Upon becoming General Manager of Artesanias de Colombia (AC) in January 2007, Paola Munoz faced the challenge of redefining the organization's strategy. A mostly government organization with a 3% private possession, the mission of AC, was to cultivate, encourage, and market handicrafts that are Colombian, thus creating economic development opportunities for artisans, a low income, mostly indigenous inhabitants. In early 2007, soon after assuming her job as General Manager, Paola evaluated achievements, the strategy, and limitations of her predecessor's 16-year-long direction tenure, to be able to craft her own strategy for the organization. While the previous strategy focused on crafts-with a strong emphasis on the promotion of design as well as the placement of crafts as very differentiated products among high-income customers-Paola needed to discuss with her staff the pros and cons of reorienting the AC's strategy toward the artisans, through increased training, support, and capacity building especially in administrative, economical and organizational areas.
The case relies on an organization that is mainly a public/ government organization with a social mission. Government agencies and authorities represent in most OECD countries between 40% and 50% of the market. This case invites students to (1) strategy formulation in not-for-profit or governmental contexts specifically in this event a hybrid organization with (a) a dual mandate -social and company inclinations (b) in a sector where the little focal organization boosts value creation with a huge variety of companies -over 350,000 artisans in the state) and to (2) emphasize the relevance and limits of strategic management theories and tools in such circumstances. Besides a strategic management class, this case may be utilized in a corporate social responsibility course to illustrate the challenges of a hybrid organization, in which profit-making and social assignment are complementary objectives.
PUBLICATION DATE: January 12, 2015 PRODUCT #: NAS304-PDF-SPA
This is just an excerpt. This case is about STRATEGY & EXECUTION
Related Case Solutions & Analyses:
New Leaders for New Schools
Management Earnings Disclosure and Pro Forma Reporting
CMM–Compania Minera Montemorelo S.A.
World Bank and Knowledge Management: The Case of the Urban Services Thematic Group
Procter & Gamble Canada (B): The Canadian MDO
How to Manage Radical Innovation
Brand Relationship Spectrum: The Key to the Brand Architecture Challenge
Egon Zehnder International: Managing Professionals in an Executive Search Firm
Bristol Compressors Asia-Pacific
Concordia Electronic Systems Test
