School Notes: School of Management
May/June 2015

Students travel the world during Global Network Week 2015

Students from Yale SOM and other schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management got a weeklong tour of economic innovation in South Africa in March, during a course titled Economics of Emerging Markets: Social Innovation and Business in Africa, hosted by the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. The session, part of Global Network Week, combined lectures at the school with visits to tiny, innovative businesses in South Africa’s townships and to some of the country’s largest companies.

Professor John Luiz, who teaches international business strategy at Cape Town, told students that the base of the pyramid in Africa—that is, the poorest citizens—has some of the biggest business opportunities. For a model of how to do business in this market, Luiz says, look to one of the most successful technologies on the continent: cellular phones. Pay-as-you-go phones are flourishing in Africa, because they are affordable to even the poorest citizens. “Do not dismiss the market,” Luiz said. “Find a way to make the product cost more digestible to a market.”

Students help organizations in Brazil

A team of students from SOM and FGV Escola de Administração de Empresas de São Paulo (FGV), a member of the Global Network for Advanced Management, traveled to São Paolo, Brazil, during spring break to provide pro-bono consulting services to social enterprises. The students were taking part in Global Social Enterprise (GSE), an elective course and student-led club that allows students to apply their management skills to pro-bono consulting projects for clients in developing countries.

In GSE courses, students work virtually with clients while completing coursework focused on learning about the selected country, entrepreneurship in developing countries, social enterprises, and skills applicable to their team projects. The spring break trip allows students to work on-site with their clients.

The SOM/FGV student teams worked with five Brazilian enterprises, including firms that bring English language instruction to underprivileged Brazilians; provide mobile medical care and education to communities in need; provide financial services for lower-income families; run a network of low-cost medical clinics; and foster the sustainable production of native Amazonian fish for human consumption.