Syndicated Communications and Worldspace

Abstract

This case is used in the course elective, "Entrepreneur as Change Agent." This case concerns the development of WorldSpace, a direct-to-receiver satellite audio system that aimed to deliver information and entertainment to the population of developing nations. WorldSpace's founder was seeking investment and strategic support from Syndicated Communications (Syncom), a venture capital fund that targeted early-stage media and communications opportunities in underserved markets, primarily those consisting of or catering to minorities. The scope and magnitude of the WorldSpace opportunity was audacious, and its probability of returns and growth potential very attractive, but investing in WorldSpace would mean a tremendous risk for Syncom.

Excerpt

UVA-ENT-0064

Rev. Mar. 12, 2013

SYNDICATED COMMUNICATIONS AND WORLDSPACE

Any attempt to “soften” the power of the oppressor in deference to the weakness of the oppressed almost always manifests itself in the form of false generosity: indeed, the attempt never goes beyond this. In order to have the continued opportunity to express their “generosity,” the oppressors must perpetuate injustice as well. An unjust order is the permanent fount of this “generosity,” which is nourished by death, despair, and poverty.

True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity constrains the fearful and subdued, the “rejects of life,” to extend their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these hands—whether of individuals or entire peoples—need be extended less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human hands which work, and working, transform the world.

—Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

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Keywords: Communications Industry, Entrepreneurship, International Business, Venture Capital, Underserved Markets