Michael Seid, Managing Director of MSA Worldwide, addressed three classes of graduate students taking the Business at the Base of the Pyramid course at Harvard Business School. Together with Scott Hillstrom, Chairman of the HealthStore Foundation and Greg Starbird, Chief Operating Officer of CFWShops, Michael discussed the Harvard Case Study “CFW Clinics in Kenya: To Profit or Not for Profit” authored by Professor V. Kasturi Rangan and Graduate Assistant Katherine Lee. The case study examined the CFWShops franchise system in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Led by Professors Michael Chu, Shawn Cole, and Kash Rangan, the three classes of approximately 175 graduate students examined the question of CFWShops Social Sector Franchise changing from a not-for-profit structure to a for-profit franchisor. During the classes the students discussed the changes they recommended to improve the economic performance of the franchise system and the risks and benefits to CFWShops and its franchisees as a for-profit franchise system. Some of the conclusions presented by the students included recommendations concerning locating new clinics operated by franchisees in urban areas instead of the current peri-urban areas, adding additional methods for the delivery of medical care on an out-of-clinic basis, changes to CFWShops supply chain, and separating fees charged to patients for medical examinations from the current bundling of medical services and prescribed medication. The case study is available to download at http://hbr.org/product/cfw-clinics-in-kenya-to-profit-or-not-for-profit/an/512006-PDF-ENG?N=4294958507&Ntt=V.+Kasturi+Rangan.
Michael will speak in November at the First Global Conference on Social Franchising in Mombasa, Kenya and the 8th Annual US-Africa Business Summit; and at the Franchise Africa Workshop in Washington, DC in October.
For a video overview of Harvard Business School’s “Base of the Pyramid” course with Senior Lecturer Michael Chu, visit:
https://courseware.hbs.edu/mspublic/video/?v=0_ud49lkyi
Do you have further questions about social sector franchising?
MSA can provide expert guidance on how the model of social franchising can efficiently bring needed services to under-served populations.