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Golden Bees Ltd: Leadership Inspires Resiliency
During COVID-19 Pandemic
A Student Multidisciplinary Applied Research Team (SMART) Project
2
1
Siyana Popova , Anastasia Stampoulopoulou , Danielle Zarbin 3
Team Leader: Ndunge Kiiti 4
Faculty Advisor: Ralph Christy 5
“ Irrespectively of how many
times you fall, the passion is
always going to be the driver behind
you, getting up and doing your
things every day! ”
Brian Mugisha, CEO of Golden Bees Ltd
Introduction Methods & Data Collection
Golden Bees Ltd. (Uganda) is an enterprise Interviews (with the Golden Bees team,
that provides a full scale of Ugandan professor of economics).
Beekeeping products and services. Honey Secondary data analysis and literature
processing and packaging is their main research. Data from the Emerging
operation. They: Markets survey conducted by Cornell
*produce propolis tinctures and bee’s wax; University; leaders of MSME’s in
*manufacture beekeeping equipment; and Uganda and Eastern Africa responded
*empower rural populations through to questions about Covid-19’s effects on
beekeeping training and consultancies. their businesses.
Analysis & Findings
PROCUREMENT TECHNOLOGY H. RESOURCES INFRASTRUCTURE
COVID-19 caused a Created new mobile Hired an Assistant Management is
major disruption in app that displays General Manager, active in the day- Conclusion
the supply chain and real time supply who took on HRM to-day operations Hardships
honey making chain data to initiatives. of the firm.
process. internal staff. ❖Urban transportation halted because of
Distributed HR Implementing
Honey could not and Finance new strategies to COVID-19 restrictions
reach the Golden Product can be manuals to grow the business
Bees facility from the traced to its batch employee. and increase cash. ❖Unstable market conditions due to the ❖ Leadership Traits from the
farmers. and shipment. management team make an SME
Lack of transportation preventing honey from pandemic led to inability to pay salaries
LOGISTICS farmers to come into the facility or products to reach ❖Overreliance to funds led to lack of more resilient - showcase Golden
supermarkets. Bees.
disposable income.
Staff decreased so output production and ❖Quick response and recovery to
OPERATIONS
operation was inefficient. changing economic trends is a vital
Opportunities
GB’s new focus on marketing aims to offset the for SMEs.
MARKETING ❖ Consumers identify the medicinal
demand shock from COVID-19. ❖Partnerships and networking makes
importance of bee products
Despite COVID-19, GB remained active on social ❖ Increase in demand for those an SME more sustainable.
SERVICE media to promote community, commitment to
creating quality product, and inspiring faith. commodities, that enabled the company
to charge higher prices.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AFFILIATIONS REFERENCES
We are grateful to the manager and co-founder of 1,4,5 Charles H. Dyson School of Applied *Ali, A. M., & Kunugi, H. (2021). Propolis, bee honey, and their
Golden Bees Ltd, Bryan Mugisha and the Assistant Economics and Management components protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19): A review
General Manager, Patrick Asiimwe for their 2 Department of Global Development of in silico, in vitro, and clinical studies. Molecules, 26(5), 1232.
*Sejjaaka, S., Mindra, R., & Nsereko, I. (2015). Leadership traits and
valuable contribution. Thank you, Professors 3 SC Johnson Graduate School of business sustainability in Ugandan SMEs: A qualitative analysis. Science
Ndunge Kiiti and Ralph Christy for their insightful Management and Business Administration.
advice and the learning experience through
SMART Program.
