In 2017, Tim Kleinebenne, managing director of Unilever Ethiopia, and Buks Akinseye, senior global sustainability manager in Unilever’s Rotterdam headquarters, had collaborated to develop and launch a Shakti initiative, creating a last-mile distribution channel that targeted rural Ethiopia. While serving rural Ethiopia presented Unilever with a substantial market opportunity and the promise of achieving greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in its business strategy, the rollout had proved challenging. To facilitate the initiative, Unilever Ethiopia’s search for a partner had led to Kidame Mart, a local social enterprise founded by Shani Senbetta. With funding from Unilever, Senbetta and her team recruited economically vulnerable women in rural Ethiopia to be Shakti entrepreneurs and provided them a basket of goods to sell locally. This basket included mainly Unilever products, along with a few non-competing items from other companies. But, creating demand for Unilever products and in rural markets was difficult.
Unilever Ethiopia’s Shakti Initiative: Building a Rural Sales Channel
by: Ted London
Core Disciplines: Base of the Pyramid, International Business, Social Impact, Strategy & Management
Available Documents
Click on any button below to view the available document.
Make sure you are registered and/or logged in to our site to view product documents. Once registered & approved, faculty, staff, & course aggregators will have access to full inspection copies and teaching notes for any of our materials.
$3.95
If you need to make copies, you MUST purchase the corresponding number of permissions, and you must own a single copy of the product.
Electronic Downloads are available immediately after purchase. "Quantity" reflects the number of copies you intend to use. Unauthorized distribution of these files is prohibited pursuant to term of use of this website.
Teaching Note
This product has a teaching note available. Available only to Registered Educators. Please login to view it.
Description
Teaching Objectives
After reading and discussing the material, students should:
- Assess the opportunities and constraints inherent in building last-mile distribution channels that serve rural low-income markets.
- Analyze and respond to challenges in achieving equity, diversity, and inclusion through a strategy of engaging rural women as sales agents, particularly in a context where female empowerment and mobility are constrained.
- Recognize and evaluate key interdependencies in business models focused on serving rural communities, including managing the balance between business performance and social impact objectives.
- Prioritize among strategic options when seeking to scale a business model for low-income customers.