Applied Managerial Economics

CASE STUDY 1

EZICK DAFE Consults: Celebration of Entrepreneurship (CoE)

Gabriel N, the Chief Executive of EZICK DAFE Consults and head of Strategic Stakeholder Rendezvous sat leisurely in his chair. As he leaned back in his spinning chair with a big smile on his face, he signaled to one of his managers to bring his own chair closer for a casual discussion. Gabriel started by talking about how pleased he is with the company’s community engagement initiatives. EZICK DAFE Consults adopted 4x4x4x4 community engagement initiatives, where the company engages in community outreach program every first quarter of the year. Here the company donates four important items to any needing institution – hospital, motherless babies home, schools, or village projects (water, electricity, maternity etc.). For the second quarter, the company allows each department to send at least two employees to spend one week on volunteer work in the community. The third quarter, the company organizes a bazaar, where children from the low income community come to the headquarters of the company to enjoy assorted food and drink, and finally in the last quarter, the company invites church leaders for free seminar, free lunch, and free gifts to go home with.

The company’s community initiative is well recognized nationally and regionally. Most of the community events attracted the state and national TV press coverage and the events are reported on the state and national news headlines. In fact, EZICK DAFE Consults won many prizes for their community efforts. One of the chiefs of the community awarded them Omereoha 1, of the community, a title that is given to the highest contributors to community developments. Over the last 7 years, EZICK DAFE Consults had spent close to US$20 million on community programs and community engagement.

The government recognizes the efforts of EZICK DAFE Consults towards community improvement. The Board has been invited at least twice to hold a business rally for companies around the area to discuss how they would join in community development. The company’s success has attracted a few other firms to engage in some community development activities. The company stakeholders ask questions like, where do we go with the 4x4x4x4 community model? How would this program be extended to other events that would translate success to the company? How would the company fund their community effort in order to expand it further? How would the company’s community effort be organized for yet better result? Would it be better to hand over 4x4x4x4 project to the state government then find other projects to engage in for the community?

Your team has been hired as a business consult and expert in community development efforts to look into EZICK DAFE Consults community engagement initiatives and their effect on their overall business. You are specifically required to come up with recommendations on the following:

1. Should EZICK DAFE Consults continue with 4x4x4x4 community effort?

2. How would EZICK DAFE Consults organize their 4x4x4x4 for better results?

3. How would EZICK DAFE Consults fund their community project?

4. Should EZICK DAFE Consults retain ownership of the 4x4x4x4 or relinquish it to the government?

5. What other community outreaches should EZICK DAFE Consults engage in and why?

6. What recommendations would you give to the owners of EZICK DAFE Consults about the future of their company in the face of technology explosion?

7. What suggestions would you give to owners of EZICK DAFE Consults on how to add customer satisfaction and product quality improvement to their strategy?

8. If AutoEdge Board decides to start a branch of its business in another continent, discuss some of the legal, cultural, financial, and economic factors they must take into consideration.

Primary Task: 400–600 words;

Problem-based learning (PBL) is broken down into 3 phases: understanding the problem, exploring the available information, and resolving the problem. Each phase includes a series of steps, as follows:

1. Understand the problem.
Meet the problem: Orient yourself to the problem.
Determine what is known and what needs to be known or discovered.
Define the problem statement: What exactly is the problem?
2 Explore the available information.
Collect information from a variety of sources.
Share and document information from discovery.
Generate possible solutions for comparison and consideration.
3. Resolve the problem.
Determine the solution that best fits.
Present and justify the solution.
Debrief the problem with a conclusion and the lessons that you learned.
based on the description of PBL above, answer the following questions:
What are your overall thoughts on PBL?
What ideas and plans do you have about approaching each of the 3 main phases and related tasks?
What are the pros and cons of PBL?

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