Doing Business in a Distant Paradise

The case study presented here discusses the story of Marek, who left his job in a corporation in Poland and set up his dream hotel business in Zanzibar. The first part of his story offers an excellent basis for discussing the role of distance in international business and learning the CAGE model. In the second part, the entrepreneur had to face up to the global pandemic, and decide whether to give up on his dreams or cope with the difficulties. Students working with this case thus have an opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a transnational entrepreneur embedded in two countries, and to learn how a person’s perspective on distance might change in times of crisis.