting-edge business cases and teaching materials for business schools around the globe, today announced that authors from Kent State University in the United States have won its first-ever MENA case competition. The winning case, “Careem: MENA Ride-hailing leader Acquired by Uber” was submitted by Professor Chris Groening and PhD student Ahmad Al Asady.

Under the theme, “Doing Business in the Middle East and North Africa Region,” the case competition was launched to shed light on the unique and realistic challenges and advantages of doing business in MENA. The Careem academic case study, analyzed issues related to Careem’s growth options after it had been acquired by Uber. The terms of the Uber acquisition dictated Careem would continue to operate as a separate entity, so its CEO must present Careem’s forward-looking strategy to relevant stakeholders in a very short time frame.

WDI Publishing received over 44 entries and 23 final submissions, representing more than 15 countries and over 25 universities around the globe. The three winning cases are currently being edited and will be published at WDI Publishing by the end of June. The contest was sponsored by Executive Education at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.

“With the MENA region growing rapidly in terms of business innovation and maturity, the energy and interest in our first-ever MENA case competition was extraordinary. Through this initiative, we intended to reward the development and publication of unique academic case studies about the MENA region and use it as a tool to develop the critical thinking skills of higher education students. I’d like to thank all of our competition participants for submitting a variety of truly remarkable cases about doing business in MENA,” said Sandra Draheim, WDI Publishing Manager.

The winning authors were awarded $5,000, while second and third place won $3,500 and $1,500, respectively. The other winning cases include:

Second place: “Building the HR Function at Oman’s Port of Salalah” (Authored by Profs. Dana Sumpter and Mona Zanhour, California State University-Long Beach, USA)

Third place: “Etihad Airways: Rethinking Internationalization and Growth” (Authored by Prof. Mukund Dixit and case writer Sanjay Kumar Jena, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India)

“At Michigan Ross, we have always believed in elevating the quality of education and equip students in MENA and beyond with teaching materials that gives real world examples. We would like to congratulate all the winners and hope they become leaders who drive change and innovation in business across the globe,” said Gene Mage, Managing Director of Custom Programs for Michigan Ross Executive Education.

WDI Publishing handpicked an esteemed group of academic professionals to select the winners including, Hagop Panossian, Lecturer – American University of Beirut Olayan School of Business, Kim Bettcher: PhD, Director Knowledge Management – Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE); Andrew J. Hoffman, Holcim (US) Professor of Sustainable Enterprise – University of Michigan Ross School of Business; and Manel Khadraoui, Professor – University of Tunis/Tunis Business School.

About WDI Publishing

WDI Publishing produces and distributes high-quality, cutting-edge business cases and other teaching materials for business schools around the globe. It offers a large catalog of international business and social impact materials, in addition to cases within all core business disciplines. WDI Publishing is part of the William Davidson Institute (WDI) at the University of Michigan. WDI is an independent, non-profit research and educational organization focused on driving economic development and improving social welfare in low- and middle-income countries.

About Executive Education at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan

Named a Top 5 global provider by the Financial Times, Michigan Ross Executive Education provides transformational experiences that elevate thinking and enable breakthrough business results. Michigan Ross is a vibrant and distinctive learning community grounded in the principle that business can be an extraordinary vehicle for positive change in today’s dynamic global economy. The Ross School of Business’ mission is to develop leaders who make a positive difference in the world. Through thought and action, members of the Ross community drive change and innovation that improves business and society.

Note: This page has been updated with the above video, it was originally published on Feb. 19, 2020. The competition took place over 24 hours, Feb. 13-14.

Bakulu Power is a young company focused on building a renewable energy “mini grid” for residents of Lubya Island in Uganda’s Lake Victoria. The company has promising technology, has completed fund-raising rounds, has garnered interest from customers and has the support of the Ugandan government. But Bakulu Power still has a big challenge: When its mini grid is constructed, how can the company build additional demand for electricity?

Eight teams of University of Michigan students worked furiously to answer that question in WDI’s first-ever 24-Hour Case Competition, held last week at the Institute. The teams had just 24 hours to research the company, the island and its would-be customers, and prepare a compelling solution or series of solutions, to Bakulu Power’s quandary.

Vital to the competition was the fact that all solutions had to generate sustainable profits, rather than relying on grants or government funding, to operate the mini grid. The competition also challenged students to consider risks associated with new strategies and what partnerships might be required to carry out their solutions.

As she explained the challenge to students, Lucia Bakulumpagi-Wamala, CEO of Bakulu Power, noted the Ugandan government has set a goal of providing energy access to the entire country in the next ten years. Some 40% of the new electricity connections in Sub-Saharan Africa will be provided through mini grids in the next decade, she said. The sparsely populated Lubya Island has about 1,200 energy connections, but according to a survey of island residents 45% have no energy access and 70% are dissatisfied with their current energy sources.

The company, which will begin construction on its solar-enabled mini grid in the third quarter of this year, has explored other productive uses for renewable energy, including ice production. But in describing the challenge, Bakulumpagi-Wamala explained the importance of bringing in outside points of view.

“When you’re really close to something you can miss something very obvious … (Students) can look at this from a fresh perspective,” Bakulumpagi-Wamala told the competing students. “I think it’s important that the teams had such a short time frame because that’s really how this kind of work actually works. There are so many things that can change … you have to learn how to think really quickly.”

After Bakulumpagi-Wamala detailed the challenge, student teams immediately hunkered down in WDI conference rooms to start their research and begin formulating proposals. Most worked through the night and returned the next morning ready to explain business models in polished presentations.

In their 15-minute presentations, students showcased a wide variety of solutions, many of which looked to harness the dominant industry on the island: fishing. Students presented a variety of solutions, including developing new fish processing plants, or using power loads to refine plastic from discarded fishing nets into new products. Other teams explored solutions such as building up grain milling operations or creating a mixed use community/industry center.

Bakulumpagi-Wamala, WDI President Paul Clyde and Mike Kosonog, a partner in the Deloitte & Touche LLP Audit and Enterprise Risk Services group, all served as judges in the competition.

The Winners

First place ($3,000)

Maneel Grover and Avinav Sinha (pictured right and left, with Bakulumpagi-Wamala at center), both MBA students graduating in 2020 and both originally from Delhi, India, took first place. Their winning solution focused on equipping fishing boats with electric motors and helping to develop the businesses necessary to service those craft. The team made the case that electrification would ultimately save the local fishing industry money compared with using diesel.

Second Place ($2,000)

Coming in second place was the team of Gerasimos Dedes and S. Aris Mitropoulos, both majoring in engineering at U-M. The team presented ways to use energy to expand fish processing facilities and recycling discarded fish nets into other goods.

Third Place ($1,000)

A team comprised Ashley Hwang, Haotian Jiang, Maya Malouin, and Brian Zhao – all undergraduate students, came in third place. All team members are pursuing Bachelor of Business Administration degrees. Their solution explored incentivizing electric cooking instead of the more commonly used charcoal, implementing water purification systems and developing new cold storage systems.

Implementing Ideas

Bakulumpagi-Wamala said she was overwhelmed by the students’ questions, their presentations and the energy they brought to the competition.

“Twenty-four hours later, I cannot believe the level of detail in the research the students did and I think I actually learned more than they did,” she said. “This challenge has been incredibly timely, we still have time to make adjustments and deploy some of the ideas we heard.”

Bakulumpagi-Wamala said several of the ideas presented by the teams had previously been discussed by Bakulu Power’s management team. In fact, the winning team’s concept of electrifying boats had been introduced by one of her colleagues not long ago.

“Based on my experience with this 24-hour challenge, working with the students, the Michigan Ross faculty and the team at WDI, I would strongly recommend it to any business,” Bakulumpagi-Wamala said. “The more great minds you can bring to the table, the more solutions you can deploy.”

Clyde noted that the idea for hosting the competition came from one of this year’s Davidson Field Scholars, students who have conducted multiple projects with WDI.

“The student teams came from different schools across the university, representing a wide breadth of experiences and a depth of expertise – and they came up with a wide array of potential business models for this Ugandan business to try,” Clyde said.

Clyde also said WDI is interested in hosting similar competitions in the years to come.

“This competition drew upon the strengths of the Institute in a way that is clearly in line with our mission to equip decision makers with tools that will allow them to succeed commercially,” he said. “This event also provided a blueprint for future case competitions, in which we are able to engage students with some of WDI’s partner organizations in addressing their business challenges in a live setting.”

WDI created an 8-week online course: Starting a Business: Your Entrepreneurial Journey. The pilot program ran in April-May 2023. The course consisted of live training sessions, guest talks, short videos, online quizzes, and a capstone project in which participants worked in teams to conceptualize and pitch a new business via a video. The video was then judged by the program mentors and winning teams received a special certificate. The pilot program had 88 participants from nine countries.

A food entrepreneur works in the shared kitchen at the Food Enterprise Center in Istanbul, part of the Livelihoods Innovation through Food Entrepreneurship (LIFE) Project.

Note: This article was originally published in Business Fights Poverty.

By Kristin Babbie Kelterborn and Amy Gillett at WDI, and

Johanna Mendelson Forman, The Stimson Center

The global refugee population is at the highest level on record and there is no sign of the crisis abating. The most common private sector response is donations to address immediate humanitarian needs. But, with the average displacement ranging from 10 to 26 years, support is also needed to build sustainable livelihoods for refugees, especially as they experience cultural and legal barriers to securing a job in a safe environment in their host countries.

While the Sustainable Development Goals drive some private sector interest in contributing to the refugee crisis response, companies do not always know what concrete steps to take. As members of the United States government funded “Livelihoods Innovation through Food Entrepreneurship (LIFE)” consortium, we have seen firsthand how supporting refugee food entrepreneurship is “one entrée” into promoting livelihoods for refugees. The food sector is attractive for refugee entrepreneurs because of its lower barrier to entry, its accessibility for women, and its opportunities for impact. We call on the private sector to join efforts to make these new businesses successful.

How the business community can provide support to refugee food entrepreneurs

General recommendations for how the private sector can assist refugees have been provided by the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees, and in a report by the International Finance Corporation and The Bridgespan Group. Yet, guidance to the business community specifically on supporting refugee food entrepreneurship is lacking. What can the private sector do to engage?

Support refugee entrepreneurship development programs in the food sector. With a new market and regulations to navigate, even the most experienced refugee entrepreneur can benefit from support with starting a business in their host country. American ice cream company, Ben & Jerry’s, provides such support. Ben & Jerry’s is partnering with The Entrepreneurial Refugee Network to offer entrepreneurship training and mentorship, as well as part-time employment, to refugees through Ben & Jerry’s Ice Academy. In addition to programs, private sector partners can provide mentorship, pro bono legal advice, and financial assistance. Offering such support is also way to engage employees in service.

Source from refugee food entrepreneurs for catered events and meals. Maide Mutfak, an Istanbul-based catering business supported by the BBVA Momentum social entrepreneurship program, employs disadvantaged women (including refugees) and also provides them with culinary and entrepreneurship training. Companies can support such enterprises by selecting them to cater their events. Eat Offbeat, for example, is a New York social enterprise that offers refugee-cooked meals to corporate clients like Estée Lauder, Google, and KickStarter. Food can promote awareness among employees, as well as encourage social integration of refugees.

Build partnerships with local NGOs serving refugee food entrepreneurs. Food is a bridge for uniting stakeholders across sectors and interest groups, making projects in the food sector ripe for cross-sector collaboration. Engage with what local NGOs are doing and seek opportunities for participating in open-door events. At its Food Enterprise Centers in Turkey, the LIFE Project offers events such as Demo Days and community meals attended by the project’s members, government officials, and food sector representatives.

Provide financial support to programs with finite donor funding. Companies can support revenue-generating development projects with donor funding coming to an end. These could be projects with feasible business models that are not yet fully self-sustaining. Examples include food incubators that charge membership fees for kitchen usage or entrepreneurship incubation programs that can lead to investment opportunities.

Identify new food products to bring to scale. LIFE Project member Meyas Saati is introducing makdous (stuffed and pickled eggplant, a regional dish from Homs, Syria) to the market in Mersin, Turkey. Taking advantage of the growing interest in ethnic food products, private sector entities can source food products from refugees like Meyas and introduce them to new markets. For example, a frozen food company could partner with a home kitchen entrepreneur like Meyas, work with them to adjust recipes for large-scale production, and package the dish for distribution across Turkey. They would have a unique product with a compelling story — maybe the basis for an entirely new product line!

With the support of the private sector, food entrepreneurship as a source of livelihoods will grow. By starting food businesses, refugees can better integrate into a new society and be viewed in a more positive way. The growing field of gastrodiplomacy has emerged as a powerful tool for social integration. Food becomes not only a source of income for refugees, but also a way to promote the tastes and flavors of their culture into a new homeland. Their successful social and economic integration leads to richer, more stable communities – and that benefits us all.

Kristin Babbie Kelterborn is the senior project manager at WDI’s Entrepreneurship Development Center.

Amy Gillett is the vice president of WDI’s Education sector.

Johanna Mendelson Forman is a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, where she heads the Food Security Program.

“These relationships flow both ways: faculty turn to us for help in their work and we will incorporate them in specific projects we are working on. Our work increasingly integrates our expertise between sectors within WDI as well as with the expertise across the university.”

—Paul Clyde, President of WDI

WDI teams of staff and/or students worked on nearly 50 projects in more than 30 countries in 2019. Our work focused on our core consulting sectors – education, energy, finance and healthcare, as well as our management education programs, entrepreneurship development, measurement and evaluation services and the deployment of University of Michigan graduate students around the world. In the course of the year, WDI worked with faculty and researchers at the U-M Ross School of Business, the Zell Lurie Institute, Law School, the School of Public Health, the College of Engineering, the School of Nursing, the College of Literature, Science and Arts, School of Education, College of Pharmacy, Medical School, Kellogg Eye Center, School of Information, and the School of Environment and Sustainability.

“Our work capitalizes on the expertise of our staff as well as the expertise across campus,” said WDI President Paul Clyde. “Over the past 12 months we have worked with 30 faculty and many students from Ross but also students and/or faculty from a number of other schools within U-M. These relationships flow both ways: faculty turn to us for help in their work and we will incorporate them in specific projects we are working on. Our work increasingly integrates our expertise between sectors within WDI as well as with the expertise across the university.”

Here is a closer look at some highlights from 2019:

Education

The Education consulting sector and its Entrepreneurship Development Center (EDC) continued its work on the LIFE Project, which supports refugees in Turkey as they become entrepreneurs in the food sector. In July, WDI staff members Amy Gillett and Kristin Kelterborn and faculty affiliate Eric Fretz visited the Turkish cities of Istanbul and Mersin. Watch a narrated slideshow below of their trip that details the work they did while there and the program graduates they met. Gillett and Kelterborn also wrote an article for WDI’s affiliated NextBillion website on how to accelerate the success of refugee entrepreneurs.

Building off the success of its M2GATE Program (for more on the program, watch a video below here), WDI’s Education sector is facilitating a new virtual exchange course at the U-M Ross School of Business. Read about Business & Culture: A Virtual Practicum here. And read a WDI Impact Report on virtual exchange written in March.

The Education team also delivered another successful leadership workshop for NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe. Watch an entertaining and informative video on the latest workshop here. The next NGO workshop will take place in May 2020 in Warsaw, Poland.

Energy

WDI’s Energy consulting sector, established formally in 2018, explored the hot topic of renewable mini-grids to increase energy access. Specifically, the energy team is beginning to work with local partners in the Bagladeshi village of Bagdumur to determine the viability of a mini-grid there. In early 2019, WDI also deployed graduate students from the U-M’s School for Environment and Sustainability to study how energy enterprises in India and Uganda perform and how best to document it.

Healthcare

WDI’s Healthcare consulting sector team members Michael Krautmann and Ben Davis traveled to Tanzania for a U.S. Agency for International Development project to help strengthen that country’s health supply chain systems. Krautmann also sat down for a Q&A about his supply chain work at WDI, and Healthcare sector faculty affiliate Ari Schwayder answered five questions about his favorite health projects to work on.

WDI’s Healthcare team also conducted a project with the Linked Foundation to inform social enterprise, med-tech, digital health, and private sector investment in Latin America. The Foundation seeks to identify market-based, impact investment opportunities specific to women’s health in Latin America, based on an integrated assessment of the major unmet needs in combination with identification of high-impact solutions and opportunities to foster the enterprise ecosystem and sustainable women’s health solutions. WDI developed an analytic methodology, conducted a landscaping study for Colombia and Peru, and will be publishing the report in January 2020. WDI and the Linked Foundation also had the opportunity to present project findings at four conference settings in the U.S. and Latin America in fall 2019. Linked anticipates this work will inform their investment strategy and catalyze additional resources to the most-needed areas in women’s health in Latin America.

WDI President Paul Clyde wrote an article exploring the profit potential for health care companies in low- and middle-income countries.

WDI Vice President for Healthcare Pascale Leroueil continued her work helping global health organizations such as Global Fund, Gavi and WHO to increase the impact of their investments.

At the beginning of 2019, WDI Vice President of Administration Claire Hogikyan traveled to Ethiopia as the first phase of work to help that country find a sustainable solution to its medical waste problem. Her trip led to the deployment of a team of Ross School graduate students a couple of months later. They developed a proposal that was presented to government officials by an organization that plans to begin operations in early 2020 of a medical waste incinerator outside Addis Ababa.

Finance

WDI’s Finance consulting sector partnered with the Ross School of Business and Professor Gautam Kaul on a first-of-its-kind curriculum-based, student-run international investment fund.

The Finance sector team also partnered with Awash Bank in Ethiopia to study a remittance program to increase peoples’ access to capital. How the program would work is explained in this infographic and in this concept note.

Performance Measurement & Improvement

In 2019, the Performance Measurement & Improvement (PMI) team continued work on several ongoing projects, including whether developmental evaluation works in a USAID context and using impact data to develop strategies to increase engagement of women in Colombia’s coffee sector. PMI Senior Research Associate Rebecca Baylor also shared her views in an article exploring whether developmental evaluation is an appropriate assessment strategy.

PMI also collaborated with other WDI consulting sectors such as Education, Energy and Healthcare to provide assessment services on their projects, including evaluating the impact of the Business and Culture course. Working alongside the PMI team on that project is WDI Faculty Affiliate Andy Grogan-Kaylor. Read a Q&A about his work and why he enjoys collaborating with the PMI team.

The PMI team also attended several conference proceedings in the impact measurement field and often spoke on panels and roundtables about their work. They led several discussions at the November 2019 American Evaluation Association annual conference. After attending and moderating a discussion at a global metrics conference, Baylor wrote about what is being done to incorporate gender equality into the impact measurement space.

Student Opportunities

The past year featured several opportunities for University of Michigan students to participate in WDI-sponsored projects. In all, 76 U-M students traveled abroad for WDI work.

Occasionally, students may participate in multiple WDI-sponsored projects. To reward these hard-working, committed students, WDI established the Davidson Field Scholar program. There are currently nine students who have earned this honor.

WDI sponsored 11 Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP) teams in 2019, and deployed five teams to five countries to study ways to improve healthcare delivery there. One MAP team member who worked in Rwanda recorded her thoughts about the project for a narrated slideshow. (See below).

And we also caught up with a couple of former students – one in South Korea and the other in India – who participated in WDI student projects to see how working on these projects impacted their career paths.

“While I knew it would serve as a useful resource, I did not realize just how helpful the Institute would be until I got to Ross and started interacting with the staff and professors associated with WDI,” Puneet Goenka, WDI alumnus said.

And as part of the WDI Global Impact Speaker Series, the Institute hosted four guest speakers – Sally Stephens of Medicines360; Tami Kesselman of Aligned Investing Global; Ujjwal Kumar of Honeywell and Efosa Ojomo of the Clayton Christensen Institute. Watch an interview with Stephens here; an interview with Kesselman here; and watch Ojomo’s talk here.

WDI Faculty Affiliate John Branch facilitates the 2016 Strategic Management Program at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia.

Building on successes in Latvia, Croatia and Slovakia, WDI’s Education Sector plans to bring its flagship executive education program, the 10-day Strategic Management Program (SMP), to managers in new markets. To accomplish this, WDI is seeking new university or training partners that can benefit from its expertise and with whom it can form a long-term partnership.

The intensive, two-week SMP, also known as a “mini MBA,” is currently being offered each spring in Latvia in partnership with the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga (SSE Riga).

WDI Education Sector Vice President Amy Gillett said she has received several inquiries over the past few years from managers outside of Latvia interested in this program.

“Some are not able to travel to Riga and are looking for a program like this in their own country,” she said. “The MBA mindset and cross-functional approach are key tools for succeeding in business. But not everybody has time or money to pursue an MBA degree. That’s driven the popularity of this program.”

The program, tailored for high potential, mid- to senior-level managers, features four modules – strategy, finance, marketing, and leadership – and is structured around an integrative strategic framework. The sessions present both foundational general management principles and the recent business management theory. Additionally, participants from corporations, small businesses, and nonprofits grapple with real situations faced by their peers in their own business environments.

The program combines lectures, discussions, cases and exercises. Participants also conduct group work, which enhances their critical thinking, decision-making and teamwork skills.

“Peer-to-peer learning is a critical part of this program,” says Gillett. “There is a rich exchange of ideas that takes place across industries and organizations of different sizes. After the two weeks, participants feel energized to bring fresh thinking and new tools back to their organizations.”

Click on the image to view the Strategic Management Program brochure.

WDI has organized the program annually since 2007 in cooperation with SSE Riga. A second session has been added in Riga this fall due to demand. Unlike the spring session, the fall offering has a break in between the 10 days of the program for managers who can only be away from the office for one week at a time.

Gillett said the program allows participants to upgrade their managerial skills, enhance their professional networks and boost their careers in just two weeks. “It’s efficient both in terms of time and money,” she said.

WDI has delivered the SMP more than 25 times in Latvia, Croatia, and Slovakia and has also created customized versions of the program for companies, including Oracle and US Steel.

“We feel confident we bring a very solid, in-demand program,” Gillett said. “Our content and format are proven. And our instructors are world-class and eager to teach for us in new markets.”

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