Game Changers
Alumni facilitating economic development in emerging economies
Judging by the headlines, many of the world’s emerging nations seem to face a grim future. They are periodically swept by famine, disease, and civil wars, and are often mired in poverty. Yet Western business refuses to write them off. Where others see despair, forward-looking businesses see billions of consumers with money to spend, a desire for a better life, and a willingness to apply capitalist solutions to longstanding problems. The stories below give a glimpse of the quiet revolution that is transforming the planet.
Justin DeKoszmovszky ’99, MBA ’06:
Combating Disease in the Poorest Big CitiesIn Nairobi, Kenya, roughly 150 residents share each of the communal bathrooms that serve the city’s poorest neighborhoods. But when it comes to cleaning them, none of those 150 people is in charge. The bacterial nightmare that results helps spread dysentery and other diarrheal diseases that are deadly to newborns and young children...more »
Kristin O’Planick, MBA ’10:
Making the Most of TourismForeign investment is supposed to spur local economies and create jobs. Sometimes it does neither. In Egypt, for example, European companies built numerous tourist hotels, and then staffed them with non-Egyptian workers. As a result, 90 percent of all tourist dollars spent at some resorts ended up in Europe...more »
Justin Bakule, MBA ’99:
Saving The Cocoa CropFor the world’s chocoholics, the outlook is grim. Chocolate requires cocoa, and in the world’s biggest cocoa producer — the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire — cocoa trees are growing old and increasingly unproductive...more »
Ryan Kelley, MBA ’09:
Our Man in MadagascarSeveral years ago, the eastern U.S. plunged into darkness when the power grid abruptly failed. By and large, Madagascar doesn’t have to worry about such problems; 80 percent of the country lacks electric power. Most residents cook with wood stoves and light their huts with candles or kerosene lamps...more »
Jean-Claude Balcet, MBA ’70:
Boosting Crop Production In BeninThe Green Revolution has largely missed Sub-Saharan Africa’s fast-growing nations, among them Benin, a long, narrow country sandwiched between Nigeria and Ghana. “In Benin, agricultural productivity has not markedly increased in past decades,” says Jean-Claude Balcet...more »
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