Product details

The Teatulia case examines the dynamics of a multi-generational family business. In 2000 the Kazi family founded Kazi & Kazi Tea Estate Limited (KKTE) in the remote northwestern corner of Bangladesh. While combining financial profitability with employee well-being and environmental sustainability, the company focused on finding solutions for both owners and local populations. The tea, sold under the ‘Teatulia’ brand name, was organically grown using sustainable agricultural methods. Sold in affluent markets, it consistently fetched a price premium for what is normally a commodity. Since the tea estate’s founding, the lives of many workers as well as the local economy improved markedly. In 2006, Linda Appel Lipsius was brought in as a partner assuming the title of Teatulia co-founder and CEO. Based in Colorado, she took responsibility for operations in the United States. Over the first decade, CEO Kazi Anis Ahmed had faced corruption, inefficiency, and lackadaisical employees; many of the company’s competent people had departed for other jobs. But by 2012, more than 2,200 people, mostly women, were employed in the garden and in KKTE’s vegetable, herb, and dairy operations. More than half owned a cow through the company’s ‘cow co-operative’ program. This case is part of the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship at Massachusetts Institute of Technology free case collection (visit www.thecasecentre.org/legatum for more information on the collection).