Fall Week 7

What is creativity? 

Use of the imagination, original ideas, 

Thinking differently than other people 

Being innovative – pure ideas

Combining and recombining ideas in unique ways 

Thinking more thoroughly 

 

The creative process:

  • When does it happen? All the time 
  • How does it happen? Without working too hard 
  • Doing shit
  • *Marc Rubin has been removed from the group chat* 
  • In groups
  • Relying on outside / different sources 
  • In the shower 🙂
  • The flow state 

 

What is flight? 

  • Life or death 
  • You get shoved out of the nest 
  • Has to be an instinct 
  • Comes naturally (to birds)

Sum total of all internal and external forces 

Emergence: occurs when an entity is observed to have properties or behaviors that its parts do not have on its own

 

Blog Post Part 1 

 

Tenet 1: Interdependence:

The interactive effect of tasks, goals, and feedback combinations. A state in which all firms in a market or players in a game, though in competition, are dependent on the actions and strategies of all the other firms or players in that market or game. 

 

Our simple words: How different aspects all work together, relate to one another, and rely on each other. 

Example: Behaviors in a region are interdependent when it comes to getting ebola. 

Additional Example: Correlation between grain spawn sterility and the resulting bacteria levels in the substrate bags. 

 

Tenet 2: Holism

The idea that all of the properties of a given system—whether physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, or linguistic—can not be determined or explained by their component parts alone. Instead, the system as a whole determines how the parts behave. 

 

Example: Every input for mushrooms is all worthless but when they come together a valuable product is created. 

Our simple words: The whole make up something greater than the sum of its parts. 

 

Tenet 3: Multifinality

Example: Mushrooms

  1. Jawara gets money and satisfaction from working on the job.
  2. People get mushrooms and more ability
  3. Marc and Belle receiving work experience, satisfaction from the job.

Definition: The same group of inputs is able to result in multiple potentially unrelated end products.  (The whole point of probability).. Subsystems meet goals and contribute to the larger systems goals. 

 

Tenet 4: Equifinality: 

Example: There are multiple ways to grow and oyster mushrooms (3 main ones). 

Example: Multiple groups in GSIF addressing maternal health.

Our simple words: There are many different ways to reach the same end. 

 

Tenet 5: Differentiation: 

Our simple definition: A method of identifying individual components of a large system

 

Example: Small stories building on each other and adding to the larger story. They’re different in that they each engage listeners in different ways and convey different aspects. 

Mushrooms: Three main parts. Spawn. Substrate Pasteurization. Growth. All of these parts represent interdependence, differentiation, and holism. 

 

Tenet 6: Regulation

Our definition: ensure that the system is actually working and all stakeholders are accountable to each other and the system

 

Our simple definition: keeping people accountable

Example: How to ensure that Jawara is doing what he needs to be doing. 

 

Tenet 7: Abstraction: Basically your start at the nitty-gritty detail of either an idea or point and then taking steps back until you can begin to grasp how things play together.

Example: We believe that bats transmit Ebola to humans, but this comes from the fact the bats are in the woods and have the disease, they can give it to multiple animals before it even makes it to a human. Then you have the health works trying to solve this from an urban point of view, then you can go higher all the way back to the ministry of health planning. When you look at how bats lead Ebola to Humans, you can get different answers from different views.

 

Tenet 8: Leverage Points

Definition: The point(s) that would create the most change. Small shifts in one thing can produce big changes in everything. 

Example: Malnutrition, if we give them what they need, they will do better in school, in life, won’t have as many problems in relation to health.

 

Examples: The barriers to entries of the mushroom market are all non-tangible like knowledge. All the inputs are waste products so the biggest leverage point is education. 

 

Part Two

The Concept of Emergence: 

In simple words, the concept of emergence is when someone’s creativity has caught on and begins to spread. Something new is becoming popular or well known enough for it to be considered “a thing”. An example of an emergent system that creates a sustainable and scalable social venture is…. Exactly what all of us are trying to do. GRO mushroom project is an emergent system because no one has been able to thus far create zero energy or zero waste way to grow mushrooms on waste. Their venture is sustainable in that it works of waste and doesn’t negatively impact the environment. They’re still working on the scaleable part but the idea is the slow spread of ideas and the sale of GRO mushrooms structures. 

 Solutions to Water Hyacinth:

 

The solution to the problem: 

  1. Advertise you are paying people to collect it for you. We will pay individuals the market rate for the amount of hyacinth. This will mean that people who collect it will make money, and they will provide the Entrepreneur with what she needs. This may slightly increase the price of the briquettes or composite but will solve the problem for collecting and put the community at ease. Instead of the entrepreneur owning all parts of the briquette market she will allow the community to supply her giving them an idea of control and benefit that they did not see before. This won’t significantly change any of the processes in any way. Additionally, we could also only accept less hydrated hyacinth, which cuts done on the cost of the Entrepreneur in processing.

Fall Week 6

Partnerships

  1. World Hope
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. Use of vehicles
      2. Transportation
      3. Connections to use on the ground resources
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. Transportation
      2. Connections to use on the ground resources
      3. Helped them serve the SL community
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. Yes, they provided us with invaluable knowledge but we compensated them for transportation costs, employees, etc
    4.  What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. More collaboration with SLeans in the project specifically 
  2. Translators
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. They translated for the project 
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. We paid them in exchange for a service
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. Yes, we compensated them and they translated for us
      2. We tended to set hours and plan most of the logistics
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. Utilizing their unique insights can
      2. Balance power a little more

 

  1. Statistics SL
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. They are helping us with implementing a survey
      2. Giving us data sets from previously administered surveys
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. We are providing knowledge and information that could potentially benefit SL
      2. If successful it will benefit both of us reputations
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. Yes, we both benefit from what we each bring to the table
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. Collaborating on the survey that they create using the information we gained from our surveys
  2. Ministry of Health
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. Exchange of information including data sets and connections
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. Exchange of information including data sets and connections
      2. Information about EVD that could help public health in SL
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. We haven’t come to an agreement about how we will collaborate but ultimately both of us will benefit from the results of our research
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
  3. Vaffoley
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. He proofread our survey and helped with questions
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. He proofread our survey and helped with questions
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. He didn’t really gain anything specific but likely cares about his home country and has a stake in benefitting it
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. He could potentially collaborate with us in the future and we could give him credit/acknowledgment 
  4. Psychology Professor (Advisor)
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. She provides her advice on designing our survey
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. She gave advice on what made sense from a questionnaire point of view.
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. Nope, she got nothing in return
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. We could provide her with some Authorship
  5. Dr. Buecta & Dr. Bocchini (Lehigh University) Key advisors
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. They agree to act as advisors and help with gathering research while we put their names on our research and gave them credit.
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. They provided advice and consoling on to initially conduct research
      2. The provided access to tool and knowledge we wouldn’t be able 
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. Yes they received credit for the work we did, while we got resources as well as knowledge in exchange
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. Honestly, I don’t think we can.
  6. Google Earth Engine (Micro Partnership)
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. Google provided us with data, in exchange for processing power and   on the Platform
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. They help us gather data, in large quantities quickly and effectively
      2. Kept upkeep and wrote code that they could use to gather data.
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. Yes, we both received value for our actions, but I think we got the better end because we put up zero money.
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. If we could find a way to get a service license, then we could provide them with money in exchange for more access.
  7. NIH
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. We are contracted to do the mission of our project in exchange for money and resources.
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. They provide money and their reputation, which allowed us to cut through red tape
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. I mean we receive money in exchange for producing research so I believe we have a symbiotic relationship
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. If we could have more contact between us and be allowed to access more of their human capital could help us, and the interaction might help with stimulating new concepts
  8. Fulcrum (Micro Partner)
    1. What constituted the partnership?
      1. We paid them to store our data in exchange for money.
    2. How did the partner help you? How did you help them?
      1. They provided an easy to use platform that allowed us to collect data and upload it remotely. It also allowed us to geo-locate easily and store location.
    3. Was this a symbiotic relationship? Why or why not?
      1. They received money in exchange for allowing us to use their service.
    4. What would help strengthen this partnership and make it more equitable?
      1. I think we can, they also aren’t that important

 

Who’s in the Coalition: Ebola Busters

  1. Core Stakeholders
    1. African Union
    2. Aid Organization
    3. World Hope International
    4. Ministry of Health
    5. Statistic SL
    6. Medical suppliers
  2. Opinion Leaders
    1. MSF 
    2. NIH
    3. WHO
    4. CDC
    5. Ministry of Health
  3. Policy Makers
    1. Ministry of Health
    2. CDC
    3. WHO
    4. NIH
    5. Massanga Hospital
  4. Resource Partners
    1. Other researchers in the field- knowledge
    2. Dr. Bocchini & Dr. Buecta
    3. Lehigh University
    4. World Hope International
  5. Signaling Partners
    1. Ministry of Health
    2. MSF (Doctors without borders)
    3. NIH
    4. WHI
  6. First responders & where the money comes from
    1. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

The original goal would be to start with the local government in Sierra Leone as well as the partners they have in-country (aka WHI). Then after we have created a partnership with the key players in Sierra Leone, the next goal would be to leverage those partners to jump onto bigger players like the key player across West Africa, like MSF and the rest of the region’s governments. After we got them on board we would target East Africa in the same sense as we did start in a country and then moving on the greater region’s government once you have traction. After this, we would target the major funders and players of medicine in the world (aka WHO, NIH, CDC), by leveraging the governments and partnership we had grown on the ground in Africa.

 

Fall Week 5

Part 1: 

Step 1

The facts:

  1. Neem is indigenous to India and is considered sacred
  2. neem used extensively over the past 2,000 years for medicinal purposes, food production, toiletries, fuel, and pesticides. 
  3. Neem products used widely across India and the industry as a whole employs many poor people
  4. Chetan operates a small business of neem tree products
  5. Chetan’s family has owned this business for the last seven generations
  6. The business employs 60 people in different functions
  7. Despite being familiar with over 200 applications of the tree and its derivatives, Chetan does not know the exact name of the neem seed extract, Azadirachtin. 
  8. Ten years ago, Tom Johnson (OOPS) discovered the neem seeds’ use as a potent pesticide. 
  9. Tom received a patent for the pesticide formula and brought the product to market
  10. They have a worldwide patent and financial capital to manufacture and sell the product on a large scale.
  11. People are likely to prefer buying products from US companies over small Indian cottage, affecting business locally

 

Step 2 & 3:

The stakeholders

  1. OOPS
    1. Professional: Making a lot of money, Gain a large market share
    2. Personal: Make a lot of money for themselves, they also have serious money at stake
  2. Chentan
    1. Professional: Keep his employees, have a business to still run/not be the guy who ran the company to the ground
    2. Personal: Family relationships at stake, money (not as much a worry though)
  3. Chentan’s employees 
    1. Professional: They don’t want to lose their jobs, they probably like the jobs
    2. Personal: They rely on the job to make ends meet, they need the money from the jobs and probably will have a hard time finding a new one 
  4. Other Indian growers of neem trees
    1. Professional: money/job security
    2. Personal: feeding families, social worth
  5. Competing companies (Chentan could help them instead)
    1. Professional: 
  6. Consumers in India
    1. Professional: Economic impact of large job layoff
    2. Personal: Want there friends to have 

Step 4:

Solutions:

  1. Try and employ the people affected in a new way by selling a different product/Work with locals to create a new formula and have a shared patent
    1. Pro: This could fix the problem from a revenue standpoint, they would have all of the systems to sell the product as well as the expertise to do it.
    2. Con: It would be hard to find a new strain to a patent if so the patent might not hold up. It will be expensive to create a new formula from a farming point of view and a legal point of view. Plus people might still prefer the other product.
  2. Try and persuade the government to not accept the subsidized goods
    1. Pro: This would allow the locals to manufacture the goods and sell them locally at the price they were at before.
    2. Con: It might be really hard to get them to actually convince the government to actually do this. After all, there is not an extremely important reason to not enforce the patent.
  3. Have the locals sue in regards to the patent because it probably isn’t strong enough. (Have the local form a gang). 
    1. Pro: This could fix the problem without having to deal with the government which could be a large factor. They would win the fact that the this material is not patentable, but thats not really a win-win situation because it could against there favor later on if they tried to patent it.
    2. Con: OOPS has the money to out price them in the short term just to force them anyway so the patent is sort of irrelevant in my mind, whether they would do this is its own ethical question. It’s also extremely expensive to try to sue the US company, especially when it comes to

 

Step 5:

Additional Resources

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/the-patent-landscape-of-genetically-modified-organisms/

https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2016/si/article_0004.html

Step 6:

Best Course of action

 

I think the best course of action would be to try and get the patent taken away while trying to convince the this is by far the most expensive, most difficult, as well as most time-consuming approach, but I think it is the only one that brings them back to an even playing field. If they don’t take drastic measures they will probably go under anyway so you might as well go out with a fight. You can try and employ the people using other methods or by growing crops, but you don’t know that would work plus if you have to find the money for more crops, you gonna be short anyway so you might as well be short, and have a chance at fixing your problem long term by making sure you can’t get your product stole by a US corporation. I think that OOPS is ethically allowed to do what they did, is it legal from a sense of intellectual property, I don’t think so, but I do think it is ethical. The basis of IP law is to ensure that if you spend a bunch of money on R&D you get the money back. Did OOPS do this, no, but did they use the law to their advantage, that not ethical, it’s just a little immoral. The world is a capitalist society, well sort of, so is it ethical to sell a product at a lower price than others can: yes, as long as your not price gouging which they weren’t doing. 

 

Step 7:

Implication

The implications of fighting the patent are enormous. The first one is the debt the locals will incur if they choose to hire lawyers. They also will have to spend a tremendous amount of time gathering evidence and using their time to win this trial. It is entirely possible that could go bankrupt if they lose the case. There are also legal implications if the case is overturned and precedent if it is not. Either way, this could impact other business of similar nature, thus they might be able to ask outside sources to help fund the battle.

 

Part 2:

Step 1:

Facts

  1. Neem is indigenous to India and is considered sacred
  2. neem used extensively over the past 2,000 years for medicinal purposes, food production, toiletries, fuel, and pesticides. 
  3. Neem products used widely across India and the industry as a whole employs many poor people
  4. Chetan operates a small business of neem tree products
  5. Chetan’s family has owned this business for the last seven generations
  6. The business employs 60 people in different functions
  7. Despite being familiar with over 200 applications of the tree and its derivatives, Chetan does not know the exact name of the neem seed extract, Azadirachtin. 
  8. Ten years ago, Tom Johnson (OOPS) discovered the neem seeds’ use as a potent pesticide. 
  9. Tom received a patent for the pesticide formula and brought the product to market
  10. They have a worldwide patent and financial capital to manufacture and sell the product on a large scale.
  11. People are likely to prefer buying products from US companies over small Indian cottage, affecting business locally
  12. 6 months down killing the Indian market
  13. 20 products sold at supermarkets
  14. Neem based soap is best product
  15. The wrapper of soap has tom on it
  16. Chetan has his grandfather on i 
  17. Chetan met with tom multiple times urge him to move out of the market
  18. Tom refused to move out but would collaborate
  19. Chetan business is suffering
  20. Likley will have to lay off workers at least half
  21. They have worked with the company for a long time
  22. Chetan is finically well off and will do fine if the company shuts down
  23. Chetan is sad to lay them off
  24. His employees think he cut a deal with OOPS
  25. They feel cheated by chetan


Step 2 & 3

  1. OOPS
    1. Professional: Making a lot of money, Gain a large market share
    2. Personal: Make a lot of money for themselves, they also have serious money at stake
  2. Chentan
    1. Professional: Keep his employees, have a business to still run/not be the guy who ran the company to the ground
    2. Personal: Family relationships at stake, money (not as much a worry though)
  3. Chentan’s employees 
    1. Professional: They don’t want to lose their jobs, they probably like the jobs
    2. Personal: They rely on the job to make ends meet, they need the money from the jobs and probably will have a hard time finding a new one 
  4. Other Indian growers of neem trees
    1. Professional: money/job security, will OOPs get a monopoly?
    2. Personal: feeding families, social worth
  5. Tom
    1. Professional: needs to make the most of his company, can’t afford to give up anything in a tough market.
    2. Personal: Probs doesn’t want to have to make Chetan lay off workers

 

Step 4:

Solutions 1

  1. Potential Solution: Negotiate a partnership with OOPS
  2. How does it solve the problem? 
    1. Pros: It allows them to keep running, at a decreased profit, but still run. You also get to keep your employees or at least some of them
    2. Cons: Your probably gonna have fewer employees and less profit, doesn’t look great for image
  3. How does it save the face of those involved?: It allows you to keep the business running but at a decreased profit. You save jobs and people’s livelihoods.
  4. Implications on relationships
    1. Short-term: Might piss people off that some lose jobs and that people probs get paid less
    2. Long-term: Might help keep your business running in the long run, thus making you not look like the person who killed the business
  5. Implications on the venture
    1. Short-term: Cash flow back in, Keep jobs, keep employees, low moral over layoffs
    2. Long-term: Could save accounting problems and cash problem with competition

Solutions 2

  1. Potential Solution: Convince OOPS to buy them out
  2. How does it solve the problem?
    1. Pros: This has the same benefits as solution 1, but adds to the fact that opps are incentivized to make your company work and function because otherwise, it is a cash problem. Verse with solution 1 they don’t care if you do badly only if you do well.
    2. Cons: Will be extremely hard to make happen unless Chetan sells at a deal, everyone might not keep their jobs, and the company might just be sold for scraps
  3. How does it save the face of those involved?:  It allows Chetan to exit peacefully and make this toms problem. It also lets people keep their jobs, probably temporally, but long enough to figure out what to do.
  4. Implications on relationships
    1. Short-term: Might be considered a coward, but should help keep family has a little hope, buy out can lead to house cleaning, which could be bad for morale.
    2. Long-term: People might have a chance to keep jobs long term vs the other solutions don’t offer the same incentive. 
  5. Implications on the venture
    1. Short-term: Might allow for cash flow to start back in, which could allow people to keep jobs, also might kill jobs unknown
    2. Long-term: Could keep the business long term, or could be sold for scraps.

Solutions 3

  1. Potential Solution: Shut down the business
  2. How does it solve the problem?
    1. Pros: No longer have cash hemorrhage, can retire, less stress
    2. Cons: You have to fire everyone, pay severance packages, no income from your end
  3. How does it save the face of those involved?: It doesn’t necessarily, but it prevents a long drown out bankruptcy which people would get nothing, thus saves the company from this.
  4. Implications on relationships
    1. Short-term: People might be mad they lost jobs
    2. Long-term: People might hate you for shutting down the company
  5. Implications on the venture
    1. Short-term: Money for exit 
    2. Long-term: N/A

 

Step 5:

https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/close-or-sell-your-business

https://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/closing-a-business/necessary-steps-to-dissolve-your-company.html

https://thebusinessprofessor.com/knowledge-base/closing-up-shop/




Step 6:

I think I would try to get the company bought because either way it is going to shut down. Do I believe I owe jobs to each employee, not really because my job is to best for the company, so if selling it or shutting down is best then I must do that. Would I write great recs, of course, but thats a moral reason not because I feel obligated too. I think that in this scenario selling might get people jobs for a little longer, thus I think it worth trying, also the sale could be used for a fund for severance packages for the works who might get laid off. If I can’t sell I would shut down the business because it is not a charity, it is not supposed to run at a cash negative state. If it’s not making money it shouldn’t be open. Does that suck for the employees, yes, but times change, and if you don’t change with it you get left behind.

 

Step 7:

  1. Try to get company bought
  2. If fails shut down
  3. Write recs for employees
  4. If successful sell and help run the company for a little so they don’t run it to the ground.

 

Part 1: 

Step 1

The facts:

  1. Neem is indigenous to India and is considered sacred
  2. neem used extensively over the past 2,000 years for medicinal purposes, food production, toiletries, fuel, and pesticides. 
  3. Neem products used widely across India and the industry as a whole employs many poor people
  4. Chetan operates a small business of neem tree products
  5. Chetan’s family has owned this business for the last seven generations
  6. The business employs 60 people in different functions
  7. Despite being familiar with over 200 applications of the tree and its derivatives, Chetan does not know the exact name of the neem seed extract, Azadirachtin. 
  8. Ten years ago, Tom Johnson (OOPS) discovered the neem seeds’ use as a potent pesticide. 
  9. Tom received a patent for the pesticide formula and brought the product to market
  10. They have a worldwide patent and financial capital to manufacture and sell the product on a large scale.
  11. People are likely to prefer buying products from US companies over small Indian cottage, affecting business locally

 

Step 2 & 3:

The stakeholders

  1. OOPS
    1. Professional: Making a lot of money, Gain a large market share
    2. Personal: Make a lot of money for themselves, they also have serious money at stake
  2. Chentan
    1. Professional: Keep his employees, have a business to still run/not be the guy who ran the company to the ground
    2. Personal: Family relationships at stake, money (not as much a worry though)
  3. Chentan’s employees 
    1. Professional: They don’t want to lose their jobs, they probably like the jobs
    2. Personal: They rely on the job to make ends meet, they need the money from the jobs and probably will have a hard time finding a new one 
  4. Other Indian growers of neem trees
    1. Professional: money/job security
    2. Personal: feeding families, social worth
  5. Competing companies (Chentan could help them instead)
    1. Professional: 
  6. Consumers in India
    1. Professional: Economic impact of large job layoff
    2. Personal: Want there friends to have 

Step 4:

Solutions:

  1. Try and employ the people affected in a new way by selling a different product/Work with locals to create a new formula and have a shared patent
    1. Pro: This could fix the problem from a revenue standpoint, they would have all of the systems to sell the product as well as the expertise to do it.
    2. Con: It would be hard to find a new strain to a patent if so the patent might not hold up. It will be expensive to create a new formula from a farming point of view and a legal point of view. Plus people might still prefer the other product.
  2. Try and persuade the government to not accept the subsidized goods
    1. Pro: This would allow the locals to manufacture the goods and sell them locally at the price they were at before.
    2. Con: It might be really hard to get them to actually convince the government to actually do this. After all, there is not an extremely important reason to not enforce the patent.
  3. Have the locals sue in regards to the patent because it probably isn’t strong enough. (Have the local form a gang). 
    1. Pro: This could fix the problem without having to deal with the government which could be a large factor. They would win the fact that the this material is not patentable, but thats not really a win-win situation because it could against there favor later on if they tried to patent it.
    2. Con: OOPS has the money to out price them in the short term just to force them anyway so the patent is sort of irrelevant in my mind, whether they would do this is its own ethical question. It’s also extremely expensive to try to sue the US company, especially when it comes to

 

Step 5:

Additional Resources

http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2015/the-patent-landscape-of-genetically-modified-organisms/

https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2016/si/article_0004.html

Step 6:

Best Course of action

 

I think the best course of action would be to try and get the patent taken away while trying to convince the this is by far the most expensive, most difficult, as well as most time-consuming approach, but I think it is the only one that brings them back to an even playing field. If they don’t take drastic measures they will probably go under anyway so you might as well go out with a fight. You can try and employ the people using other methods or by growing crops, but you don’t know that would work plus if you have to find the money for more crops, you gonna be short anyway so you might as well be short, and have a chance at fixing your problem long term by making sure you can’t get your product stole by a US corporation. I think that OOPS is ethically allowed to do what they did, is it legal from a sense of intellectual property, I don’t think so, but I do think it is ethical. The basis of IP law is to ensure that if you spend a bunch of money on R&D you get the money back. Did OOPS do this, no, but did they use the law to their advantage, that not ethical, it’s just a little immoral. The world is a capitalist society, well sort of, so is it ethical to sell a product at a lower price than others can: yes, as long as your not price gouging which they weren’t doing. 

 

Step 7:

Implication

The implications of fighting the patent are enormous. The first one is the debt the locals will incur if they choose to hire lawyers. They also will have to spend a tremendous amount of time gathering evidence and using their time to win this trial. It is entirely possible that could go bankrupt if they lose the case. There are also legal implications if the case is overturned and precedent if it is not. Either way, this could impact other business of similar nature, thus they might be able to ask outside sources to help fund the battle.

 

Part 2:

Step 1:

Facts

  1. Neem is indigenous to India and is considered sacred
  2. neem used extensively over the past 2,000 years for medicinal purposes, food production, toiletries, fuel, and pesticides. 
  3. Neem products used widely across India and the industry as a whole employs many poor people
  4. Chetan operates a small business of neem tree products
  5. Chetan’s family has owned this business for the last seven generations
  6. The business employs 60 people in different functions
  7. Despite being familiar with over 200 applications of the tree and its derivatives, Chetan does not know the exact name of the neem seed extract, Azadirachtin. 
  8. Ten years ago, Tom Johnson (OOPS) discovered the neem seeds’ use as a potent pesticide. 
  9. Tom received a patent for the pesticide formula and brought the product to market
  10. They have a worldwide patent and financial capital to manufacture and sell the product on a large scale.
  11. People are likely to prefer buying products from US companies over small Indian cottage, affecting business locally
  12. 6 months down killing the Indian market
  13. 20 products sold at supermarkets
  14. Neem based soap is best product
  15. The wrapper of soap has tom on it
  16. Chetan has his grandfather on i 
  17. Chetan met with tom multiple times urge him to move out of the market
  18. Tom refused to move out but would collaborate
  19. Chetan business is suffering
  20. Likley will have to lay off workers at least half
  21. They have worked with the company for a long time
  22. Chetan is finically well off and will do fine if the company shuts down
  23. Chetan is sad to lay them off
  24. His employees think he cut a deal with OOPS
  25. They feel cheated by chetan


Step 2 & 3

  1. OOPS
    1. Professional: Making a lot of money, Gain a large market share
    2. Personal: Make a lot of money for themselves, they also have serious money at stake
  2. Chentan
    1. Professional: Keep his employees, have a business to still run/not be the guy who ran the company to the ground
    2. Personal: Family relationships at stake, money (not as much a worry though)
  3. Chentan’s employees 
    1. Professional: They don’t want to lose their jobs, they probably like the jobs
    2. Personal: They rely on the job to make ends meet, they need the money from the jobs and probably will have a hard time finding a new one 
  4. Other Indian growers of neem trees
    1. Professional: money/job security, will OOPs get a monopoly?
    2. Personal: feeding families, social worth
  5. Tom
    1. Professional: needs to make the most of his company, can’t afford to give up anything in a tough market.
    2. Personal: Probs doesn’t want to have to make Chetan lay off workers

 

Step 4:

Solutions 1

  1. Potential Solution: Negotiate a partnership with OOPS
  2. How does it solve the problem? 
    1. Pros: It allows them to keep running, at a decreased profit, but still run. You also get to keep your employees or at least some of them
    2. Cons: Your probably gonna have fewer employees and less profit, doesn’t look great for image
  3. How does it save the face of those involved?: It allows you to keep the business running but at a decreased profit. You save jobs and people’s livelihoods.
  4. Implications on relationships
    1. Short-term: Might piss people off that some lose jobs and that people probs get paid less
    2. Long-term: Might help keep your business running in the long run, thus making you not look like the person who killed the business
  5. Implications on the venture
    1. Short-term: Cash flow back in, Keep jobs, keep employees, low moral over layoffs
    2. Long-term: Could save accounting problems and cash problem with competition

Solutions 2

  1. Potential Solution: Convince OOPS to buy them out
  2. How does it solve the problem?
    1. Pros: This has the same benefits as solution 1, but adds to the fact that opps are incentivized to make your company work and function because otherwise, it is a cash problem. Verse with solution 1 they don’t care if you do badly only if you do well.
    2. Cons: Will be extremely hard to make happen unless Chetan sells at a deal, everyone might not keep their jobs, and the company might just be sold for scraps
  3. How does it save the face of those involved?:  It allows Chetan to exit peacefully and make this toms problem. It also lets people keep their jobs, probably temporally, but long enough to figure out what to do.
  4. Implications on relationships
    1. Short-term: Might be considered a coward, but should help keep family has a little hope, buy out can lead to house cleaning, which could be bad for morale.
    2. Long-term: People might have a chance to keep jobs long term vs the other solutions don’t offer the same incentive. 
  5. Implications on the venture
    1. Short-term: Might allow for cash flow to start back in, which could allow people to keep jobs, also might kill jobs unknown
    2. Long-term: Could keep the business long term, or could be sold for scraps.

Solutions 3

  1. Potential Solution: Shut down the business
  2. How does it solve the problem?
    1. Pros: No longer have cash hemorrhage, can retire, less stress
    2. Cons: You have to fire everyone, pay severance packages, no income from your end
  3. How does it save the face of those involved?: It doesn’t necessarily, but it prevents a long drown out bankruptcy which people would get nothing, thus saves the company from this.
  4. Implications on relationships
    1. Short-term: People might be mad they lost jobs
    2. Long-term: People might hate you for shutting down the company
  5. Implications on the venture
    1. Short-term: Money for exit 
    2. Long-term: N/A

 

Step 5:

https://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/close-or-sell-your-business

https://smallbusiness.findlaw.com/closing-a-business/necessary-steps-to-dissolve-your-company.html

https://thebusinessprofessor.com/knowledge-base/closing-up-shop/




Step 6:

I think I would try to get the company bought because either way it is going to shut down. Do I believe I owe jobs to each employee, not really because my job is to best for the company, so if selling it or shutting down is best then I must do that. Would I write great recs, of course, but thats a moral reason not because I feel obligated too. I think that in this scenario selling might get people jobs for a little longer, thus I think it worth trying, also the sale could be used for a fund for severance packages for the works who might get laid off. If I can’t sell I would shut down the business because it is not a charity, it is not supposed to run at a cash negative state. If it’s not making money it shouldn’t be open. Does that suck for the employees, yes, but times change, and if you don’t change with it you get left behind.

 

Step 7:

  1. Try to get company bought
  2. If fails shut down
  3. Write recs for employees
  4. If successful sell and help run the company for a little so they don’t run it to the ground.


Fall Week 4

Part 1

Step 1:

Facts

  1. 35% kid in east Africa are stunted
  2. Maize and banana used for infants
  3. Mother believes gruel work, science says it doesn’t provide what they need
  4. HIV is prevalent in the region
  5. If children nurse beyond 6 months great chance of HIV from positive mother
  6. You have received a grant to establish a woman’s cooperative
  7. Grant to make food for infants and young children from locally grown ingredients
  8. With the goal of weaning kids of breast milk by 6 months of age
  9. 500 woman are interested in working on this, but not sure people will use it
  10. Cash crops are grown in the area, use pesticides known to hurt infants

Step 2 & 3:

Stakeholders

  1. Woman looking to join
    1. They want to make money
    2. Feed their young children the right foods
    3. The social aspect of people to be with and have a job
    4. Not give children HIV if they don’t have too
  2. Your team
    1. Has money from grant at stake
    2. Reputation professional
    3. Research publication
    4. Money to be made?
    5. Fewer kids with HIV
    6. Resources at stake
  3. Farmers
    1. Pesticides yield better crops are more money
    2. Money/livelihood
  4. Children
    1. They don’t want to be malnourished
    2. They don’t want to have HIV
    3. They have better food thus will have better lives
  5. Mothers looking to buy the product
    1. They don’t want their kids to be malnourished
    2. They don’t want their kids  to have HIV
    3. Their kids will have better food thus will have better lives
  6. WHO
    1. Wants kids to live healthy lives
  7. Foundation giving grant
    1. Have money on the line
    2. Looking to see the impact
    3. Resources at stake
  8. Government of country
    1. Hoping to find a way to get more healthy kids food-wise, and less HIV Cases.

 

Step 4:

Potential Solution  (All could be a part of the solution)

  1. Only use vegetables they don’t have pesticides on them
    1. Pros: Won’t have had chemicals in the food that would affect the children
    2. Cons: Extremely expensive, also might have troubles getting a supply
  2. Use pesticides
    1. Pros: Supply would be better and the product would be much cheaper
    2. Cons: You have the chemical problem with feeding children a product that could harm them
  3. Make a product for 0 to 6 months
    1. Pros: You could bridge the gap so that children don’t have to drink the mother’s milk thus less of a chance of getting HIV
    2. Cons: Expensive, have to convince mothers to buy it, have to make a product
  4. Find a way to provide Formula to children
    1. Pro: help cut the number of transmissions from parent to child, also will provide them with nutrients they need
    2. Getting them the product manufactured somewhere else would be expensive, also would be extremely unpractical from a logistics point of view
  5. Provide the product for free to HIV positive mothers
    1. Pros: Once you have figured out who has HIV the product could reduce the spread of HIV to kids
    2. Cons: Figuring out who has HIV will be tough, expensive
  6. Test mother for HIV with test strips
    1. Pros: Could be extremely valuable for other groups and the government
    2. Cons: Expensive, extremely difficult to figure out
  7. Don’t sell the product
    1. Pros: Won’t have to sort any of the solutions above cheap
    2. Cons: You won’t actually be helping anyone and people are dying

 

Step 5

Research

https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-programming/testing

 

Step 6 & 7

In this case, I think the best course of action would be to use a product that is made of fruit that has pesticides, work to provide children with formula for the 0 to 6 range, as well as provide the product at a discount to those who are proven to be tested and come positive for HIV. So the reason I thought they should use with fruits with pesticide contamination is that the cost of getting fruits without chemicals on them would be extremely expensive, also supplying un chemical used fruits would be extremely tough if they were trying to mass-produce this product. Though it is true that these fruits can result in adverse health issues in infants, I think that the number of kids who would receive adverse effects would be less than the amount who would be affected would probably be less than the amount who wouldn’t be affected. I also feel that the effects of HIV in the long wrong are most likely worse than the affects of pesticides on children as the effects are most likely short term from the chemicals and long term from the HIV. To make sure that the effects aren’t getting too many children though I would train the woman in the cooperative the signs and symptoms of the pesticide overdose for children.

In regards to providing parents who have tested positive with discounted formula, providing a discount would be subsided by the cost of the product to mothers who don’t know they have it. This also would encourage mothers who aren’t tested to get tested because then they can get this product at a discounted cost. Though there is the problem that people who don’t get the discounted price will probably not buy the product because they see that other people get it for a lower price, which is a problem if they don’t see the value in the product though then we need to work with the corrapetive to find a way to motivate people to buy the product. 

As for dealing with children who are too young, I would like to find a way to provide the formula to those who have tested positive, as for how to do this I am not sure yet, but by providing formula we could prevent 0 to 6-month kids from initially getting HIV.

In regards to the impact, this venture could be extremely impactful. The venture will provide jobs for women, give farmers money to form their crops, and allow kids to not get a disease that could kill them.

 

Part 2

step 1

Facts:

  1. 35% kid in east Africa are stunted
  2. Maize and banana used for infants
  3. Mother believes gruel work, science says it doesn’t provide what they need
  4. HIV is prevalent in the region
  5. If children nurse beyond 6 months great chance of HIV from positive mother
  6. You have received a grant to establish a woman’s cooperative
  7. Grant to make food for infants and young children from locally grown ingredients
  8. With the goal of weaning kids of breast milk by 6 months of age
  9. 500 woman are interested in working on this, but not sure people will use it
  10. Cash crops are grown in the area, use pesticides known to hurt infants
  11. 6 months down the line
  12. Make 3 dollars a day roughly
  13. Can sell their own crops at market rate
  14. After the woman makes money she had to turn it over to here male superior
  15. Then the money is spent on like alcohol and things they don’t need.
  16. You don’t have direct say in the functioning of the cooperative
  17. One of seven in leadership have 6 months left

 

Step 2 & 3:
Stakeholders

  1. Board members
    1. Professional: They want to leave the coop in a better position than they left it, they also don’t want to have the coop go badly as it would look at bad on them professionally. 
    2. Personal: There money stream is based on this business, they are also in charge of a woman who lives with them, they are all woman so they are incentivized to keep more money to themselves and actively are probably annoyed by this problem.
  2. Yourself
    1. Professional: You don’t want the coop to fall apart as it has been your job, by trying to fix this man might boycott the coop thus driving down business and making it harder to succeed.
    2. Personal: Has an incentive to help the locals on the ground as probably has personal relationships with them, may not like the way the money is being treated from a personal aspect, as the whole point of the coop was to provide money to a woman so they could feed there children not buy booze for their husband
  3. Cooperative members
    1. Professional: The entire coop is a woman thus, they all most have this problem, so they all may not see any value to making this money if it won’t be spent the right way anyone, so what is the value to them.
    2. Personal: They want to keep more money to themselves and don’t want it being used for beer money
  4. Men taking money
    1. Professional: Networking from sitting at the bar and having more money, more clout 
    2. Personal: They get to have more money in their pockets and thus get to enjoy themselves more often and too a great length, thus they have no incentive to end this.
  5. Other women in the area not apart of the coop
    1. Professional: Might encourage more woman to work if they know they would get the money
    2. Personal: They want to keep more money to themselves and don’t want it being used for beer money


Step 4

Solution 1:

  1. Potential Solution: You establish a bank where all the wages for women go too.
  2. How does it solve the problem?
    1. Pros: It makes it so the woman has no physical money to give to the male in charge, at least in physical form. They also will get away to store their money safely, and might even make interest
    2. Cons: The males might be annoyed knowing that the woman have this money but they can’t touch it, might cause more grief than the other solution, might make it dangerous for a woman as they are holding money from the men
  3. How does it save face of those involved?: It limits the woman from having to turn in the money in person, and they can just say it is the bank, thus allowing the man to have access but it makes it harder for them to get at it.
  4. Implications on relationships:
    1. Short-term: Might make couples or males mad based on the change of money situation
    2. Long-term: Might help a woman keep more money to spend on food, but men might just figure out who to get the money out of the bank, really just making it a pain in the ass for them, not really a solution
  5. Implications on the venture:
    1. Short-term: Might make males at the company thus protest might happen
    2. Long-term: Might make the company image look bad, but more woman might want to work for them.

Solution 2:

  1. Potential Solution: Don’t give salary as currency give it as food
  2. How does it solve the problem?:
    1. Pros: They won’t get any money thus males won’t be able to take it away, plus the food they get will have to be eaten so the kids will get fed
    2. Cons: They may want the money instead of food for other things that are more necessary, then food like health needs or such… Food cost changes, thus salary  would have to adjust very often
  3. How does it save face of those involved?: The woman won’t have to bring home money thus the situation won’t happen.
  4. Implications on relationships:
    1. Short-term: Men will be mad that they were cut off, plus if a woman were relying on the money they no longer have it, which could be a problem
    2. Long-term: Might cause money problems down the line if they need it, also men might get annoyed and just start selling the food for beer money.
  5. Implications on the venture:
    1. Short-term: It could be hard to find quantities of food to give out, thus making it really tough to actually do it and expensive.
    2. Long-term: Could make more women and other people want to work for you because they know that they would have a steady supply of food, but because of that those who need money will not be incentivized to work with you.

Solution 3:

  1. Potential Solution: Give half as money with bank or without, half as food
  2. How does it solve the problem?
    1. Pros: It allows some of the money to be accessed in the bank by males, so the problem of not having beer money is fixed they just don’t get as much, the food also means that they will have to either use it or sell it, but they have money so they probably won’t try and sell the food. 
    2. Cons: Males still might be mad that they have less beer money, they also might not be happy that they are receiving food and not money.
  3. How does it save face of those involved?: Males still get money, so they feel ok, but the kids get fed in the process, the only downside is that the males still get beer money that could be used more effectively in a better manner.
  4. Implications on relationships:
    1. Short-term: Men get money which makes them happy, and the children get fed which makes the mothers happy, might make the males jealous that they could have gotten more though.
    2. Long-term: The mothers make sure the kids get enough while the males get too feed, they also will have money, if the males don’t use it if need be.
  5. Implications on the venture:
    1. Short-term: Hard to supply that much food, also has to keep money safe. Males still might get mad at the business.
    2. Long-term: Hard to supply long term, but should motivate employees to stay on if they need money and food, thus keeping a strong workforce and membership

 

Step 5:

https://www.coop-africa.org/

https://www.co-opbank.co.ke/

https://www.grocer.coop/articles/membership-ownership-cooperative-advantage

 

Step 6: 

 

I think the best solution to the problem is half as money in the bank, and half as food. I think this is the best because it takes all of the best parts of the bank and food concept and puts them together. You have less of a chance of having males get at the money if it’s in a bank, plus if they want it they can get it but it makes it harder from them to do this. The food fixes the inital problem that is had which is the money being made is spent on beer, not on food the commodity that is needed. Though it would be hard to find enough food for the company to pay out, on top of the fact it would probably get stolen, I think that it allows the company to solve the initial problem the employees face, it just cost them to do it, but at the same time it is a coop, not a corporation so the rules on how the money should be spent is a little different. On the front of males getting mad because their money is being taken away, they are going to do that anyway, so I think it is a game of making it as little as possible, so by still sort of allowing them access to some of the money you piss them off but not too a crazy extent.

 

Step 7:

  1. Talk to board to implement a plan
  2. Talk to people and see if they like it.
  3. See how to set up bank accounts for them
  4. Find food/enough of it
  5. Set up accounts for people, pay them in food and in money through the account
  6. See if it works and reevaluate.

Case Study 2 Grassroots Diplomacy

 

Discussion notes

Step 1: determine facts

  1. Jack is American on a social venture
  2. Jack is at a youth center in Kenya
  3. Int. donor Org. sent gifts for the children at the center
  4. Kids are younger than 14, 4 of them did not receive gifts ceremoniously
  5. Jack was in charge of handing out gifts
  6. Jack was thanked for the gifts by the kids
  7. Kids were convinced the gifts were from jack
  8. Jack is going to be there for 5 months (lots of contact w/ the kids)
  9. Kids that didn’t get gifts blamed jack
  10. The staff did not care about the kids not getting gifts
  11. Staff calls Jack a “children’s rights activist” because they were annoyed that Jack brought up the 4 kids not receiving gifts and how he felt awkward
    1. Insight: Jack might not understand the constraints that they are working in
      1. Could have wrongfully/rightfully criticized how the staff run the center 

 

Step 2: Stakeholders 

Personal

Professional 

Both

  1. Jack
    1. Want to be liked by the kids/wants them to be happy (save face)
    2. Wants to keep a good relationship with the center staff
    3. Doesn’t want to be that awk gringo
  2. Kids that got gifts
    1. Like jack for getting gifts
    2. Think the white man will get him gifts
  3. Kids that did not get gifts
    1. Want to have the same dignity as the kids that received them ceremoniously
    2. Thinks the white man doesn’t care about them
  4. Youth center staff
    1. Don’t want their work to be seen as unfair
    2. Does not care about the issues of the kids
    3. Get Jack to make a specific kind of effort with the kids
    4. Want to be seen as people who are doing well and care about the kids
  5. Int. donor Org. (Gift funders)
    1. Want to look good, need to uphold a reputation that they are doing good, therefore they sent gifts to the children at this center
    2. Wanna successfully present nice gesture
  6. University (Jack)
    1. Want to look good
    2. Want the social venture to prosper 
  7. Parents of the kids
    1. Want to send a kid to good youth center
  8. Locals (Will hear about situation from parents of kids)

 

Step 3: Determine and distinguish between the personal, professional, or both motivations of the stakeholders.

  1. a.b.c.’s

 

Step 4: Formulate at least three alternative solutions

    1. Jack finds/makes/orders gifts to ceremoniously give to the other kids in front of the group
      1. Solution pros: all the kids would be happy and get their gifts
      2. Solution cons: 
      3. Saving face:
      4. Relationships impact ST: The staff might be annoyed with him.
      5. Relationships impact LT: This makes the staff feel that he is a child activist, thus they might feel and aversion from him, as well as possibly not doing this event again and not want to work with him
      6. Venture impacts ST: There might be some impact on the way people look at jack and the venture based on the actions and the fact that he has to redo the event because he got the number wrong. Huge planing impact and cost. 
      7. Venture impacts LT: People will remember this event and it might help people forget about this event, but it might also make them remember it forever.
    2. Jack waits for new gifts to come and gives them to the black hat kids first
      1. Solution pros: makes the black hat kids feel special/included
      2. Solution cons: what if not enough gifts come again and other kids don’t get a gift 
      3. Saving face: 
      4. Relationships impact ST:  new gifts = fun, and excitement in kids
      5. Relationships impact LT: other kids might be annoyed these kids got both hats and gifts
      6. Venture impacts ST: He will probs take a hit for not giving gifts, and screwing the poach. Lots of time and effort 
      7. Venture impacts LT: Might fix a social problem, in the end, may make it worse.

 

  • Jack wears a black hat every day (frequently) to make the other kids feel special

 

    1. Solution pros: the kids may feel more included, respected, or dignified since the adult is also wearing their hat, solves the issue with the staff because they all move on, simple, fast, easy
    2. Solution cons: it’s not as ceremonious as the other gifted kids
      1. May also cause problems among the kids who have the hats and don’t have the hat
    3. Saving face:
    4. Relationships impact ST: saves face w kids who didn’t get gifts before, excites them
    5. Relationships impact LT: extreme tensions among kids who do and don’t have hats
    6. Venture impacts ST: tension from the staff thinking Jack initially overreacted may last but will hopefully fade 
    7. Venture impacts LT: mends the relationships with all the children and quietly solves the issue with the staff as long as no one holds a grudge
  1. Jack approaches the staff to try and save his own face by suggesting they change their perspectives on working with the children
    1. Solution pros: Changes the staff mentality to help improve Jack’s experience for the rest of the time he will work there
    2. Solution cons: Coming up with a solution that approaches the stern admins instead of the children.
    3. Saving face:  Potential for failure means the potential for securing loss of social influence. He may lose dignity in the eyes of the staff. The conversation would be very straight-forward, and potentially change opinions overnight, leading to better relationship development overall. 
    4. Relationships impact ST: tension with staff. Children are still mad.
    5. Relationships impact LT: Eased relationship with staff and Jack. Staff and children have a better relationship. 
    6. Venture impacts ST: Less productivity and collaboration.
    7. Venture impacts LT: Increased levels of collaboration that would otherwise not be achievable. 

 

Step 5: Seek additional assistance as necessary

  1. Kenyan gift culture: Kenyan Gift Culture
    1. Guests invited to someone’s home may bring a small gift of appreciation.
    2. Common gifts to give are flowers and tea leaves.
    3. In rural areas of Kenya, coffee, sugar, flour, and maize are usually given. These gifts are presented in a woven bag (‘kiondo’ in Kikuyu). The host will return the bag at the end of the visit after placing gifts for their visitor inside.
    4. It is impolite to return a kiondo empty.
  2. American Gift Culture:  American Culture
    1. If you are invited to a wedding, baby showers, bar mitzvah, or other celebration, it is expected that you will bring a gift. Unless you know the host very well, the gift should be modest in value, about $20.
    2. For a wedding, the bride will have “registered” at one or two local department stores, indicating the items and styling she prefers. You can buy the couple a gift that isn’t listed, but most people buy something listed on the registry. If you buy an item listed on the registry, be sure to tell the store that you are doing this, so that the couple doesn’t receive duplicate gifts. For a baby shower, bring a gift appropriate for a newborn baby. For a bar mitzvah, bring a gift appropriate for a 13-year-old boy. Bar Mitzvah gifts tend to be more formal in nature. For example, a gold-plated Cross pen is quite common. Personalizing the pen by engraving the recipient’s full name will be appreciated.
    3. If you wish to give a gift when you leave to return to your home country, the best gift is something that is unique to your country. It does not need to be especially valuable or rare, just reminiscent of your home. Possibilities include a book about your country, an inexpensive handicraft or piece of art, or something else that reflects your culture. If the children collect coins and stamps, they would be very pleased with a set of your country’s coins or a selection of mint stamps from your country. Items that are common in your country but difficult to find in the USA are also good.
    4. If you owe a debt of deep gratitude to an American host family, a common way of repaying it is to take the family to a form of entertainment, such as a baseball, basketball, or hockey game, the ballet, or to a good restaurant.
    5. When giving gifts to a business acquaintance, do not give anything of a personal nature, especially to a woman. Do not give cosmetics. A scarf is ok, but other types of clothing are not. Something appropriate for the office is the best. But gift-giving is not as important in America as it is in other countries, so there is nothing wrong with not giving a gift.
    6. If you need help selecting a gift, talk to a salesperson at a department store. Tell them about the person who will be receiving the gift and the reason for the gift, and they will help you find something appropriate and within your budget.

Step 6: Select the best course of action

I would pick the hat personally if I was in jack situation. I think that by using the hat method, you prevent any issues with the staff at the NGO, you also can make the kids feel better knowing that jack is wearing the hat, so they know he thinks its a good gift. Now there is a possibility that this concept backfires with the kids who got real gifts, but I feel that repair jacks reputation, and specifically the perception of how people view the NGO should be a priority because it makes everyone’s job easier if the villagers aren’t mad at the NGO.

In regards to giving the kids new gifts, I think there’s the little actual reward to gain for doing this in any matter. Yes, the kids will feel better knowing that they got gifts but then you make more a scene out of it amplifying what went wrong. Also, you might make the kids who only got a gift and not a hat feels bad, so by just wearing the hat jack makes the kids with hats feel better, doesn’t drag everyone through the event again, also the NGO works can’t accuse him of being a child-focused individual who cares too much. 

 

I think the only other good method might be talking with the staff and having them try and change their perspective as well as nudge them to count a little better next time, but that’s a rabbit hole, that I am pretty sure and American who is working abroad doesn’t want to fall down, plus he will probably just damage his relationship with the people a bunch all for some kids who didn’t get gifts. I am not sure a working relationship should be damaged over such a small thing, in the scheme of the realm this NGO probably works in.

 

Step 7: List sequences of actions to implement the solution (perspective of Jack)

  1. Talk about hat
  2. Buy a black hat
  3. Make sure its on right
  4. Take off the hat (if on)
  5. Go to bed
  6. Wake up
  7. do it all again for a couple of days.
  8. If kids aren’t seeing hat makes sure kids see it, and understand the meaning of him wearing a hat.
  9. Also, who doesn’t like wearing hats?

Fall Week 2

  1. Facts of the case 
    1. The goal is to test the water form the source for known disease-causing pathogens 
    2. These pathogens can only be found in this one region of Lesotho
    3. There are no immediate term benefits the community for the research besides the economic benefit of stimulation from the foreigners.
    4. The only contribution completely necessary from the village is the researchers using the water source. Would it be nice for on the ground help, yes, but not necessary?
    5. The 11 researchers will be staying for 14 days to complete their research.
    6. This research may lead to additional benefits to the world, or may not: unclear.
    7. They plan to publish the research they conducted while in-country as well as everything they learned in relation to the research from the samples.
    8. They are not required to pay any locals for helping them find samples or for using resources to help them as well.

 

  1. Stakeholders (Letters) and Motivations (Roman Numerals)
    1. You and research team- 11 people on the ground doing research.
      1. Stands to gain from an additional citation on their record
      2. Professional clout in possible groundbreaking research
      3. Fieldwork in a new place/New experience
      4. New grant opportunities, based on how well research goes.
    2. The community members of the village
      1. May benefit from solutions in the future, if the research creates something new.
      2. Possible more researchers coming if they discover something groundbreaking.
      3. Economic Stimulator of having foreigners staying there.
    3. Local workers (If deciding to pay them)
      1. Compensation for work
      2.  Possible better jobs or stigma for working with the foreigners
      3. Additional skills and a better resume
    4. Anyone who reads the report
      1. Make a profit from the solution
      2. Additional knowledge from the reading report.
      3. Ability to prevent themselves from pathogens.
    5. The University
      1. Gains clout from research in a foreign country as well as better recognition.
      2. Publication and citations on their records
      3. Possible grants from research which can lead to better facilities and faculty.
    6. Government of Lesotho
      1. Can gain clean water from possible research afterward
      2. It can better help communities understand what is going on with their water.
      3. Money flowing into the communities from foreigners
      4. Recognition of research and being better well known due to the research.
    7. Funding institution (If different than University)
      1. They have their money at stake for them
      2. They have their name on this research
      3. They will be able to say they have a global impact
      4. This research might help their bottom line in the end.
    8. South Africa
      1. May be affected by these pathogens based on geological problems or the way water flows in the region spreading these pathogens.
  2. The ethical questions at hand are, in this case:  
    1. Should people be compensated for their time and resources in helping them find water samples?
      1. Pay them for time and resources:
        1. By paying them you may get better results and better samples, but they also may try and hold you for more money. You also have to deal with what is a fair rate, and who you should pick to help you. 
        2. One of the ways to solve is to find the average wage for the area and then pay the chief to help you get the best men/woman for the job.
      2. Pay them for resources only:
        1. By paying them only for the resources they need to get you to your samples you may get better results and better samples, but the people no longer have an incentive to find you good samples. You won’t have to deal with what is a fair rate, you just have to reimburse for the cost of items. It might be more difficult because locals will or may not be motivated to help you find what you need.
        2. This lowers the cost on your end while still having them not have to pay for anything out of their pocket. Still have to sort out, who you want helping you.
      3. Don’t pay them:
        1. By not paying the locals, you will not have a lot of added cost and you won’t have to sort out whos getting paid and how much. You also won’t have to reimburse for cost incurred to them.
        2. This strategy is the lowest cost but I think the most difficult because you have to be able to convince people to help you and find you exactly what you need while not really incentivizing them to do so.
    2. Should the village be compensated for the scientists taking water samples?
      1. Pay them: 
        1. You are taking their resource without anything physical in exchange.
        2. It is a public resource so by taking it you are acting almost the same as the locals.
      2. Don’t pay them (Distribute information):
        1. You are taking their research without giving anything in return so the least you could do would give them a layman term of what you have gathered because more will be unable to access the research once it is published.
      3. Don’t pay them (At all):
        1. You are just using a naturally occurring and public resource, therefore, you owe nothing to them from taking it. Is there a possible stigma of the locals not knowing what the foreigners are doing and thus them believing that they are harming them, yes. But by reaching out to the chef we are putting that on him.
    3. Is it ethical to conduct this study from a human standpoint? Are there any immediate impacts to humans from this study?
      1. Yes: 
        1. As long as the people you get to help you are not affected by the pathogen specifically based on your work, then it is ethical.
      2. No:
        1. If you know that them coming in contact with this disease will harm them then the study is unethical from that point.

 

  1. Additional points.
    1. Ebola team: Did not pay anyone except for reimbursements, we also made sure anyone involved knew exactly what the goal of the study was. Also, most people will be unable to access the research.
    2. Clinical trials do research/trials and then finish without providing real solutions, similar to the course of action this project could take. Their research is also not accessible to most people anyway.

 

  1. If I were to conduct this study I would pay the locals and well are reimbursed for the cost of incurred costs. The cost for the locals for the team would likely be minimal. You have the best chance of gathering the best data, and you are not making people pay for out of the pocket expenses. You also make sure then that these people don’t feel like they are forced to help you, and feel good for what they are doing. This strategy will result in the best data, as well as all stakeholders, being the best off. When it comes to compensating locals for the actual water, I don’t think they need to be paid for it because it is a public resource, therefore, the team taking water versus a regular person is the same. To make this a little more formal I would reach out to the ministry of water and got their approval which might also help to have a name on the project as well. This will make it feel like we are working for the government and therefore not taking a resource from them but more using it. Finally, when it comes to the overall question of is this study ethical I think the answer is yes no matter if you are paying them or not as well as if you are paying them for the water samples. The water sources is public property and therefore up for taking and the people are not being forced to help you so paying them will help but is not necessary. I think the only thing that jumps out would be if the researchers knew that by having locals help them put the locals at an increased risk of being affected by these pathogens, then I feel like the study is unethical unless they declare that to them. 

 

  1. Implications of our best course of action 
    1. Economically
      1. We are increasing the employment rate and put cash into the economy
      2. We are also adding skills to the area
    2. Stigma
      1. We might be adding stigma by having foreigners work there.
    3. Research
      1. New research into this pathogen as well as the research that comes from it will fund the price of paying people on the ground.

 

Fall Week 1

  1. Three lessons learned
    1. The concept of money is not the same as to people in Sierra Leone. You can ask most people what their average income is in any interval yet none will be able to give you a number. The concept of living on a paycheck and having this much to spend this week or next week does not apply to Salone. This makes it really difficult to judge a personal income and correlate it. We learned there were better ways to do this. One of the ways we learned was a good judge of wealth was how many meals you eat, and what you are eating. Though people don’t how much they make, they can tell you many meals they eat in a day, what they eat and how much it cost them. Which allows us to correlate their wealth and meals to their behaviors.
    2. The second big lesson I learned was that behaviors were really based on tribes, and what their families had taught them. Obviously, we knew the second part, but we didn’t think that behaviors were based on actual tribes. We were naive to think that behaviors were based only on family members and their surroundings. We should have in the beginning factored in tribes to account for this and allows us to generalize regions based on which tribe lives there.
    3. Another lesson that we learned was that people know which behaviors are generally risky and are actively trying to prevent it, but their livelihoods prevent them from really doing it. Like a farmer can’t not go into the bush; he would starve. A hunter can’t not hunt bush animals; he would starve. They generally know whats semi-bad, they just can’t do anything about it because of the situation they live in. Coming up with solutions to how to lower risk, but still, have people conduct their daily lives.

 

  1. Professional Development
    1. This summer I got much better at working on teams. I learned how to assign tasks and split the work. I have not really worked on a project in life where people actually could pull their weight, so being able to learn how to work on a functional team will allow me to know what to do when I enter the real world. I also learned when it comes to teams that sometimes you have to work with people you don’t like and learning how to deal with them can be tough.
    2. Another thing I learned that will help me in a professional sense is how to work with a really different view and how to ask the right questions to those people. I find that half the battle is finding the right question to ask people who disagree with your view. If you can ask the right question then you have a better shot of being able to convince someone to be on your side. 
    3. Working in Africa has developed my ability to get stuff done with little resources. For example, working with little wifi connection makes you have to think outside of the box to get a project done that in the States would be easy with wifi, but not without. Having your brain pressed like this to complete complex tasks in resource-limited environments allows you to be able to know what to do when you don’t have everything you are using, as well as when things go wrong.
  2. Help you Grow Personally
    1. Personally going to Sierra Leone has helped me see the world a different way. Understanding that the world does not revolve around business, school, and technology was refreshing. I feel like now that I am back, for better or worse, I don’t really value my professional life as much as a now value my friends and family. Your on this earth for so long, but just cause your rich doesn’t mean you had a great and meaningful mind.
    2. Another thing that I realized is that just cause you can’t see the end goal doesn’t mean there is no value. I feel like a lot of the decisions I make, are etched on how much value this will get me towards a goal. Since going I sort of have taken a new philosophy of let’s just work and see what we get, cause we never will be able to know what we will get for sure.
    3. The final thing that I think has helped me is changing my perspective of going up to people. For the entire time, I went from house to house meeting random people and asking them very personal questions. I think knowing that I can do this and that people don’t really hate you, though they might show some resentment has helped me meet new people.

Week 11

Develop an M&E plan for your project. [Clearly, list all assumptions. develop a Logic Model to identify short-term and long-term metrics and methods to determine them.]

Assumptions:

  • That Ebola will strike west Africa sometime soon. A very disturbing assumption to be having to make.
  • That we will be able to get data based on Ebola from WHO and the Ministry of health
  • That we will actually fill out these reports that I said we would make and present them
  • That the data we will be using is actually right and not false data
  • That we will be able to make a model that will accurately predict where Ebola will strike
  • That having the government use its resources more accurately will decrease the death rate from Ebola.
  • That we will be able to decrease the death rate by 10%
  • Sort of assumption is the education regarding behaviors that increase risk, will be able to quantify through the use of survey
  • Our survey will work

Logic Model:

 

Estimate the Social Return on Investment for your project. [Clearly, list all your assumptions.]

Assumptions:

  • If the government doesn’t have to spread itself thin preparing resources across Sierra Leone, that if we can tell them that they need fewer resources in that area that they will actually do that.
  • That the average cost to treat an Ebola patient is around 600 USD if they die with treatment and disposal of the body. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4445295/)
  • Approx 5000 confirmed cases in SL
  • Our product will be able to reduce death rates by 10%
  • Rest are listed in the Excel sheet
  • Important to note that the cost of a caring for a patent is relevant because its the SROI, so this SROI is dependent on the cost of caring for dead and sick patients with Ebola
  • The model I have below infers that if we improve the death rate, the people who don’t die don’t get sick. In other words, our model would prevent those from dying to be able to help the government from even getting Ebola.

SROI:
Through the use of our model, for every 1 USD, we create a saving of 30 USD. [Rounded to the nearest dollar. The real number is closer to 30.25 USD].

A 3000% return on the investment.

 

Week 10

Funding:

Design Phase (These are two grants for the design phase. We have two design phases, Survey, and modeling.)

  1. NIH Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant Award (R21) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r21.htm. This grant is a beginning grant for initial stages of research. We already have an NIH grant for our project, but it’s focused more on the original project with modeling bat movement. If we were to apply to this grant we would have more resources for our project to look into how we are building our survey. We would apply for it with logic using this grant to hire some professional help with the development of the survey. We need a good survey for the rest of our project to work, so professional help could improve the accuracy of our data and overall improve our project.
  2. NSF Computational and Data-Enabled Science and Engineering (CDS&E). This is a grant focused on developing models and conducting research into modeling. We would write a proposal targeting this grant from a modeling perspective. Our project once the survey is completed and the data collected we need to create a model to implement the data into. This is sort of our second phase of development of the project, but fortunately, we can borrow the model from our bat project to accomplish the beginning of the modeling. We have made a lot of progress in this area, but we need money to run simulations and buy time with computing power, which would be the use of this grant.

Dissemination Phase (This first grant targets collecting data in Sierra Leone, the second is for growing the surveying into other countries and other diseases)

  1. NIH Modeling of Infectious Disease Agent Study Research Projects (R01) https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/pa-16-107.html. This grant is focused on infectious diseases. We would write a proposal for this grant focusing on how our project has the potential to model the transmission of Ebola, which is an infectious disease. We would also probably add that if we get our model to work we can adapt it to other infectious diseases. Thus, the NIH would be more likely to approve our proposal. We would use this money to hire people in Sierre Leone to collect data and survey people while we are not there. This data is valuable to the NIH as raw data and is necessary for us to model the spread of Ebola
  2. CDC 2019 Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC). This grant is focused on the spread of disease worldwide. We would write a proposal to receive funding once we have completed the data collection and modeling, we would hope to start adding data from other countries, factors, and diseases into our model. We would use this grant to that by making new surveys, collecting new data, and improve the model with these new diseases by testing.

 

Partnerships

  1. CDC: We need to form a relationship with the CDC because they have experts that have a great understanding of Ebola. They also were on the ground in 2014 during the last outbreak, so they have an understanding of how the disease spread in humans which can help us better understand how the disease transmits from bats to humans. The experts who do what we are trying to do for a living who can give us advice. Finally, they have a lot of data from the 2014 epidemic which can use to train our model and better understand what is going on. Overall the CDC has so much human capital that we could use to further our project. The CDC has a mission to understand the disease and find methods to better control and understand disease, which we are doing so our interest align.
  2. NIH: The NIH has a lot of grant capability and also has a large research network we can rely on. Our relationship with NIH would be similar to our relationship with the CDC. They have experts, first-hand experience with Ebola, and data from the epidemics from before. There reach and network of researchers can allow us to connect with and improve our model. The NIH literally has tons of people who are doing what are doing that we can help, and that can help us. Take as much help as you can get. The NIH mission is to study health across the world, so if we are doing that, which we are they are incentives to work with us.
  3. WorldHope: Obisoiuvly we have a relationship with world Hope through Khanjan, but we need to establish a better relationship with them so in the future, we can have them possibly conduct our surveys for us while we are not in the country. We also can use them as a base to get transportation, translators, and a place to work, which are key resources we need in order to gather our data. WH will want to work with us because we have money and human capital that they desperately need.
  4. Statistics Sierra Leone: We would like to establish a relationship with statistics SaLeone to hopefully have them collect our data using our survey while we are not there. If World hope won’t or can’t play a part in the collection of the data Statistics can because they are already doing what we are trying to do, so we just need to convince them to do it with our survey. We just have to find the right motivation for them to do this for us. We can provide them with some capital resources to encourage them to work with us.
  5. UNSD (United Nations Statistics): The UNSD can provide us with connections to statistics beuaras across Africa. Ebola is really only found in Africa. We want to grow our model as much as we can, so we need someone who makes all the right connections and has a global reach. UNSD can make these connections to allow our model to grow and allow us to collect data in more countries to improve our model. I am not really sure why the UNSD would want to work with us other than to collect data that can be valuable to the world.