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Can Business Transform Primary Health Care Across Africa?

Re: Regina E. Herzlinger

mPharma, headquartered in Ghana, is trying to create the largest pan-African health care company. Their mission is to provide primary care and a reliable and fairly priced supply of drugs in the nine African countries where they operate. Co-founder and CEO Gregory Rockson needs to decide which component of strategy to prioritize in the next three years. His options include launching a telemedicine program, expanding his pharmacies across the continent, and creating a new payment program to cover the cost of common medications. Rockson cares deeply about health equity, but his venture capital-financed company also must be profitable. Which option should he focus on expanding? Harvard Business School Professor Regina Herzlinger and case protagonist Gregory Rockson discuss the important role business plays in improving health care in the case, “mPharma: Scaling Access to Affordable Primary Care in Africa.”

Could a Business Model Help Big Pharma Save Lives and Profit?

by Esther Schrader

Gilead Sciences used a novel approach to help Egypt address a public health crisis while sustaining profits from a key product. V. Kasturi Rangan and participants at a recent seminar hosted by the Institute for the Study of Business in Global Society discussed what it would take to apply the model more widely.

Will Global Demand for Oil Peak This Decade?

by Alvin Powell, Harvard Gazette

The International Energy Agency expects the world's oil demand to start to ebb in the coming years. However, Joseph Lassiter and Lauren Cohen say the outlook will likely be more complex, especially as poor and fast-growing regions seek energy sources for their economies.

Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi: Transforming Lives with Access to Credit

Re: Caroline M. Elkins

James Mwangi, CEO of Equity Bank, has transformed lives and livelihoods throughout East and Central Africa by giving impoverished people access to banking accounts and micro loans. He’s been so successful that in 2020 Forbes coined the term “the Mwangi Model.” But can we really have both purpose and profit in a firm? Harvard Business School professor Caroline Elkins, who has spent decades studying Africa, explores how this model has become one that business leaders are seeking to replicate throughout the world in her case, “A Marshall Plan for Africa': James Mwangi and Equity Group Holdings.” As part of a new first-year MBA course at Harvard Business School, this case examines the central question: what is the social purpose of the firm?

A Rose by Any Other Name: Supply Chains and Carbon Emissions in the Flower Industry

Re: Willy C. Shih & Michael W. Toffel

Headquartered in Kitengela, Kenya, Sian Flowers exports roses to Europe. Because cut flowers have a limited shelf life and consumers want them to retain their appearance for as long as possible, Sian and its distributors used international air cargo to transport them to Amsterdam, where they were sold at auction and trucked to markets across Europe. But when the Covid-19 pandemic caused huge increases in shipping costs, Sian launched experiments to ship roses by ocean using refrigerated containers. The company reduced its costs and cut its carbon emissions, but is a flower that travels halfway around the world truly a “low-carbon rose”? Harvard Business School professors Willy Shih and Mike Toffel debate these questions and more in their case, “Sian Flowers: Fresher by Sea?”

What’s Next for Nigerian Production Studio EbonyLife Media?

Re: Andy Wu

After more than 20 years in the media industry in the UK and Nigeria, EbonyLife Media CEO Mo Abudu is considering several strategic changes for her media company’s future. Will her mission to tell authentic African stories to the world be advanced by distributing films and TV shows direct to customers? Or should EbonyLife instead distribute its content through third-party streaming services, like Netflix? Assistant Professor Andy Wu discusses Abudu’s plans for her company in his case, EbonyLife Media. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

How Countries Use Financial Policy to Fight COVID-19

by Rachel Layne

Developing countries have fewer fiscal tools and policy options to combat COVID-19 damage to their economies, according to research by Alberto Cavallo and colleagues. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

A Mass Crisis Can Overwhelm Health Care. Liberia Found a Solution.

by Rachel Layne

Liberia trains community workers to help medical professionals on the front lines of disease control, says Brian Trelstad. Could the model work elsewhere? Open for comment; 0 Comments.

In the Shadows? Informal Enterprise in Non-Democracies

by Kristin Fabbe, Allison Spencer Hartnett, and Steve L. Monroe

With the informal economy representing a third of the GDP in an average Middle East and North African country, why do chronically indebted regimes tolerate such a large and untaxed shadow economy? Among this study’s findings, higher rates of public sector employment correlate with greater permissibility of firm informality.

Voter ID Laws Don't Work (But They Don't Hurt Anything, Either)

by Sean Silverthorne

Voter ID laws are often proposed as an antidote to election fraud. There's just one problem, according to Vincent Pons. They don't work. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Negotiating a Better Future: How Interpersonal Skills Facilitate Inter-Generational Investment

by Nava Ashraf, Natalie Bau, Corinne Low, and Kathleen McGinn

For many girls in developing countries, early adolescence is a time of key challenges: school dropout rates rise, and social and economic pressures increase for marriage and motherhood. This randomized control trial involving Zambian adolescent girls finds that negotiation skills can help them navigate these challenges. Girls taught negotiation skills had significantly better educational outcomes over the next three years.

What We've Learned from 101 Entrepreneurs in Emerging Markets

by Sean Silverthorne

Harvard Business School’s project exploring the evolution of business leadership in emerging economies has reached an important milestone. Project leaders Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna discuss what's been learned from the Creating Emerging Markets study so far. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Emerging Markets and the Future of Business History

by Gareth Austin, Carlos Dávila, and Geoffrey Jones

This paper argues that there are important commonalities about the business history of countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America despite differences between countries and within regions of each country. It is possible to discern a distinctive body of scholarship different from that on the West.

How an African History Scholar Became a Modern Righter of Wrongs

by Carmen Nobel

A scholar of colonial-era African history, Caroline M. Elkins had dramatic success turning prior knowledge into real-world action—namely, with a groundbreaking lawsuit against the British government, which revealed a chillingly bureaucratic process for destroying evidence of torture. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Building India’s First $100 Billion Company

Re: Sunil Gupta

Startups welcome growth but are often strangled by it. In this podcast, Sunil Gupta discusses how entrepreneur Vijay Shekhar Sharma is meeting this challenge with his mobile payments company Paytm. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Making Health Insurance That Consumers Actually Like

Re: Regina E. Herzlinger

By motivating its insurance customers to take care of themselves, South African firm Vitality has expanded to the United Kingdom and China. In this podcast, Professor Regina Herzlinger discusses potential impacts of this model for health care in the United States. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

Reputation is Vital to Survival in Turbulent Markets

by Sean Silverthorne

Reputation and resilience are key ingredients that determine whether companies will survive tumultuous markets, according to a new paper by Geoffrey Jones, Tarun Khanna, Cheng Gao, and Tiona Zuzul. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

What Africa Can Teach the United States About Funding Infrastructure Projects

by John Macomber

John Macomber explains why the solution to America’s infrastructure woes may lie in finance models that have proven successful in several nations in Africa. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

The $1 Trillion Link Between Mental Health and Economic Productivity

by Carmen Nobel

According to the World Health Organization, depression and anxiety disorders cost nearly $1 trillion annually. Nava Ashraf discusses the important link between mental health and economic productivity. Open for comment; 0 Comments.

World Health Organization Lacks Leadership to Combat Pandemics

by John Quelch

When it comes to emergency preparedness for pandemics, the World Health Organization is falling short, argues John A. Quelch. A better solution: The World Bank. Open for comment; 0 Comments.