Abstract

Ele Agbe is a Ghanaian phrase meaning “God is alive.” Founded as a small and medium enterprise (SME), in Ghana in 1996, Ele Agbe Company is currently a dynamic business operating in the downstream shea export sector. Demand for shea is increasing for skin and hair products on the foreign market. Ele Agbe’s artisans use traditional Ghanaian tools and methods, and the highest quality materials available, including unique scents.

The protected knowledge build up of unique scents in its shea product mix has given Ele Agbe its trade secret. At Ele Agbe, artisans pass on their skills to younger generations, conducting workshops for school groups and accepting apprentices from throughout Ghana. The business is confronted with challenges partly as a result of non-existent working policy for shea and breaks or gaps in the shea supply chain preventing it from achieving full potential. The company needs to consider how to improve on its’ firm and business networks given its
internal and external environment in order to expand.

Company Background

Ele Agbe is one of the leading names in Ghana’s shea processing sector. Fourteen years ago, when they began exporting, they had six full time workers and 150 casual workers (wood carvers). Today, the company has 10 full time workers and about 300 casual workers. They have remained sustainable through strong marketing, innovation and diversifying products based on consumer needs and expectations in both domestic and international markets. In the past five years, 20 new product lines have been introduced by the company to include shea varieties of soap, lotion bars and lip balm. Other shea products include: body oil, hair pomade and cream for babies. New product lines are driven by market testing and by the young staff who come up with ideas they find interesting and which peers perceive as the trend. All these inform product development. Ele Agbe’s success may be attributable to its networks and initiatives management. For example, the company has
received several international recognitions.

Ele Agbe, an SME2, established in 1996, began full operations in 1998 focusing mainly on producing ornamental beads, original jewelry designs and handmade home decor which they started exporting in 1999. Shea butter products were introduced to its export product line sometime in 2004. The expansion was made possible through the use of retained earnings (equity) in the amount of $400 in order to launch a range of shea butter products. One of the purposes of this expansion was to provide a higher market profile for the products of rural women to afford them a more sustainable livelihood. The vision of Ele Agbe is to satisfy
a demand in local value-added products and create jobs for rural and urban women; and youth which can help them earn a living by targeting domestic and international markets. Comfort’s leadership and vision are fueled by 18 years of
export and work experience gained in another company, self-learning and feedback from buyers. Other contributing factors are her high involvement in export trade and frequent travels abroad.

Today, the company targets the domestic market, sub-regional markets through trade fairs, exhibits and international markets, primarily in the USA, Japan and occasional orders to the UK. The quality of products is very high and is assured through work relations requiring maintenance of Fair trade practices and standards.

Looking Ahead

Ele Agbe appears to have positioned itself for international (especially Japan and US) markets based on the networks developed through leading world personalities in these areas. While the social network of familial relations has helped the company with its branding and market penetration, frequent changes in export market regulations for the shea sector is costly to the company. The question for the company now is how to sustain its network which is linked solely to the CEO and to a lesser extent to the company? Should more effort be made to harness local social networks and exploit other network opportunities in the sub-region to reduce costs further? How should the company expand its business model of operations without compromising its vision? Could the strategy of developing network ties with world personalities be used for international markets or in
sub-regional markets? The concept of developing the capacity of rural women and youth through a franchise of registered trade secret is appealing. This is because business model can be replicated in different communities. Although, it is not
clear how viable this may be given the constraints associated with intellectual property registration at national, regional and world levels, and the tightly guarded trade secret.