MNGT-E2001 - Doing Business in Emerging Markets, Lecture, 24.10.2023-30.11.2023
This course space end date is set to 30.11.2023 Search Courses: MNGT-E2001
Session 5: Business Environment and Community Engagement in Economic Activities in Africa (09 November 2023)
During this session we are going to talk about business environment in Africa and community engagement as a part of company's stakeholder management strategy.
Objectives and Overview
How we (as a company) interact with our stakeholders has a massive impact on our fortunes. Ignoring stakeholders can cause us to lose our social license to operate, something that cost the company billions of dollars. Stakeholder pressures can also lead to large PR and strategic issues for companies and for whole industries. This leads us to the understanding that we must engage with our stakeholders. The question then becomes: what is the best way to implement a stakeholder management strategy? To explore this question, we will look at Tata Chemicals Magadi. In doing so, it must be recognized that TCM’s situation is not one that most of you will end up in. However, the extreme nature of the case – basically zero government, a remote community, massive social and environmental issues – means that we can learn a lot from this case.
Preparatory Readings
Part 1: African Business Environment:
The Economist (2020) Take-off speed.
The Economist (2020) Why are some African countries improving and others don't?
The Economist (2022) China's involvement in Africa:
.
Part 2: Community engagement
Case: Tata Chemicals Magadi: Confronting Poverty in Rural Africa
Optional Reading: Engaging the Community: A systematic review. Network for Business Sustainability. 2008 (ONLY worry about section 4.2 (pages 12-17), and maybe the executive summary. If you ever need to do this type of work in your jobs, this is an invaluable resource)
Discussion Questions for TCM case:
- Should Tata Chemicals Magadi even have to provide services to the community? Aren’t jobs enough?
- Between 1999 and 2004, how did TCM’s approach to poverty change? What happened that led to these changes?
- Between 2004 and 2009, how did TCM’s approach to poverty change? What happened that led to these changes?