Founder CEO Rajeev Kakar had spent 20 months (2006-2008) setting up Dunia, a finance company in the UAE. After many long days he had convinced several shareholders to invest $150 million in his new venture. Just when the Dunia team was preparing to announce the opening of its first branch in Abu Dhabi, news broke about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on 15 September 2008. For Kakar, it meant that the product programmes he had lined up, as well as his assumptions of funding for Dunia, had crashed. As uncertainty swirled around him, he prepared for his board meeting ahead of the planned launch, which was ten days away. In this new world of uncertainty he thought about the fate of his company, his senior management team who had left their promising careers to join Dunia, the rest of the 300 people he had hired, and his vision for Dunia, which had, as yet, not served a single customer. This case can be downloaded by educators as a clean pdf by viewing the on-line inspection copy. Access is unlimited and you may print as many copies as you wish for use with your students. Standard pricing applies for any copies ordered from ecch.
