Page 87 - DMGT310_ENTREPRENEURSHIP_AND_SMALL_BUSINESS_MANAGEMENT

Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management

Notes

Case Study KCC and Social Entrepreneurship

licia Polak founded Khayelitsha Cookie Co. with an intention to help local women
to change their lives. The tagline of KCC - “Creating opportunity one bite at a
Atime” clearly represents the way Alicia selected to improve the standard of living
of few people living in Khayelitsha that is one of the most unprivileged areas of South
Africa. Khayelitsha is one of the largest and dangerous townships near Cape Town where
most of the people live in extreme poverty and unemployment. KCC employed most of
the women they had never been employed earlier and were living on grants of government.
Skill training is one of the major activities at KCC. Employees were trained on various
aspects of business viz. business communication, customer relationship management,
inventory management, computer skills etc. along with baking, packing and labeling.
Full time employment raised the self esteem of the employees and made them feel proud;
at the same time monetary benefits earned by them helped them to improve the way they
used to live earlier.
Polak started the KCC investing her own money ($10,000) with an expectation that if this
model works she will be able to help few people to change their lives. Initially, Nokwanda
was the only employee working for KCC, but within two year of its inception KCC
employed more than 10 employees to bake varieties of cookies (Choc Chunk, Ginger
Snap, Safari, Brownies and Shortbread biscuits) and sell into coffee shops, restaurants and
hotels. Within two year of its inception, KCC started selling an average of around 13,000
cookies in a month.
The Bakery manager of KCC, Zanele Bam who is in early thirties is a living testimonial
depicting the success of this venture. She said “I have learned business skills, I have
learned how to handle business tasks, how to work with clients and also communication
skills. If you can’t manage yourself, you can’t manage others”.
In order to help the society, KCC donates a portion of its profit to the Philani Clinic in
Khayelitsha. This cookie business owned a remarkable success as it got accepted by
customers and retailers. In the year 2006, Oprah Winfrey recently featured KCC and its
products on her TV Show, a highest rated talk show which is being watched by more than
22 million people. Alicia Polak is highly positive that she will be able to empower more
and more women and to attract more international customers by replicating this KCC
model in different countries irrespective of their languages and cultures.
Questions

1. Sketch a SWOT analysis of the case.
2. What was the idea behind KCC?
3. Is it practical to replicate KCC model in different countries? If yes, explain how.
Source: Janakiram.B, (2010), “Role and Challenges of Entrepreneurship Development”. Excel Books
Pvt.Ltd.

6.4 Summary

Nowadays self-help groups (SHGs) are playing a very important role to motivate women
in entrepreneurship through micro-finance. SHGs are not only increasing in rural women
entrepreneurship but also in urban women entrepreneurship.

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