This course will provide a field opportunity for students to investigate the current practices of an El Salvadoran social enterprise, Acceso Oferta Local – El Salvador, which aggregates agricultural products (fruit, vegetable, fish and seafood) procured from low-income producers. Students will investigate the success factors and challenges of the enterprise, assess its social impact and make recommendations for important enterprise initiatives including the rollout of a new digital training platform, development of an improved financial inclusion strategy and scaling and replication. These opportunities will be viewed through the lens of social impact, financial return, and stakeholder management. In addition, students will have the opportunity to evaluate policy implications on the business and beneficiaries specifically as it relates to El Salvador being the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. Students will also examine how expanding economic impact on the enterprises’ rural beneficiaries can lead to reduced migration to urban areas and other countries including illegal migration to the US.
Students will have the opportunity to interview local producers, product buyers, funders, and policy makers, develop frameworks for assessing scaling opportunities and making recommendations for the social enterprise’s evolution. They will also interact with the management of the key customers of the enterprise including the Executive Vice President of Grupo Calleja, a NYU Stern graduate and former candidate for the country's presidency who has grown his family owned and operated Super Selectos chain to over 100 supermarkets.
The course will build off the Professor’s two cases on this enterprise.