Successfully Penetrating African Markets: A Case Study of Usco

The success of the African operations of Usco, a fictional global conglomerate based on actual companies, depends on its organizational choices.

The case describes operations within Usco offices in Africa and offers an opportunity to explore the organizational decisions through a lens of information flow analysis. Usco’s organizational structure and decisions can be considered through the lenses of two Usco objectives stated in the case: 1) increasing revenue in the African markets and 2) supporting its growth markets around the world.

The overall question students must answer after analyzing this case is: What are some general conclusions and principles that should guide Usco’s organizational decisions moving forward?

• Identify different organizational tools that a manager might use in any similar situation.
• Think systematically about how to use organizational choices to achieve business goals.
• Understand some of the costs and benefits of integration vs. external contracting, using teams, and other organizational mechanisms.