University of Sydney Business School course challenges students to help the poor

20 June 2014

Postgraduate students are being told to “radically rethink” many traditional business principles and focus on a five trillion dollar international market that has been all but ignored by the world’s investors.
The four billion people in the developing world who exist on less than five dollars a day, says Associate Professor Ranjit Voola, provide the private sector with an enormous opportunity to genuinely engage with them in alleviating poverty and making profits.

University of Sydney Business School
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Dr Voola has developed a unit titled “Poverty alleviation and profitability” for approximately 50 students engaged in the CEMS Masters in International Management. CEMS in an elite global alliance of 29 business schools which includes the University of Sydney Business School.
“This unit is unique in its content in Australia and the University of Sydney Business School is among the first CEMS partner to introduce this into its curriculum,” he said.
“The unit is aimed at encouraging students to radically rethink the traditional business focus on prosperous middle class markets and engage with the world’s poor,” Dr Voola explains. “We are not talking about exploitation but rather a novel role for business in poverty alleviation.”
Dr Voola says that while poverty alleviation had been the exclusive domain of not-for-profits, governments and multinational organisations like the World Bank, there is now both moral and economic imperative for businesses to become involved.
As examples of how business can engage with the poor, profitably, Dr Voola points to the Safaricom/Vodofone M-Pesa venture in Kenya, which allows money transfers and access to microfinance via a mobile phone. “This enhances financial literacy and financial inclusion, amongst the poor,” he said.
Another firm, Saathi, a small start-up has developed an innovative way of providing Indian women with affordable access to sanitary protection and a sustainable business.
“A lack of access to affordable sanitary protection robs around two hundred million Indian women of vital work and education opportunities,” Dr Voola explains. “Saathi has developed a way of making sanitary products from banana fibre and it has partnered with local women, who buy the machinery, manufacture the products and distribute them. This business model, engages the poor as both consumers and as producers.”
The Sydney Business School professor admits that “poverty alleviation and profitability” is challenging students to rethink all that they have been taught about business priorities and business risk in a developed marketplace like Australia and Europe.
“We are asking them to consider a business strategy that targets illiterate people with very little money who currently operate in an informal economy,” he says. “We are also asking them to base their engagement with these people on social justice principles.”
“The UN and others in the field now recognise that the private sector will eventually have a leading role to play in the alleviation of poverty,” Dr Voola concludes. “By 2050, the world’s population is forecast to be 9.3 billion, with a significant percentage who are poor.”

Master of International Business  at Sydney Business School

The Sydney Master of International Business will equip you with the knowledge and skills to advance your career to the global level in industry, government and non-government organisations.
The Master of International Business is a specialised program tailored to students seeking to build a career with a global outlook. It is also appropriate for more seasoned managers who are looking to progress their global learning curve and to advance their skills in managing culturally diverse employees and teams.
Program: Master of International Business
Location: Sydney, New South Wales
Duration: 1.15 years (60 weeks)
Semester intake: March or July
Application deadline: June 30 for the July 2014 intake; January 31, 2015 for the March 2015 intake
Entry requirements
A successful applicant for admission to the Master of International Business will hold a bachelor’s degree, graduate diploma/certificate in commerce/business or equivalent from a recognized post-secondary institution with a minimum credit (65%) average.

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