Case Studies

In August 2013, Mr Chanratha, Director of General Education & Community Development, Pour un Sourire d’Enfant (PSE), was wondering what specific social enterprise programs could be developed and implemented to help the sole bread winners and/or wives of families relocating to SMILE Village in Cambodia to first replace income derived from scavenging, and through skills training, to gradually become self-supporting. Cambodia was one of the world’s poorer nations, the country having been racked by civil war in the latter part of the 20th century. Approximately 4 million people lived on less than US$1.25 per day and 37% of Cambodian children under the age of 5 suffered from chronic malnutrition. More than 50% of the population were less than 25 years old. PSE was founded by Christian Des Pallières and his wife, Marie-France in 1995. PSE was committed to improving the livelihood of children in Cambodia, specifically those living in the slumps. They provide basic education, vocational training and support services to children from the most impoverished families. The SMILE village project was aimed at finding sustainable solutions in addressing the inhumane living conditions of families of PSE students in order that these children might be educated, and every family might break the bonds of poverty. The key challenge was to help the poor families relocating to the SMILE village, build the capacity to establish a stable source of income, manage their families and grow as a community. The help of 12 student consulting teams were sought to develop feasible social enterprise ideas for the first smile village and to provide implementation plans for these social enterprise ideas.

In April 2013, Debra Langley, CEO of Inverted Edge, was evaluating how Inverted Edge could enter the China market. Founded in September 2012, the company aimed to take talented independent Asia-Pacifc designers global. They identified the problem that these designers did not have the time, people or resources to sell internationally. A growing number of independent female customers who were looking for uniquely designed styles also provided an attractive market to tap into. To that end, they created an online platform that catered to international orders. Inverted Edge focused on a niche market strategy which targeted customers looking for unique and specially designed wearable styles with good quality and reasonable price. To differentiate itself from competitors, the company aimed to provide a curated selection of styles to its customers while infusing an unexpected journey of discovery of new products on its website. China’s luxury market has been on an upward trend and is forecasted to take over Japan as the largest luxury market in the world by 2014. Its designer apparel market was also reported to have a 20% growth. Internet retail was also projected to grow by 36.8% over the next 5 years. These factors made the China market very attractive for Inverted Edge to expand their business into. However, it has to contend with strong competition from home grown China fashion online e-retailers such as Dong Liang Studio and Triple Major. Local design labels such as Exception were also starting to make their mark in the Chinese market. Debra therefore wondered how Inverted Edge could reach the target market in China, compete with local and international competitors, and gain penetration and market share in this large market.

In September 2012, Charmain Tan, founder and CEO of Fun in Ecological Tech Textile (FIETTTM) faced the issue of having to raise funds required to expand the business. The start-up company specialised in producing eco-friendly, cutting edge tech textile goods. The company’s pilot product, ISGLOVESTM, were a pair of hybrid gloves that could be used to operate touch screen devices while keeping the users hands warm in the cold climate. Gloves of such functionality were unavailable then. The product was manufactured in China and targeted for sale in the Scandinavian countries. FIETTTM had been relying on support and funding from the Singapore government and private initiatives since its inception. To bring the business to the next level, additional funding from other investors were required. FIETT™’s vision and mission is to go beyond existing frontiers of textile application towards the synthesis of technology and fashion into the creation of new and innovative apparels to add value to consumer experiences of comfort, convenience and style in an ecological way. ISGLOVETM was positioned as a differentiated product from its competitors, focusing on attributes which competitors were not able to satisfy and avoiding competition on mainstream features. Furthermore, the eco-friendly market, touch screen technology market and the Scandinavian glove market all showed great growth potential. For an upcoming presentation to investors, Charmain knew she had to articulate the company’s international sales and marketing strategy for ISGLOVESTM and its global sales potential. She also had to share the long term vision of the company beyond its gloves products.