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This case study was developed using data from secondary sources. The data was collected from the organization’s website, annual reports, press releases, published reports and documents available on the internet.

According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) World Energy Outlook (WEO), 775 million people worldwide would not have access to electricity even by 2022, with the majority of them living in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) (Cozzi et al., 2022). In SSA, energy poverty had been a serious issue over the years. According to the IEA, 600 million people lacked access to electricity in 2019, while 900 million people cooked with traditional fuels (Cozzi et al., 2022). A World Bank report from 2018 said many SSA countries had energy access levels of less than 25% (Cozzi et al., 2022). Energy poverty in SSA hampered sustainable development and economic growth.

Despite significant efforts to address this poverty, Africa remained the continent with the lowest energy density in the world. Although solar and other energy-saving products were appealing, their adoption rates were modest, and their distribution strategies were not particularly effective. The lack of electricity exacerbated a number of socioeconomic problems, as it increased the demand for and use of wood fuel, which caused serious health problems and environmental harm.

While working in Uganda, Katherine Lucey (Lucey) saw that having no electricity had negatively affected women’s health in particular because it was women who were responsible for taking care of the home. These effects were both direct and indirect. The women’s reliance on potentially harmful fuels for cooking, such as firewood and charcoal, resulted in their suffering from respiratory and eye problems, in addition to other health issues. Furthermore, the distribution of energy-saving and renewable energy items was seen as the domain of men, and there was an inherent gender bias in energy decisions. Women were not encouraged to participate in energy decisions, despite the fact that they were the ones managing the home and would gain from doing so. In addition, because there was no light after dusk, people worked less efficiently. Lucey saw the economic and social difficulties that electricity poverty caused for women in rural Africa. She also witnessed how the lives of a few families and organizations changed after they started using solar products. This motivated her to start Solar Sister with the mission of achieving a sustainable, scalable impact model for expanding access to clean energy and creating economic opportunities for women.

Solar Sister collaborated with local women and women-centric organizations to leverage the existing network. Women were trained, provided all the necessary support and encouraged to become Solar Sister Entrepreneurs and sell solar products in their communities and earn a commission on each sale. To provide clean energy at their customers’ doorstep, the Solar Sister Entrepreneurs received a “business in a bag” – a start-up kit containing inventory, training and marketing assistance.

Solar Sister’s business model empowered the women in SSA by providing them with an entrepreneurship opportunity and financial independence. Also, the use of solar products helped them shift from using hazardous conventional cooking fuels and lead a healthy life. The children in their households were able to study after sunset, and people in the community became more productive with access to clean energy.

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, however, had a serious impact on Solar Sister. It found it challenging to mentor and encourage new business owners due to restrictions on travel and on group gatherings. The Solar Sisters were unable to do business outside the house either. Their source of income, which they relied on to support their families, was therefore impacted. The COVID-19 outbreak also slowed down the progress achieved by the community over the years and made household energy purchasing power worse. Furthermore, the organization was also grappling with other issues like limited access to capital, lack of awareness and infrastructural challenges. Another challenge lay in monitoring and evaluating the organization’s impact on the last mile.

In the absence of standardized measurement tools and issues in determining the social impact of Solar Sister, it would be interesting to see what approach Lucey will take to measure the impact of Solar Sister on the society. What measurement tool/s will Lucey implement to gauge the social impact of Solar Sister?

This case is intended for use in PG/Executive-level programs as part of a course on Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability.

The learning outcomes of this study are as follows:

Teaching Objective 1: Students will describe specific characteristics of the rural market in India and will draw out the differences vis-a-vis the urban markets.

Teaching Objective 2: Students will describe about the push versus pull strategy and various channels of distribution in rural areas.

Teaching Objective 3: The students will explain the 4As of the rural marketing mix and apply the same in the context of the case.

Teaching Objective 4: The case can be applied with respect to the health-belief model to help students analyse the behaviour change model.

Teaching Objective 5: Students will analyse the challenges associated with supply chain and logistics in rural areas.

This case study looked at a start-up company Rugved Hygienecare Industries Private Limited and their sanitary napkin brand “Abolee” designed and targeted for rural women in India. Onkar Charegaonkar and Mithila Charegaonkar started this venture in December 2017, realizing that sanitary napkins solved a greater purpose of helping women hygienically manage menstruation, and at the same time, there was no threat to this product because over a period of time, it became a necessity of life. Onkar and Mithila believed in giving back to the society and at the same time generate revenue for their company. Onkar and Mithila needed to make a decision with respect to the distribution structure for Abolee to improve penetration in different rural areas of Maharashtra. Onkar and Mithila needed to strategize to create a remarkable impact in the rural areas. There were multiple challenges that were faced by Abolee, such as: creating awareness about hygienically managing menstruation options among women, ensuring that women consumers continue to use hygienic menstruation management material, creating a preference for Abolee among women consumers and deciding on whether to focus on driving sales through existing channel partners or to invest in finding out alternative avenues for selling “Abolee” in rural areas.

This case study was primarily written for understanding rural marketing aspects of marketing management courses at both the undergraduate level and the postgraduate level. This case study also indicated about the role of gender and its impact on consumer behaviour in rural areas. Although this case study was related to the rural Indian market, it can also be related to other emerging economies.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS8: Marketing.

This trio of cases is appropriate for upper-level undergraduate classes or for postgraduate programs in non-profit management, leadership and community development, international development, global studies, women’s and gender studies and social entrepreneurship. It allows the instructors and students to engage with classical leadership tenets and emerging social entrepreneurship literature. Upon completion of the case study discussion and assignments, students will be able to: identify diverse obstacles that African women face in starting social enterprises; understand the ways that African women leaders build a social dimension to their enterprise; and identify characteristics of women’s leadership and critique the value of women’s leadership for establishing sustainable social enterprises.

The case stories of the three African social enterprises portray how female leaders have fostered sustainable organisations through prioritising social, over economic and governance investments. Martha Letsoalo, a former domestic worker, founded the Heartfelt Project in South Africa, which now employs fifteen women, ships products all around the world and enriches the community of Makapanstad with its workshop, training and education centre. Victoria Nalongo Namusisi, daughter of a fisherman in rural Uganda, founded Bright Kids Uganda, a thriving care facility, school and community centre that educates vulnerable children, empowers victims of gender-based violence and distributes micro-loans to female entrepreneurs. Gertrude, abandoned in Lusaka, Zambia, founded Chikumbuso, a home of resilience and remembrance to educate children and offer women employment in a cooperative business. Each case documents the founding years of the social enterprise and outlines some of the shared women’s leadership approaches. The case dilemma focuses on why and how women start social enterprises in socially and economically difficult contexts.

This trio of cases is appropriate for undergraduate or graduate-level programs in non-profit management, leadership and community development, international development, global studies and social entrepreneurship.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

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Social entrepreneurship

Bachelor/master students.

Women Empowerment through Local Livelihood (WELL) is a social venture that was founded in September 2005, by Danny Merguei. Danny was raised in Israel and had a long career in the corporate world as an auditor. After many years of work, Danny and his family moved to India. Shortly after the family arrived to the south of India, one of the biggest tsunamis in history hit the Southeast coast, on 26 December 2004. Many women who were dependent on their husbands as the family’s breadwinners lost them to the tsunami. Danny reacted to the situation by setting up a program to help these women. As the businesses expanded and the effects of the tsunami subsided, the focus of WELL shifted to women from rural areas who were interested in starting a shared business with a group of other women. Women who are selected for the training offered by WELL are guided for six months on how to create products made of recycled materials, such as household items and accessories. During the training, the women also take classes on how to run a business and on personal development. After the women complete the training, they receive a micro loan to start their own businesses. WELL monitors their development, offers business consultancy and quality controls assistance for the products. WELL also buys the products from the women and sells them to shops in India and around the world. The income generated by these sales is used by WELL to sustain and increase its operations. The women, however, are free to decide whether they want to distribute their products through WELL or find other ways to generate income. The mission of WELL is to provide empowerment tools and alternative livelihood to women. Behind it is WELL’s vision to see the status of women in the Indian society and their self-empowerment improve.

With the help of the case and literature students should understand/learn: Some of the differences and similarities between social and commercial entrepreneurship. The students should try to inspect where there is an overlap in social and commercial entrepreneurship (and how this is reflected in the thought-process and decision of the entrepreneur) and where the two separate. The importance of the social mission in social entrepreneurship. This is one of the crucial differences that exists between social and commercial entrepreneurship. The students think about the motivation that drives the entrepreneur. The students should think about the influence that the lead entrepreneur has on the social business, and how the two are linked. That a social problem can have different layers. The students should come to a realisation that sometimes the “real” or deeper problem is not so easy to see and can be obscured by other more exterior problems. About the complexity involved in building up and operating a social venture. The students should try to identify with the protagonist’s struggles while maintaining their own points of view. To have a critical perspective when making an important decision, and to be able to use and put together the relevant information. How to apply models, theories and concepts from the provided literature to answer the case questions.

Teaching Note 2 videos.

CSS:3 Entrepreneurship.

The learning outcomes are as follows: Identify obvious and hidden impediments to women’s careers; offer initiatives that change women’s career opportunities; explore available instruments to change the corporate culture to deal with gender issues management; and identify tools that help secure changes in these uncertain times.

The case is based on the situation that Nadia Omelchenko, Vice President of IT.Integrator, the leading Ukrainian systems integration company, faced in 2021, when COVID-19 put her thus-far successful initiatives aimed at promoting women’s careers at risk. In 2020, lockdowns were being imposed and lifted, and remote-work practices were evolving. Most women in the IT sector opted for working from home and infrequent attendance at in-office, face-to-face meetings offices because of increased family responsibilities. Her executive team members had become disgruntled about continuing to invest resources in women’s development programs. They believed that the whole idea of women’s promotion was a waste of time because in critical situations they prioritized family obligations and neglected their managerial responsibilities. One of Omelchenko’s main tasks was to secure the company’s ability to recruit and retain the best talent and reinforce the company’s position in the market. As in many emerging economies, a serious skill shortage was the common refrain in Ukraine. Many employers were facing the need to offer more than just monetary remuneration. Moreover, many Ukrainian IT companies were competing with international companies that had more financial resources and policies in place for retaining talent. This case study examines the Ukrainian IT sector, its legal and regulatory framework, and the implication of COVID-19 for the sector. The gender-equality situation is reviewed. Omelchenko's personal journey toward fostering opportunities for women and diversity, as well as her programs and initiatives to change the corporate culture and unlock women’s potential, are discussed.

MBA and Masters students or senior BBA and participants of the executive development programs

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Womenomics is the idea that women’s economic development will lead to improving the economy as a whole

The case is a primary case. Gender equity is about treating men and women fairly, data for the case was collected through interviews with the protagonist Ms Kalpana Anand.

Although women are capable of writing their own destiny regardless of what they are and where they come from, Kalpana Anand, the Executive Director of Avaneetha Textiles, believes that education plays an essential role in empowering women. Accordingly she is determined to offer shop floor jobs to young underprivileged women aspiring dropouts that provides them an opportunity to learn while they earn. Established in the year 2004 in Coimbatore, Avaneetha Textiles is currently being managed by two sisters Uma (Managing Director) and Kalpana. Although this business model supports around 900 young women, not all have made the most of it. Only 25% of their employees benefitted from the “learn-while-you-earn” program promoted by the company. Kalpana realized that such a conduct would hinder the achievement of empowering women. Therefore, the challenge before her was to motivate more women to enroll for different courses and thereby improve the quality of their life.

Graduate or post-graduate level of courses in management, commerce, sociology, social work and related subjects.

Human resource management.

It is appropriate for graduate students majoring in human resource or business management. Students who are interested in studying Asian economies in the world, as they are the most growing economies in the world and at the same time have a shocking number of people employed in the informal sector.

This case study talks about women workers who face a glass ceiling at the management level and deplorable working conditions at the informal level. This case involves women in the paper bag-making business, a part of the urban informal sector. The paper bag-making business provides employment and income generation for the urban poor. The focus in this study is on women production workers, rather than entrepreneurs or professional managers. Focus of the study will be on the change in the pattern of income distribution within the family-based household, the degree of bargaining power derived from productive work and income and impact of technology on the plight of unskilled women force and how technology and vocational training can lead to utilization of manpower being wasted because of lack of synergy between technology and the informal sector in India. Expected learning outcomes Four key points of selection, training, assessment and leadership all have been addressed in this case study, and the relevance of these points is important from the point of view of management students who have to understand the linkages and the hidden costs these informal sector occupations come with and then to device an appropriate strategy to bring and use these human resources to their full capacity by utilizing the existing resources instead of adding new ones, which in development economics is known as Solow residual.

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• Identify challenges of operating a start-up business. • Understand the social enterprise and role of gender (women entrepreneurship). • Assess the responsibility of unskilled women entrepreneurs and the challenges faced by them. • Describe business and marketing strategies adopted in market segmentation and product promotion. • Discuss strategies adopted to sustain a small business.

Yola EcoSentials (YES) was a social enterprise originated from the American University of Nigeria, Yola, capital city of Adamawa, Nigeria. It was established in September, 2012. It started with the mission to improve the environment, reduce waste and empower women. It engaged in production of hand bags, wallets, table mats and iPad bags from the recycled waste items such as nylons. YES was founded and spearheaded by Charles Reith (Chief Executive Officer). YES faced certain major challenges in expanding its business, namely, maintenance of quality products and accountability of business operations including personal income savings plan and source of new customers. Moreover, YES was having a serious concern of project sustainability because of the availability and division of insufficient raw materials to operate their business. To overcome these challenges, in December 2016, YES planned to devise its growth strategy to operate their business run by local women in Yola, Nigeria.

Undergraduate and graduate early stage programme.

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CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

The case is suitable for all post-graduate students and executives doing a course in human resource management (HRM). The case will enable these students to apply concepts such as inclusion, empowerment, glass ceiling, in business situations involving women. It will help them to trace the evolution path for women employees who have the traits to lead a department or organisation and assume entrepreneurial roles.

The case study is particularly beneficial for MBA students specialising in HRM focussed on leadership and training. It can be used in courses such as gender and entrepreneurship for students of MBA entrepreneurship and MBA family business management. As the case is written in India, it can explore the gender issues in emerging markets surreptitiously. Most importantly, the case addresses COVID-19 perspective adequately, to teach modules embedded in main courses of any MBA program.

PRISM World Pvt Ltd is a leading training and consultancy firm in Delhi, India. The firm is owned and managed by a young woman Dr Anubha Walia. She started her career as a human resource manager in leading Indian companies, but somewhere down the line, she felt the job was not allowing her to realise the fullest potential. The Indian corporate training industry was male dominated with self-serving men, supporting the “glass ceiling”. To break the barrier, Anubha opened her training firm founded on the basis of a new philosophy, which should serve the ideals of helping and promoting women in workplace. This new philosophy was called PRISM. Anubha provided an inclusive environment which allowed her trainers to grow and feel empowered in a gender-biased industry.Very recently, when COVID-19 pandemic happened, female trainers were under tremendous strain as training requirements completely dried up, and they were rendered jobless. Most of these educated young women had small kids and paid monthly installments for their home loans, sharing the financial burden with their husbands. Some mature trainers were single women who had to support themselves through savings in these difficult times. But Anubha’s sense of empowerment at PRISM helped these women to do things which made their livelihoods turnaround even in uncertain circumstances. PRISM philosophy made a turnaround too. While employees were thinking of abandoning their companies and vice-versa, trainers at PRISM went for free webinars to draw clients to their firms and changed the concept of training and delivery in corona times.PRISM acquired a new meaning of wellness and spirituality in these difficult times and soared ahead successfully.

The case study hopes to achieve the following pedagogical objectives: 1. To educate students on manners and traits of women entrepreneurs. Besides, the usual difficulties of financing and running a business, women face adversities at home in the form of lack of access to working capital, trust deficit amongst family and friends. Basically, lack of support system to propels women into the tougher role of an entrepreneur graduating from a regular employee. Gender becomes a disability, which women had to fight in the workplace. The case introduces the PRISM philosophy as a unique methodology to inculcate inclusivity in work environment leading to women empowerment. 2. To outline all issues related to ‘glass ceiling” – the barrier which existed in the corporate world for businesswomen. Students need to know about problems women faced in the business environment as well as shortcomings within themselves, which can make them unproductive. 3. To align students first hand with the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic, specific to women. The case talks about educated young and mature women in Anubha’s firm PRISM, fighting for lost livelihood owing to reduced levels of business. But women are known to be highly resilient and empowered in the right direction will turnaround the situation in their favour.

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The case has tremendous social implication for educated working women in traditional patriarchal Indian societies. Though a sizeable percentage of women have achieved higher education and started working in a male-dominated corporate world, only a small number of them are visible as entrepreneurs and/or leaders. Every woman needs to trace her journey from an employee to an entrepreneur or a CEO to assume a position of leadership. This case can be an eye opener for many such ambitious women who can build small- to mid-size businesses in a short span of time. Digital intervention is very important in COVID times to stay afloat. The author has shared links for many videos which can disseminate ideas for digital transformation in businesses. The case tries to showcase an ideal inclusive environment which will propel women to achieve their latent goals and desires breaking the 'glass ceiling.'

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurship.

MBA level – entrepreneurship courses, MA level – women empowerment issues, MBA – thriving in unstructured environments.

Saundarya Rajesh, was the founder-president of AVTAR Career Creators (ACC) a talent consulting firm that offered solutions in training, hiring, selection process outsourcing and human resource information studies to over 400 clients. The case describes the progressive journey of Saundarya as an entrepreneur in discovering and exploiting opportunities as they arise at different points of her career. Saundarya did pioneering work for creating flexi-career opportunities that included tools for Flexidizing® and Unbundling® of jobs. She has won many accolades for her work that included Tie Stree Shakti Awards 2011 for excellence in entrepreneurship, Cavinkare's Chinnikrishnan Innovation Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship 2011 and India Today's Business Wizards of Tamil Nadu, 2011. Saundarya was happy with the fact that there were 23,000 women currently on the AVTAR I-WIN network and there were 13-15 lakh more women whose talent could be harnessed. She dreamt of ensuring that 1.2 million Indian women, who had dropped out of the workforce in the past 10-15 years, could be brought back to contribute productively. While there appeared to be an acceptance of the flexible working concept among the potential employees and employers, several questions about the future potential of such a work-force needed to be answered.

To understand the factors that constitute entrepreneur's alertness such as personality traits, social networks and prior knowledge. To understand the importance of entrepreneur's alertness for identifying business opportunities. To understand types of entrepreneurial opportunities. To understand the opportunity identification triad: recognition, development and evaluation. To understand how to develop a business model in under-defined contexts.

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