An Elton service station in Dakar, Senegal. (Image by Diana E. Páez).
Case studies push business school students to make realistic considerations, start layered conversations, and develop functional problem-solving skills. By placing students inside real-life situations, academic case studies are a key tool in developing modern business leaders. For students learning in high-income countries within prominent business schools, most case studies mirror the world they see, including familiar corporations and dilemmas they’d expect to experience on the job. But for students in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), that’s rarely the case.
Instead, LMIC students often have to make significant intellectual, geopolitical and logistical leaps for cases written in and about developed economies to work for them. They need to imagine how the companies featured mirror those in their region and shift the situations detailed in a case study to match the ones they see locally. Both students and instructors guiding them need to adjust the content to their locality, whether that means translating it into another language or imagining how different cultural norms would impact a discussion question. Each one of these steps pulls students further from the goal of the process—immersing them in the case itself to develop their creative business minds—but case studies about organizations and dilemmas in LMICs can provide a remedy.
When leaders at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan (WDI) and the African Institute of Management (IAM) in Senegal set out to build a supply chain program for local students, they knew they needed to include case studies about that local region in their curriculum.
Paul Clyde, president of WDI, and Noel Watson, founder of OPS MEND and research fellow at WDI, came together with Alassane Fall, engineer and current director of IAM’s supply chain management master’s program, to build the curriculum. Supply chains in emerging markets are complicated, and students need the tools and experience to tackle these complexities. Without locally—or even regionally—focused cases, they would be learning business concepts in the vacuum of the classroom, without any opportunity for practical application.
“Students are more likely to understand the case and be at ease learning it if the case studies are set locally,” Fall said. “They’re more likely to be interested and involved because the situations are never the same otherwise.”
Effective case studies surround students with real-life business dilemmas they need to resolve. If the case study doesn’t resemble a student’s real life, it will have limited learning value in the classroom. Watson shared why this representation is so critical.
“At some point, without seeing that representation, the takeaway is that much less,” Watson said “There’s almost a sense that you don’t really believe the case because it’s not really about where you are. The idea is to address that head-on with cases set in Africa or Senegal.”
WDI’s expertise sits at the intersection of what’s needed for the task of creating these important case studies, with its network of business relationships in LMICs and rigorous academic research practice. WDI Publishing has more than 600 cases, mini-cases, exercises, and conceptual notes in its collection, which have been utilized in more than 800 universities around the world since the group was established within WDI in 2007.
Students are more likely to understand the case and be at ease learning it if the case studies are set locally. They’re more likely to be interested and involved because the situations are never the same otherwise.
Combined with the knowledge and skills of a local leader like Fall, WDI Publishing can identify real-life business challenges and develop case studies that encourage students to brainstorm innovative, accessible solutions.
“Our mission is to equip economic decision-makers in emerging countries with the tools of commercial success. What does it mean to equip economic decision-makers if not through training and education?” said Clyde. “It’s very much in line with what we’re doing.”
WDI also has the publishing capabilities to make these cases a reality. Sandra Draheim, Manager of WDI Publishing, explained how her team helped bring these Senegal-centered cases to fruition. “WDI has the capability and the platform to deliver cases like these, because we have the horsepower and processes to professionally edit, format, publish, and distribute them.” In a world where academic teaching materials are costly to produce and distribute, there’s often a lack of case studies written about doing business in emerging economies. With WDI’s resources, LMIC-focused case studies can be published and adopted by the appropriate institutions around the world.
The first case study produced by the team focused on managing supply, demand, and delivery at Elton Oil, a petroleum products company operating in Senegal. In this case, an interim export manager is faced with an unexpected drop in supply from the country’s refiner. Students are challenged to schedule deliveries to the company’s gas stations despite the constraints, and are asked to use a provided worksheet to support their decisions.
Diana E. Páez, Senior Director of Grants and Partnerships at WDI, wrote the case with Watson and Fall in both English and French, eliminating yet another barrier that many Senegalese students face when using other case studies. These details matter, Páez said. “It matters that students can recognize the places, the names of people. It makes it more real.”
For IAM students, having a case centered on Elton Oil meant they could leave their classroom and drive past the business they’d just been discussing. It also meant the dilemmas were literally at their feet, making the solutions that much more tangible. The same was true for the second case (available here), which focused on supply chain changes in Africa through COVID-19, and it will ring true for the third case in the pipeline, covering inventory optimization for a Senegalese steel company.
Since the partnership between IAM and WDI began, student interest in the program has grown significantly. Just a handful of students participated in the first offering of the supply chain program back in 2017. For the 2020/2021 academic year, 30 students took part, making it one of IAM’s more popular offerings.
“After we discuss the cases, most of the time, the students say they appreciate and love them, they say they learned a lot, and that it makes a big difference,” Fall said. “They’d like the managers from the case locations to come to the class and talk about what they’d do in the situation.”
In fact, one student from IAM was actually hired by Elton Oil, said Fall, who is hopeful this student will return as a guest to the course to add another layer of learning for current students.
IAM students aren’t the only ones benefitting. WDI has helped develop local cases in other regions of the work including the Philippines and the Middle East. These cases, available digitally at no cost, have been downloaded across the world by professors and international business leaders. This enthusiasm, along with the overwhelmingly positive response from students, is an indication that there’s a need—and WDI is working to address it.
About WDI
At the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan, unlocking the power of business to provide lasting economic and social prosperity in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is in our DNA. We gather the data, develop new models, test concepts and collaborate with partners to find real solutions that lead to new opportunities. This is what we mean by Solving for Business—our calling since the Institute was first founded as an independent nonprofit educational organization in 1992. We believe societies that empower individuals with the tools and skills to excel in business, in turn generate both economic growth and social freedom—or the agency necessary for people to thrive.
The University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and the William Davidson Institute again are partnering to broaden the selection of diversity, equity and inclusion-focused business cases with the second annual DEI Global Case Writing Competition.
Administered by WDI Publishing, the competition seeks case submissions designed to help the business world improve its understanding of DEI-related challenges and objectives. Submitted cases may be focused on any business discipline, including accounting, marketing, supply chain operations, strategic management, information technology, economics, entrepreneurship, sustainability and leadership. Cases may also be cross-disciplinary and address a DEI issue that affects multiple areas of a business. Winners will receive prize money of $10,000 for first place, $5,000 for second place, $2,500 for third place, and honorable mentions, as deemed by the finalist judges. The top three winners and honorable mentions will be published and distributed by WDI Publishing.
Strengthening DEI is critical to the success of any organization — and improving these practices requires relevant teaching materials in graduate and undergraduate classrooms. Unfortunately, there’s a shortage of these materials—especially business case studies— that can help better prepare current and future business leaders.
“Diversity, equity and inclusion is so important because it affects every division or department of an organization,” said Sandra Draheim, Manager of Case Publishing at WDI. “That’s why our goal for the competition is to generate more DEI business cases that will help students be better prepared for the future.”
Individual graduate or undergraduate students or teams and other professionals may enter the competition provided they do so in collaboration with a faculty member or instructor from an accredited university/college in the U.S. or internationally. Faculty or instructors may also enter the competition, either individually or in teams. Interested contributors should visit the competition website for additional entry and submission details.
Last year’s inaugural competition drew case submissions from authors across 28 universities and eight countries, culminating in a first-place award to a team that explored Cyrus Mehri’s and the National Football League’s Rooney Rule. This important case presents the league’s efforts to increase representation of coaches of color and asks readers to consider what practices might strengthen or replace the Rooney Rule. The second-place case discusses how the activist brand Oiselle could authentically commit to advancing DEI actions, while the third-place winner asks whether the Indian hospitality business, Lemon Tree Hotels, could replicate its inclusive hiring model if it expanded into the U.S. market. Each of these winning cases is published and available through WDI Publishing.
“I was impressed with the number and quality of submissions for the inaugural DEI Global Case Writing Competition in 2021, and I am excited by the prospect of making the competition bigger and better in 2022,” said David Wooten, Associate Dean of One-Year Masters Programs at the Ross School of Business and University Diversity & Social Transformation Professor at U-M.“We look forward to continuing our mission of diversifying the pool of DEI cases that leading business schools use to educate their students.”
The first two reviews of the 2022 competition submissions will be double-blind, meaning submitters will not know the identity of the reviewers and vice versa. Likewise, the finalist judges will not be aware of the names or affiliated universities of the finalist cases. Finalist judges currently include Kim Eric Bettcher, leader of the Center for International Private Enterprise’s Policy and Program Learning initiative; John Lafkas, a Senior Editor at Harvard Business Publishing; and Greg Merkley, Director of Case Publishing at the Kellogg School of Management.
To learn more about the 2022 DEI Global Case Writing Competition, and how to contribute to the growing number of DEI cases used by students across the world, join the first of three informational webinars. Register here to participate on Nov. 17, and check here for upcoming details on future webinars. Prepare now for the intent-to-enter form deadline on Jan. 28, 2022, and the final submission deadline of March 31, 2022. All 2022 DEI Global Case Writing Competition details can be found here.
Questions should be directed to info@wdi-publishing.com.
The possibility and interest in serving these markets and helping to make healthcare better creates opportunities for job seekers, companies and healthcare professionals. However, organizations face significant challenges in developing business models that can provide quality products and services and do so profitably. As more companies are successful, the local communities and patients will continue to benefit.
The keynote speaker for WDI’s Ralph J. Gerson Distinguished Lecture, Kevin Lobo, Chair and CEO of Stryker, provided perspective and insights for innovating and driving growth in LMICs. With globalization as part of the company’s strategy, Lobo has continued to focus resources and talent on key global markets since becoming CEO of Stryker in 2012. Lobo’s talk focused on “Challenges and Opportunities for Healthcare Companies in Emerging Markets.”
Headquartered in Kalamazoo, MI, Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies, offering innovative products and services in orthopaedics, medical and surgical, and neurotechnology and spine that help improve patient and hospital outcomes.
Note: WDI supports student learning experiences in a wide variety of projects in low- and middle-income countries. When it comes to developing and investing in small businesses in those regions, WDI projects occasionally intersect with one another. That was the case for Lawrence Chen, who earned his MBA from the Ross Business School at the University of Michigan in 2020. During his Ross MBA program’s Multidisciplinary Action Project (MAP), Chen worked with Poornatha Partnering Entrepreneurs LLP, a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) accelerator in Madurai, India – where he developed a growth strategy for the organization. Chen also led financial vehicles research for the International Investment Fund (IIF), a first ever student fund investment fund and MBA-level course, supported by WDI. The team’s assignment focused on a potential investment into one of SMEs in Poornatha’s accelerator program.
Poornatha is the India affiliate of the Michigan Academy for Developing Entrepreneurs (MADE). MADE was founded in 2017 by WDI, the Zell-Lurie Institute at the University of Michigan and Poornatha. MADE provides Entrepreneurship Development Organizations (EDOs) in emerging economies a repeatable, scalable, transferable and profitable service platform to develop entrepreneurs in their home countries.
Additionally, Chen earned the distinction as a Davidson Field Scholar, thanks to his leadership in multiple WDI student projects and affiliated university courses. He provided consulting services to the nonprofit pediatric orthopedic hospital, CURE International in Ethiopia through the WDI-sponsored course, BA685: Healthcare Delivery in Emerging Markets.
In the following blog, Chen shares his experiences working with both the IIF and Poornatha, and what he learned in helping to put together IIF’s first investment deal.
University of Michigan’s International Investment Fund (IIF) was founded to find sustainable ways to fill the financing gap for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. WDI’s strong partnership with Poornatha, an SME accelerator program in Madurai, led us to identify India as the fund’s first target country. With an SME financing gap of roughly $337 billion in South Asia alone, India was a perfect place to attempt to innovate within the SME investing landscape.
During the last semester of my Ross MBA program, I had the opportunity to lead a team of students to Madurai to conduct due diligence on a potential investment opportunity for IIF. This included research on the company’s management team, financial valuation, market, legal and strategic plan. Additionally, we worked with Michigan Law School’s International Transactions Clinic to draft the University’s first international equity term sheet, a document that will be a springboard for any future deals that IIF leads.
Students involved in the International Investment Fund and MADE. (Image taken prior to COVID-19 outbreak).
Although we decided to initiate investment discussions with our target company, COVID-19 forced us to hold on final negotiations until after the pandemic. Nevertheless, through this project, I learned three valuable lessons that I hope will contribute to the international SME investments discussion:
So, the last and perhaps most important lesson I learned was to not assume that best practices in developed countries are applicable for emerging countries. The idea that trust is the most fundamental currency is something I believe we all need to be reminded of more frequently.
I strongly believe that if IIF, WDI, and Poornatha can pioneer successful MSME equity investments in Madurai, we can not only help grow a small handful of companies, but inspire more funds to invest in this severely underfunded sector. I am excited to see what unfolds in the future and am honored to have played a small part in it.
Lawrence Chen is earned his MBA from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in 2020.