This case outlines key global challenges facing higher education in the African context. It discusses the African Leadership University (ALU) as an innovative higher education institution, including its origins, establishment, strategy and purpose, curriculum, technology and operations, student support network and funding. It also describes ALU’s ongoing challenges and future prospects. ALU was launched in 2015 by Fred Swaniker, founder and chief executive officer and Khurram Masood, co-founder and chief operating officer.

Kaya FM derives its name from the isiZulu word “ikhaya”, which means “home”. The name reflects the mission of the radio station to provide a home for black South Africans who were denied many opportunities during the apartheid era in South Africa. Kaya FM has been broadcasting since 1997, following the deregulation of the media landscape in South Africa. However, by 2018, the radio landscape has become very challenging. Mainstream advertisers still do not consider Kaya FM as a preferred channel to reach their target audience.

SolarTurtle is an award-winning South African social enterprise that manufactures and supplies secure, mobile, solar power stations and kiosks to communities where the electricity grid does not reach. The company converts shipping containers into housings for solar panels to protect them from theft and extreme weather conditions. These units are called “PowerTurtles”. Through the franchise model, the company supplies PowerTurtles to off-grid institutions in rural areas. PowerTurtles are also sold to private sector enterprises and are scalable to suit the energy needs of customers.

From her office on her farm in the Eden District of South Africa’s Western Cape province, Wendy Crane, who had for many years been involved in the conservation efforts of the Gouritz Cluster Biosphere Reserve (GCBR), drank in the view of the Langeberg Mountains. Her pleasure was a bit diminished by the knowledge that, like so many parts of the GCBR, this area’s environment was under threat. She was preparing for a meeting in March 2017 of the board of the non-profit company (NPC) that sought to initiate and coordinate activities that would achieve the goals of the GCBR.

Sakhumzi Restaurant on Vilakazi Street, in Soweto’s Orlando West, had grown exponentially since it opened in October 2001. Vilakazi Street was named after a South African Zulu poet, novelist and educator, Benedict Wallet Vilakazi, who was the first black South African to obtain a PhD in 1946. The street was famous for housing two Nobel Peace Prize laureates – Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu – as well as for being the site of the shooting of Hector Pieterson during the Soweto Uprising.

In December 2015, Justine Cullinan, station manager of 5FM – a commercial, national music-radio station – reviewed the listenership and revenue figures for the year. When she took over as station manager in October 2014, 5FM had been through a three-year period of sharply declining listenership and revenue. Since then, by growing 5FM’s online community and adjusting the station’s overall strategy, the tide of decline had slowed. 5FM’s limited marketing budget prevented it from attracting listeners through traditional marketing avenues.

Raizcorp Chief Executive Allon Raiz was faced each day with many applications to join his business incubation prosperator programme. He knew what to look for in an entrepreneur, but it was not always “cut and dried”. In September 2012, he and his panel were considering an applicant who had passed all the tests with flying colours, and they were unanimous in their belief that he had what it took to be successful. His business, however, left them in doubt. It was a struggling IT support company, which they felt had no differentiating factors in an already overtraded industry.

Adrian Gore started Discovery in 1992 with seed-funding of R10 million from merchant banking group, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), as a health insurance company within the RMB stable. By 2009, Discovery had become a large, listed, financial services institution employing more than 5,000 people and comprising not only Discovery Health (DH), but also Discovery Life (DL), Discovery Invest (DI) and Discovery Vitality (a wellness programme).

The case illustrates a number of practical marketing issues: the marketing challenges of launching a budget airline: gaining high visibility and awareness with a relatively low share of voice; the relationship between an organisation and its advertising agency; the requirement to maintain a consistent marketing strategy over time, but to adapt the execution as market dynamics impact the consumer. Given the dynamics of most industries, kulula.com cannot afford to be complacent, as new entrants are always on the horizon.

In February 2009, Justin Smith, manager of the good business journey at Woolworths, a leading South African department store, was a worried man. Woolworths had launched its five-year sustainability strategy just under two years before. After undertaking an impact assessment, Smith was concerned that the original targets – which covered transformation, social development, the environment and climate change – had been set without a clear understanding of exactly what it would take to achieve them.