Itc E-Choupal Case Study Essay Example

solely on the basis of ethical principles, how would you do so? Be sure to address the issue of social justice perspective poverty in your answer. The e-Choupal business model provided farmers the supply chain with more transparency and choice, which break this low productivity circle. The framework was structured in several ways. First, ITC set up website (echoupal.com) to deliver unique value to farmers that bundled the knowledge such as weather forecast and the latest technological trends.

In this way, e-Choupal eliminated information asymmetry regarding prices and allowed farmers to time the sale of their produce, consequently fetching higher prices. Second, the Sanchalaks acted as an interface between the computer terminal and the often illiterate farmers. ITC trained Sanchalaks to assist farmers in assess and pricing their produce. Third, Choupal Saagars were introduced as an alternative to the mandi. The farmers benefited from this by accurate weighing and prompt full payments. This made farmers have more money left in hand. Thus, farmers had money to invest. The quality and quantity of the produce improved. In Rawls’s social justice perspective, social justice is about assuring the protection of equal access to liberties, rights and opportunities, as well as taking care of the least-advantaged members of society. In this case, the rural farmers in India are least-advantaged members in society.

Thus, their interests that hindered by the corruption and opaque supply chain should be protected. How does ITC manage the dilemma of balancing its profit objectives with its social objectives and expectations in implementing CSR? How well does the ITC e-Choupal initiative really respond to the development meets, concerns and priorities of rural India?

ITC’s profit objectives and social objectives are not conflicting. ITC not only transformed the business of farming but also with it the life of the Indian farmer. ITC help rural farmers in India through using technology. ITC has been identified as one of the “top 10 most valuable (company) brands in India” and ranked third pre-tax profit among India’s private sector corporations.

The pursuit of profit doesn’t stop their steps of CSR implementation. The traditional business cycle was a time-consuming process which made ITC a high procurement cost. The farmers were affected by this process because the middlemen has skim away most of the gains. In order to reform the time-consuming and inefficient agrarian supply chain, ITC initiated its e-Choupal business model in 2000. It afforded the rural farmers the access to information and provides them with another efficient marketing way instead of the traditional one. The business rational for launching e-Choupal was to empower the rural community, gain brand recognition and make a profit. Farmers realized that trading via e-Choupal safeguarded their interest by rewarding them for quality products. The e-Choupal transformed the rural farmer into an empowered and confident entrepreneur.

Poor people at the BOP (bottom of the pyramid) represent a very attractive market opportunity, as C.K. Prahalad has argued, “selling to the poor can simultaneously be profitable and help eradicate poverty.” Do you agree with this statement in reference to India and ITC’s e-Choupal business? Yes I agree with this statement. It is a win-win situation. Both ITC and poor farmers and other people involved would benefit from the movements. ITC’s purpose of making the efforts was to provide a

way to build a better community and platform which would profitable to them accordingly. ITC’s education and training in farmers will present opportunities for both business and community. It will help eradicate poverty.

The primary education through e-Choupal, women’s empowerment, healthcare services, such kinds of things made good opportunities for farmers to access modern society business model, the latest technology information. The enlightened farmers would contribute to the development of agricultural business in India. The sound cycle of economic activities in this area would benefit both community and business, as well as ITC and farmers. In empowering the community, ITC not only got brand recognition and actual value in profits, but also germinated the seeds of a profound social and economic transformation. 5.In conclusion, and drawing upon your analysis of the questions above, give a short assessment of ITC's strategy in this case. Summarize your conclusions in the form of a one-page “executive summary”. Thank you.

Agriculture produces 23% of GDP, feeds a billion people, and employs 66% of the workforce. But the agricultural system has traditionally been unfair to the poor farmers. They were at the bottom of pyramid, made so many efforts but got a poor return. They were underserved and overexploited. The time-consuming agricultural supply chain and old way of doing business was a vicious cycle to rural farmers, and the Indian agricultural industry as well. ITC is one of the Indian foremost private company with a market capitalization of nearly US$18 billion. The International Business Division (“IBD”) was created in 1990 as an agricultural company.

The company initiated e-Choupal business model in 2000 to place computers with internet

and technology information access in Indian rural villages. The e-Choupal operates as a place for information exchanging and e-commerce hub. At the beginning they were endeavoring to reorganize the soybean and other cropping procurement chain in rural India. The challenges they encountered were infrastructural inadequacies and the unskilled farmers in remote India.

They created a new highly profitable business way for both ITC and the farmers. The e-commerce platform which was brought from e-Choupal focused on the urgent needs of rural India. The decades-old business way has been changed into a low-cost and efficient system. It created more transparency supply chain to farmers and improved their productivity and incomes, as well as their products’ quality. The efforts transformed the powerless and humiliated farmers into empowered and confident entrepreneur.