Social Entrepreneurship - The Alicia Polak Way

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Case Details:

Case Code : LDEN045
Case Length : 10 Pages
Period : 2004-06
Pub Date : 2007
Teaching Note :Not Available
Organization : Khayelitsha Cookie Company
Industry : Food Products
Countries : South Africa

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This case study was compiled from published sources, and is intended to be used as a basis for class discussion. It is not intended to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a management situation. Nor is it a primary information source.

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Background Note

Polak grew up in Philadelphia. She joined Merrill Lynch and Company⁶. According to her, "Working for Merrill Lynch in Manhattan was incredibly exciting. It was hard work, but it gave me a buzz and earnings beyond my expectations. The cash all went on travel and clothes."⁷

Two major incidents made a deep impact on her and changed her outlook toward life. As an investment banker with Merrill Lynch, Polak traveled extensively across the world and on one such trip to India, she witnessed acute poverty. Speaking about her experiences later, she said, "I remember once being wined and dined on a trip to India; I was staying in this luxury hotel, while on the streets outside there was total poverty."⁸

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The second incident was the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11, 2001⁹. In this connection, she said, "I was only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center at that time and I thought, 'If I'd died today, the only legacy I'd have left is a cupboard full of things."¹⁰ At that time, she decided to change the course of her life and work for international aid organizations.

Polak went back to college to take up the MBA program at the Stern School of Business in New York University. As a part of the requirement of the program, she did her internship in South Africa at the University of Cape Town. The extreme levels of poverty that she saw in India were also evident in Cape Town, where she saw thousands of people living in tin shacks. They did not have basic facilities like water supply and sewerage. Most of the people there did not have jobs that could help them afford better living conditions. Polak began working for a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Africa, which was distributing wind up radios¹¹ in several countries in the continent.

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6] Merrill Lynch and Company Inc. is one of the world's leading financial management and advisory companies in the world. The company and its subsidiaries provide a wide range of services including capital market services, asset management, wealth management, insurance etc. The company has offices in around 40 countries, where it employs more than 50,000 people. The revenues in 2005 stood at US$ 47.783 billion and net income at US$ 5.116 billion.

7] "Says No To…," Glamour South Africa, November 2006.

8] Thomas McLachlan, "From Banking to Baking, Alicia Sets out to Change the World One Bite at a Time," www.dispatch.co.za, October 02, 2006.

9] On September 11, 2001, there was a series of terrorist attacks in the US. Hijackers who took control of four US domestic commercial airliners, crashed two planes into the World Trade Center in Manhattan; the third aircraft crashed into the US Department of Defense headquarters at the Pentagon, and the fourth into a field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The attacks resulted in 2,973 fatalities and Property owners and insurers incurred heavy losses running into billions of dollars.

10] "Says No To…," Glamour South Africa, November 2006.

11] Wind up radios do not use batteries, electricity, or solar cells for powering the radio. Instead, the radios are powered by a wind up mechanism. These radios are used in the countries where electric supply is not adequate and batteries are not easily available.