Beautification of Death: A Case Study of Green Oasis Coffins (Made) in Bangladesh

Abstract

Situation faced: This case presents the story of Oasis Coffins, a manufacturer of beautiful hand-crafted coffins and ash urns. This venture began its operations  in Bangladesh, paradoxically a Muslim majority country where the demand for coffin is limited. Action taken: The founder of Oasis Coffins, David How, who is a Chartered Environmentalist, took advantage of the location and sustainably sourced natural products that are abundantly available in Bangladesh. Using these products, Oasis Coffins dedicatedly develops coffins and exploits the recent trend of “green” death in the global funeral industry. Results achieved: While both born global firms and sustainability have received significant academic attention in recent years, most studies are based on firms of developed economies. Addressing the research gap, the authors have selected Oasis Coffins, a small venture that successfully integrated the economic, social, and environmental sustainability dimensions while operating from a developing nation. The paper discusses how Oasis Coffins operates as a sustainable business in Bangladesh and has been successfully exporting funeral products in international markets such as the UK, Holland, and Germany. The authors provide an account of the financial challenges, the supply chain, and promotional strategies of Oasis Coffins. Lessons learned: While this study is a significant contribution to the SME, sustainability, and born global literature, it broaches discussion on the founder’s capabilities surrounding opportunity recognition, exploitation, and establishment of a born global firm in a developing nation.

Appendices

Case Summary

This case presents the story of Oasis Coffins, manufacturer of beautiful hand-crafted coffins and ash urns. This venture began its operations in Bangladesh, paradoxically a Muslim majority country where the demand for coffin is limited. However, the founder of Oasis, David How, who is a Chartered Environmentalist, took advantage of the location and sustainably sourced natural products that are abundantly available in Bangladesh. Using these products, Oasis dedicatedly develops the coffins and exploits the recent trend of “green” death in the global funeral industry. While both born global firms and sustainability have received significant academic attention in recent years, most studies, however, are based on firms of developed economies. The authors have selected Oasis Coffins, a small venture which successfully integrated the economic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability while operating from a developing nation. The case discusses how Oasis Coffins is operating as a sustainable business in Bangladesh and has been successfully exporting funeral products in international markets such as the UK, Holland, and Germany. The authors provide an account of the financial challenges, the supply chain, and the promotional strategies of Oasis. In addition to outlining the venture’s strategies to protect the environment, the case sheds light on their contribution in job creation and improving the lives of individuals from economically marginalized backgrounds. While this case is a significant contribution to the SME, sustainability, and born global literature, it broaches discussion on the founder’s capabilities surrounding opportunity recognition, exploitation, and establishment of a born global firm in a developing nation.

Learning Objectives

Through completing this case study, students should obtain a stronger understanding of:

• The competitive dynamics of the Sustainable Business model.

• The strengths and weaknesses of Oasis Coffins’ market and operational strategies.

• The business and revenue model of Oasis Coffins and the methods to make it more effective and efficient.

• The elements of Porter’s Five Forces to analyze Oasis Coffins and its competitive market.

Theoretical Framework: Sustainable Business

Sustainable business is “a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments” (Dow Jones Sustainability Index, 2005b). Therefore, the concept of sustainability is associated with an integrated outcome with social, economic, and environmental elements. Sustainability is based on Triple Bottom Lines (TBL) (Elkington, 1998), three discrete but interrelated dimensions, namely economic, social and environmental (Christofi et al., 2012; Mohrman & Worley, 2010). Some academics explain sustainability with the concept of 3Ps, i.e., People, Planet and Profit (Mohrman & Worley, 2010; Montiel & Delgado-Ceballos, 2014). Sustainability has become an integral part of doing business across the world (Montiel & Delgado-Ceballos, 2014), largely initiated by the pressure from multi-stakeholder groups (Gill et al., 2008). The eco-friendly trend in green burials is reflected in two ways. First, the burial has minimum environmental impacts, for example, by using coffins made from bio-degradable materials. Next, the grave itself contributes to the conservation of the environment, for instance, by supporting trees and fauna. With its environmental impacts, the green burial sites also benefit people in the nearby community. Therefore, going green is no longer just a way of life, but also a way of death (Mei Ling, 2009).

Teaching Strategy

Although we believe that the case is ideal for a 90-minute class, it is possible that many classes might fail to cover all the materials identified in the analysis section. Since the case is rich in data, the instructor should decide which areas he or she would like to focus on during the case analysis. Depending on the interest of the group, the instructor can focus on the broader issues of “Competitive Strategy” as an appropriate approach to analyze the competitiveness in the sustainable use of coffins. Of course, this would also depend on the sequencing of the case within the course. If students have already learned the basic concepts of “Competitive Strategy,” one can generate an interesting discussion on possible heuristics which can use. The modular design adopted in case analysis provides the necessary flexibility to the instructor in structuring the class discussion. Hence, using Porter’s Five Forces and Ansoff’s product–market strategy, one can gain a wide understanding of the sustainable coffin business.

Notes

• 1. The funeral customs vary significantly across religions. For example, the rituals of the Muslims (burial without the use of a casket or coffin) and the Hindus (burning of the corpse) are different from those followed by the Christians (discussed in earlier sections).

• 2. Tindercapital works with pro-poor entrepreneurs at an earlier stage. It started working with Oasis Coffins at the beginning of 2011. Its investment served as a catalyst for Panahpur’s involvement (Tindercapital, 2019). It started discussions to invest in Oasis Transformations in early August, 2010. Mr Jerry Nicolson who closely worked with Oasis evaluated the feasibility of the initiative and developed an investment plan. In the later part of 2010, Panahpur made the first investment and Tindercapital and panahpur made a contribution of 27,000 and 1,39,000 GBP by the end of 2012. Besides, Panahpur strongly contributed and participated in the organization and the development of a board for the Oasis Transformation.

• 3. The operations and relationships of the organization are governed by the set of following values (Oasis Coffins, 2019b):

  • (a) Social justice: The firm operates in an environmentally responsible and friendly manner.

  • (b) Transparent demonstration: To ensure visibility of the effectiveness of its solutions among the employers, suppliers, customers and other stakeholders, Oasis Coffins has established transparent and meaningful indicators.

  • (c) Natural beauty: The organization aims to pursue beauty in their products, day-to-day work environment, processes and relationships.

  • (d) Servant leadership: By serving the internal community efficiently, it enhances its quality of products and services toward the external community.

  • (e) Honest relationships: It searches for mutual trust and respect in all its business relationships.

• 4. FFMA was established in 1939 with the goal to ensure the goods produced are of good quality and high standards. As part of this role to promote quality, new scheme was developed to ensure all coffins produced and sold by FEMA members are as per need and quality (FFMA, 2019).

• 5. The WFTO is the global community of Fair Trade Enterprises. Established in 1989, they currently have over 400 members across 70 nations. Their community includes 330 Fair Trade Enterprises and broader initiatives of 70 organizations and extended network to sustain their goals. The WFTO ensures the commitment of all their members toward Fair Trading by peer reviewing and independent audits. These entities can be social businesses, cooperatives and the family owned entities. All of the corporations adopted practices and structures that ensure due priority toward employees, farmers, and artisans in their business decisions. They were born as alternative models of business in the struggle against inequality and injustice (WFTO, 2019).