Abstract

Danone Foods is a major food conglomerate and the Grameen Group is a Bangladesh-based group with interests in the energy, microfinance, fisheries, and telecommu-nications sectors. The case describes the Danone-Grameen JV, which was to be a social business enterprise. It then discusses the concept of social business enterprise and the reasons why SBEs have to be encouraged. The case ends with a brief discussion on the future prospects of SBEs in general and the joint venture in particular.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the concept of social business enterprises
• Analyze the reasons behind an MNC starting an SBE
• and Analyze the future prospects for SBEs

Keywords

Grameen Group, Groupe Danone, Social business enterprise, Corporate social responsibility, Corporate philanthropy, Bottom of pyramid, Marketing to the poor, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Joint venture, Not-for-profit