NextBillion 2010 Case Writing Competition Winners Collection:: Case Studies in Social Enterprise and BoP

The five cases in this collection are winners of the NextBillion 2011 Case Writing Competition, NextBillion.net's first annual academic business case competition, co-sponsored by the William Davidson Institute, Acumen Fund, and World Resource Institute. The cases focus on social enterprise and base of the pyramid issues at Nestle, the International Rescue Committee, International Development Enterprise India, Ziquitza Healthcare Limited, and the Emancipation Network, while seeking to address the question of what business models and business innovations are effective in developing scalable businesses serving low-income markets in the developing world.

Nilima is a Research Associate (aka: Business Case Writer) at the William Davidson Institute, where she conducts primary and secondary research and writes case studies related to business in emerging global economies. She is particularly interested in the social impact of business in developing countries. Nilima is also a Staff Writer for the international development and enterprise blog NextBillion. Prior to joining WDI, Nilima was selected as a Kiva Fellow for the online micro-lending platform, for which she spent three months at a Bolivian microfinance institution training staff on Kiva processes and interviewing borrowers to assess the personal impact of their micro-loans. Nilima graduated with distinction in Economics and Spanish from the University of Michigan, where she was a James B. Angell scholar and studied abroad in Mexico and Chile. While at the university, Nilima worked on the executive board of PALMA, a volunteer organization offering one-on-one English tutoring and informational seminars to the Latino community.