small case study on entrepreneurship with questions and answers

Entrepreneurship Case Studies

Fieldfresh foods.

Mukesh Pandey, K Sudhir, Raman Ahuja, and Deepali Tewari Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Operations

By 2010, the FieldFresh team had been able to create an efficient supply chain for baby corn across Punjab and Maharashtra at all levels. But success brought with it the expectation of growth. Should FieldFresh grow opportunistically into different foreign markets as retailers and wholesalers demanded different products for their respective markets? Should FieldFresh continue to focus on baby corn, whose supply chain-market linkages it had perfected, or should the company expand the range of products it would supply? Should FieldFresh continue to maintain its primary export focus, or shift relative emphasis to the growing domestic market?

DonorsChoose.org

Anna Blanding, Jennifer Stredler, Kim Su, Ivy Washington, Sharon Oster, Jaan Elias and Andrea R. Nagy

Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Operations, Social Enterprise

After an auspicious start, Charles Best (Yale College ’98) and DonorsChoose.org set their sights on growing beyond New York City. Supported by a $14 million grant from Silicon Valley executives in 2005, DonorsChoose.org scaled up its organization and began a step-by-step expansion into various locales.  By 2009, the organization had made great strides toward completing its expansion. However, observers wondered whether DonorsChoose.org could reach its goal of providing $100 million per year in gifts to classrooms and whether it would have an impact on the fundamental inequities within the educational system.

James Baron and Jaan Elias

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship, Ethics & Religion

AgBiome co-founders, Scott Uknes and Eric Ward,  were admirers of self-managed organizations and commitment culture, approaches to organizational structure and process that encouraged openness and collaboration. Accordingly, they built AgBiome to operate without supervisory relationships, job titles, formal performance evaluations, and individual performance bonuses. Instead, AgBiome relied on a committee structure that encouraged people with the greatest expertise to make decisions on matters within their ambit.  By 2017, AgBiome employed 80 people and was projecting further expansion. But observers wondered, could a company, which worked on the basis of commitment and without a hierarchy, scale?

The Alibaba Group

Yi guo,yao jing, charles liu, michelle wang, jaan elias, and zhiwu chen.

Competitor/Strategy, Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance, Law & Contracts

By July of 2011, Yun “Jack” Ma had achieved his goal of creating one of the world’s leading e-commerce companies. Ma founded the Alibaba Group and took advantage of growing internet usage in China to launch the leading B2B, C2C and B2C sites in the country and capture a huge market. Despite his success, Ma had a troubled relationship with Yahoo!, the largest investor in the Alibaba Group. Ma’s decision in January of 2011 to transfer Alipay (the Alibaba Group’s online payment unit) from the Alibaba Group to a company under his personal control was just making matters worse.

What is Next? Search Fund Entrepreneurs Reflect on Life After Exit

A.j. wasserstein.

Entrepreneurship, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork

During his time at the Yale School of Management, Matt Dittrich (Yale SOM ‘18) became interested in how recent MBA students gathered search funds, structured small acquisitions, propelled themselves into being a CEO, and then participated in a liquidity event only a few years after acquisition and graduation.  He appreciated the case studies about entrepreneurs facing acquisition, strategy, and financing issues.  But what did entrepreneurs do after their exits?  At the urging of his teacher, A.J. Wasserstein, he interviewed former search fund entrepreneurs who had experienced an exit to learn what exactly they chose to do, and why. Overcome by curiosity, Dittrich was excited to begin his informational interviews (summaries included here). 

Advanced Leadership 2016

Jaan elias, james quinn and james baron.

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Leadership & Teamwork, Social Enterprise

Biographies of the following seven leaders are provided:

• Rodney O’Neal, Delphi,
• Neal Keny-Guyer, Mercy Corps,
• David Cote, Honeywell,
• Linda Mason, Bright Horizons,
• General Stanley McChrystal, United States Military,
• Donna Dubinsky, Numenta, and (7) Laszlo Bock, Google. 

Mike Erwin: An Accidental Social Entrepreneur

A. j. wasserstein.

Mike Erwin, a decorated army veteran from West Point, never envisioned himself as a social entrepreneur or activist. Yet in 2012, he found himself the CEO of an organization with 15,000 members and 34 chapters reaching from Syracuse, NY to Houston, TX. Though Erwin was proud of his organization’s growth and had excelled in leadership positions, he questioned whether he was the right person to scale Team Red, White and Blue. Would someone else with more experience be more appropriate? If he indeed moved on, how could he ensure the organization would continue to thrive amid a change in leadership and potential restructuring?

Searching for a Search Fund Structure: A Student Takes a Tour of Various Options

Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship

Before entering the Yale School of Management, James Guba (SOM’18) had thought about becoming an entrepreneur. He did not have a specific idea to build a business around, but he did aspire to take charge of an organization and grow it. At Yale, Guba discovered an entrepreneurial niche called “search funds” that would allow him to acquire and lead a company that he had not built from scratch. Inspired, Guba met with search fund entrepreneurs to learn about their different paths to building their funds.

Kalil Diaz: A DR-based search firm considers its first acquisition

Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship

After nearly two years of searching, Kalil Diaz (SOM '14) wondered if he had finally found the company for which he had been looking. The decision he was facing would have a big impact on his investors as well as his own life. He was somewhat confident he could access funds from his current investors to purchase the company despite several investors being slow in their response to commit. However, Diaz still wondered if making the investment was the right move. How would he transition from the search to being CEO and running a company? Would the acquisition provide suitable financial returns for his investors and himself?

Clorox, Inc

Elise rindfleisch and allison mitkowski.

Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Sustainability

In October 2007, Clorox announced that it would buy Burt’s Bees for $925 million – more than five times Burt’s Bees’ annual sales. Clorox’s move caught many in the industry by surprise - Burt’s Bees had a folksy image and natural appeal for customers. Could such a brand find a home within a company best known for a toxic cleanser? Would Clorox’s push into “green” cleaners satisfy Burt’s Bees’ faithful customers? Had Clorox paid too much for its acquisition? Or, were there potential synergies that justified the purchase? What was the future of this market?

Project Masiluleke: Texting and Testing to Fight HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Rodrigo canales, jean rosenthal, jaan elias, and william drenttel.

Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise

The traditional Zulu greeting, "Sawubona," literally translates as "I see you." The major challenge faced by Project Masiluleke could be captured in this local greeting – could Project M see the lives of the individuals they hoped to help? Could they find ways to understand each other and the individuals threatened by HIV/AIDS well enough to design effective solutions to a major health crisis? PopTech, frog design, and the Praekelt Foundation joined with iTeach, an HIV/AIDS and TB prevention and treatment program, to look for new approaches to address South Africa's health issues. Access to this case has been made freely available to the public.

Project Samaan

Rodrigo canales, jean rosenthal, jaan elias, ashley pandya and samuel sturm.

Entrepreneurship, Healthcare, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

In a unique partnership, governments, designers, architects, academics, and NGOs had come together to create new sanitation solutions for India's urban slums. Specifically, the group set about tackling one of the developing world's leading problems – open defecation in crowded urban settings. But by fall 2013, not a single community toilet had been approved. What had gone wrong? And what could this experience teach others about an overall solution to the problem?

San Miguel: Expanding the Amaranth Market

Jaan elias, mario alan gonzález hernández, carlos gil garcía, rodrigo canales, and kaveh khoshnood.

Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Employee/HR, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Leadership & Teamwork, Operations, Social Enterprise

San Miguel, a small Amaranth processing company in Huixcazdhá, Mexico, was started as a development project to sustainably employ local residents.  Despite the plant’s rural location and unschooled workforce, the company pioneered the processing of amaranth into a number of unique products. Though the company yielded a small but steady profit, the plant was operating at only 20 percent of capacity and the organization lacked a coherent marketing strategy. What new markets could the company target and what communications strategy should it employ?

Haiti Mangoes

Andrea nagy smith and douglas rae.

Entrepreneurship, Operations, Social Enterprise, State & Society

JMB S.A. had been in the mango processing business since 1998, and CEO Jean-Maurice Buteau had built up a profitable business that exported around 2,000 tons of mangoes per year.  The January 2010 earthquake devastated Haiti, but JMB appeared to survive intact, and the Soros Economic Development Fund (SEDF) was eager to move forward. In spring 2010 SEDF proceeded with a $1.3 million loan and a $1 million equity investment in JMB. But by spring 2012, after pouring $2.55 million into JMB, SEDF realized that it had to make a decision: invest another $2 million and reorganize the company under new management; sell the company, or shut down JMB S.A. altogether.

Allison Mitkowski, Alexandra Barton-Sweeney, Tony Sheldon, Arthur Janik, and Jaan Elias

Customer/Marketing, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society, Sustainability

In 2009, SELCO was considering its plans for how the company might expand. The company decided to institutionalize its design process by building an innovation center. SELCO also added products that provided energy solutions beyond solar. Some within the company were hoping the company would go “deeper” and look at designing solutions for even poorer members of the Indian population. Others were hoping that the company would go “wider” and expand beyond its current geographical areas in Karnataka and Gujarat. Whatever its direction, the strategic choices the company made at this point in its evolution would be crucial to determining its continued success.

360 State Street: Real Options

Andrea nagy smith and mathew spiegel.

Asset Management, Investor/Finance, Metrics & Data, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In 2010 developer Bruce Becker completed 360 State Street, a major new construction project in downtown New Haven. The building was a 32-story high-rise with 500 apartments, a parking garage, and a grocery store on the street level. In the summer of 2013, Becker had a number of alternatives to consider in regards to the open lot adjacent to his recent construction. He also had no obligation to build. He could bide his time. But Becker also worried about losing out on rents should he wait too long. Under what set of circumstances and at what time would it be most advantageous to proceed?

Achievement First

Fawzia ahmed, jaan elias, and sharon oster.

Social Enterprise, State & Society

On the edges of a warehouse district in New Haven, Connecticut, an intrepid group of educational pioneers were turning conventional theory on its head. Amistad Academy, a charter school founded by two Yale Law School graduates, was not only getting students on par with their grade levels in reading and math, but was pushing them to perform as well as the best suburban school districts too.  Five years after opening Amistad, McCurry and Toll opened an additional school in New Haven and four schools in Brooklyn, New York – all of which showed the same promise as Amistad. They dubbed their network of schools Achievement First (AF), and garnered national attention and funding from “venture philanthropists” interested in educational reform. However, in the summer of 2006, AF was facing critical questions about its future direction.

Ravi Dhar and Andrea Nagy Smith

Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Investor/Finance, Operations

At the time of its IPO filing, Groupon held the lead among group buying sites, a 52-percent market share of revenue generated, according to the group-buying site aggregator Yipit. But many questions remained about its future. Would Groupon’s labor-intensive business model prove profitable? Would customers and merchants be loyal to Groupon? Would other companies take its business? In summer 2011 it was far from sure that the young company could maintain its lead.

Carry Trade ETF

K. geert rouwenhorst, jean w. rosenthal, and jaan elias.

Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Macroeconomics, Sourcing/Managing Funds

In 2006 Deutsche Bank (DB) brought a new product to market – an exchange traded fund (ETF) based on the carry trade, a strategy of buying and selling currency futures. The offering received the William F. Sharpe Indexing Achievement Award for “Most Innovative Index Fund or ETF” at the 2006 Sharpe Awards. These awards are presented annually by IndexUniverse.com and Information Management Network for innovative advances in the indexing industry. The carry trade ETF shared the award with another DB/PowerShares offering, a Commodity Index Tracking Fund. Jim Wiandt, publisher of IndexUniverse.com, said, "These innovators are shaping the course of the index industry, creating new tools and providing new insights for the benefit of all investors." What was it that made this financial innovation successful?

Governors Island

Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Social Enterprise, State & Society

The political players had changed since President Clinton and Senator Moynihan’s helicopter ride. Clinton was no longer President, his wife had taken Moynihan’s seat in the Senate and Michael Bloomberg had replaced Rudolph Giuliani as New York’s Mayor. What remained the same was that the city, state, and federal government had yet to reach a deal. The question of what to do with Governors Island and who should do it remained very much open. Indeed, there were those within the new Bush administration and the Congress who believed in scrapping Clinton and Moynihan’s deal and selling the island to the highest bidder be that the local government or a private developer.

Ant Financial: Flourishing Farmer Loans at MYbank

Jingyue xu, jean rosenthal, k. sudhir, hua song, xia zhang, yuanfang song, xiaoxi liu, and jaan elias.

Competitor/Strategy, Customer/Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Design, Investor/Finance, Leadership & Teamwork, Operations, State & Society

In 2015, Ant Financial’s MYbank (an offshoot of Jack Ma’s Alibaba company) was looking to extend services to rural areas in China through its Flourishing Farmer Loan program. MYbank relied on the internet to communicate with loan applicants and judge their credit worthiness. Initial tests of the program had proved promising, but could MYbank operate the program at scale? Would its big data and technical analysis provide an accurate measure of credit risk for loans to small customers? Could MYbank rely on its new credit-scoring system to reduce operating costs to make the program sustainable?

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Case studies are usually short articles describing real-world business examples that illustrate a particular problem or principle in detail. There are many cases available online for free or for a fee, and you can also search the library catalogue and selected databases below.

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• Arthur Andersen Case Studies in Business Ethics Ninety case studies from1987-94 produced by the Carnegie Mellon Tepper School of Business in cooperation with 525 institutions including University of Toronto. Free.
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6 Brilliant Case Study Examples for Small Businesses

Explore case study examples for small businesses. Discover strategies to tackle common challenges like managing expenses, building a brand, hiring skilled staff, staying current with trends, to ensure your growth and success.

Every business starts small.

The success of a business lies in its strategy to overcome any challenge during its journey.

If you are trying to take your business to new heights, start identifying challenges and create solutions.

The best way is to learn from sundry success stories.

There are several case studies of different businesses that can teach you which strategy to take for selling your product and attracting the target audience.

In this article, we will discuss some of the top case study examples that can assist in upscaling small businesses.

Let’s begin.

Challenges Faced by Small Businesses

As far as businesses go, there are always hurdles that need to be defeated. Starting a business is itself a big achievement for entrepreneurs, but the main challenge is maintaining one.

There are three common challenges businesses need to overcome. These include managing the expenses, hiring people, and following new trends to develop a customer base.

1. Increased Expenses

Every business revolves around money. There are different areas where businesses have to spend their money. But the issue is handling the financial hurdles. With an unplanned budget and financial advice, businesses will be spending more than they need to.

Keeping an eye on expenses is important because the expenses determine the profit the business will make.

However, it is not easy to reduce the expense. It’s affected by demand and supply. If businesses need to keep up with the market’s demands, then the chance of increasing expenses is 100%.

2. More and Skilled Manpower Required

Businesses don’t run themselves. They need manpower with skills to handle different departments. Generally, the number of employees in a small business ranges from 1 to 500 people. Getting this manpower is easy but getting a skilled one is difficult and time-consuming.

Whenever looking for manpower, businesses need to decide what skills they want in their candidate. The problem is candidates can’t always fulfill all the requirements. Besides, hiring manpower also increases the expenses.

3. Keeping Up With the Latest Trends

The market is fluid. It changes and introduces new trends. Small businesses need to keep up with the changing trends to keep their business growing. But this is where many businesses start to fall apart.

The thing about new trends is that businesses need to sell their products at the right time. It means they have to keep on studying the market to speculate their next products. If a small business fails to deliver during the peak of the trend, then it will suffer a heavy loss.

Solutions to Grow a Small Business

The best thing about businesses is that there is an attempt to find a solution for every challenge. It brings out the competition in the market, which is huge for surfacing different kinds of solutions a business can adopt.

1. Reduce the Expenses

When it comes to expenses, businesses are focused on spending huge sums on communication because communication is the key element of increasing customers and revenue. It’s not a big problem for big companies, but it is expensive for small businesses.

Fortunately, the cloud telephony system has removed the dilemma while making business budgets because cloud phone services are cheaper than plain old telephone services.

It reduces the initial cost of new businesses up to 90%. Recent surveys suggest that over 74% of businesses prioritize cloud phone systems as their urgent investment.

The same goes for marketing which is necessary to attract potential customers. Small businesses don’t have enough budget to advertise their products.

The best solution for this is using social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to promote and sell their products .

Case Study: Coffman Engineers

Coffman Engineers clearly states that although the cost of using a virtual phone number adhered to cloud phone is 50% more per employee, it still provides overall 25% more savings than plain old telephone service (POTS).

Coffman Engineers have been relying on cloud phones ever since their one office location faced a disaster. Now they have a disaster recovery feature built into their cloud phone system. It helped them to be ready for any disasters without losing communication with employees.

Not just that, they found all the necessary features bundled into one subscription package in a VoIP phone system. Such a facility enabled them to handle all their business communication using only one platform.

Key Takeaways

• Small businesses must invest in cloud telephony for business communication.
• Extensive use of social media to promote and sell your products/service.

2. Improve Employee Productivity

As we have already discussed earlier, manpower is a big challenge for small businesses. Hiring more employees doesn’t mean higher productivity. Businesses need to hire the right candidates to keep their expenses in check and improve productivity.

There are different tools available that can monitor what the employees are doing. Time tracking tools and workforce management tools are key components every business needs.

Especially in remote working scenarios, these tools are crucial to getting the full effort for the employees. Companies have seen a 35%-40% rise in productivity in employees working remotely with the use of tracking tools.

Case study: On The Map Marketing

On The Map Marketing , a digital marketing agency, used time tracking tools that showed that remote working employees tend to work more hours since they can work at flexible hours.

On The Map Marketing first started using the time tracking tool when they were opening their office in Riga, Latvia. The CTO of the company wanted the time spent on different tasks on his computer as well as managing the remote working employees.

Using a time tracking tool , they were able to track their productivity with a detailed report of their daily activities during office hours. It helped them calculate salary bonuses. They also found the productivity level of each employee to determine their value for the company.

• Small businesses should use a time tracking tool to make sure employees focus on their office work.
• Small businesses can track the performance of each employee at office locations or remote working locations.

3. Reward Your Customers

A business becomes successful when it can keep its customers happy. In efforts to upscale a small business quickly, the marketplace has seen a decline in the quality of products and services. It is a primary reason for customer dissatisfaction.

About 45% of business professionals rate customer experience as their top priority for growing a business.

Survey says more than 85% of buyers are willing to spend more for a better customer experience. Therefore, small businesses need to focus on improving their quality of products and services, which is a powerful indicator of customer experience.

Case study: Starbucks

Starbucks introduced a Reward Loyalty Program in which customers collect stars to get exciting rewards. This program drives 40% of Starbucks total sales .

By adapting the gamification method, Starbucks added a reward loyalty program to their already established app. This move drastically increased sales and digital traffic. They brought mobile payment, customer loyalty, and content partnership in one powerful app.

Customers started registering for My Reward via their app. They are given stars(points) in exchange for their interaction in the app or purchase made. The higher the number of stars a customer gets, the better rewards they get.

• Small businesses can give different forms of rewards for more customer engagement.
• Improvement in customer service can drive more sales and attract more customers.

4. Build Your Brand

Small businesses should learn to build their brand image . While marketing any product or service, the brand image is a key factor for understanding how people view your business.

A brand image must first include mission, vision, and values. It also requires a brand positioning statement that can set your business apart from the competitors.

It’s important to create a unique brand personality. For this, businesses need to design a good logo because customers are most likely to recognize a business looking at a logo. They will have to identify their target audience to craft a good brand image.

According to a study, around 89% of users stay loyal to a business with a good brand image .

Case study: Apple

Apple logo is a well-recognized design that reflects the brand value. Over the years, the Apple logo has gone through several design changes.

The most important rebranding of the company came when Steve Jobs changed the logo which impacted the overall personality of the company. Now, this logo is the most recognized logo in the world.

Looking at the Apple logo, customers can feel a sense of trust, reliability, and innovation . It is the main reason for the huge sales of all the Apple products across the globe.

• Branding helps a business build strong relationships with prospects and attract them to be loyal customers.
• Small businesses need to create a strong brand image to sell their products efficiently.

5. Prioritize on Partnerships

Partnerships and collaboration can lift the businesses to maximize their cost savings. It allows businesses to strengthen their programs using available resources and tools.

This has a direct effect on improving the efficiency of their operations. It improves the credibility of the business in the marketplace.

Case study: RENAULT & NISSAN

Renault and Nissan have a strong partnership in automobiles. Their partnership made a remarkable achievement of making up 10% of new car sales worldwide .

Renault and Nissan chose to make an alliance rather than a merger because an alliance has many stronger benefits than a merger would give.

With an alliance, they can access more geographical areas where foreign investments are restricted. These companies got better chances to enter each other’s territory where they were already established companies because of the alliance.

Although they faced numerous challenges including fluctuation in price share, they managed to resolve issues and succeed.

• Small businesses can collaborate with other businesses to increase their chances of higher product sales and profit for everyone.
• Partnership with other businesses allows all parties to take benefits from each other’s strong areas.

6. The Right Marketing Strategy

Every business requires to sell its product and services to the market. Without marketing, a business cannot compete in the marketplace. The first thing about marketing is knowing your target audience and competitors.

When small businesses know who they are competing against, it will help them to see how the competitors are executing their business and attracting their customers.

One such way is to grow your website traffic which can bring you more leads and eventually customers. And how do you increase your website traffic? SEO. If done right, Search Engine Optimization can drive huge traffic to your website to reach your marketing goals.

Case study: Zapier

Zapier used an SEO strategy revolving around long-tail keywords for generating organic traffic to their website. They created 25,000 unique landing pages for unique keywords.

Zapier had a structure and layout for each page including well-optimized human written content. They outsourced SEO content and focused on a playbook for the onboarding process and launched new apps so that they can get partners to write content for them.

On top of that, they also outsourced link building to their partners. These partners wrote valuable guest post content of Zapier on their site and gave a backlink to Zapier. It helped Zapier to get new users as well as drive their website traffic.

• Small Businesses should improve their website traffic by adding more landing pages with relevant content.
• Backlinks through guest posts on other websites can drive more website traffic and attract more prospects.

Now that you have a fair idea of the business challenges and solutions, there is a good chance of delivering a good strategy for growing your small business.

On top of that, the case study examples above will help you view how other businesses overcome their situation to take their business to new heights.

The most important aspect of upscaling a small business is understanding the customer’s needs. Therefore, you should design a persuasive marketing strategy to attract customers and compete with other businesses in the market.

And a good marketing strategy for any business must include social media. And to make the most of your social media marketing efforts try SocialPilot for free today.

Frequently Asked Questions

🌟 How do you upscale a small business?

Upscaling a small business is a very challenging process. Whether it's making a budget or hiring employees, you have to focus on things that are best for your business. Planning, targeting prospects, marketing strategy, etc. are crucial steps for upscaling businesses and competing with big companies.

🌟 What is a small scale business?

Small scale businesses or Small scale industries (SSI) provide products and services on a small level. Normally in the US, a small business consists of less than 250 employees. Also, it has small capital investments and less office space.

🌟 Why do entrepreneurs find it difficult to scale up?

New entrepreneurs find difficulty in scaling up their businesses because they don’t know what to do. Even if they know, they have to face many challenges like market research, finding loans, allocating space, etc. Also, legal matters are always a major concern for making changes.

🌟 Why is scalability important in business?

Scalability is important because it directly impacts business competition, profitability, brand image, and product quality. Since small businesses have huge growth potential and high return on investment (ROI), they have to properly focus on scalability.

🌟 When should you scale a business?

A small business should look for upscaling its business if it has achieved a minimum annual growth of 20% over 2-3 years with only 10 or more active employees.

About the Author

Sujan Thapaliya

Sujan Thapaliya is the CEO and Co-founder of KrispCall . He has a wealth of computer, communications, and security experience. Through KrispCall, he aspires to make business communication safer, reliable, and more affordable.

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A Case Study in Entrepreneurship (Small Business Set Up)

A case study in entrepreneurship, which allows an exercise in developing business plan for a small business set up.

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Carlos Fong Reynoso

In recent years the case study methodology has been used much more in conducting research on firms. This increase is due to the needs and requirements, and to the perception that the results obtained by using such a methodology are of superior quality. The growing acceptance of case studies has been impelled by a wider knowledge and discussion of the criteria for assessing quality of case studies, and this has led to a better understanding of how the inclusion of case studies can be used to resolve certain problems connected to the study of organizations, in particular small and medium sized businesses. The present work proposes a design for conducting research suitable for writing a postgraduate dissertation on the subject of small and medium sized businesses. The methodology fulfills the conditions of quality required in a project conducted through the use of case studies. and that it is possible to complete within a limited period of time, thus improving the rate of students who graduate after completing their studies.

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Entrepreneurship is imperative for growing economies in times of environmental uncer¬tainties. Pakistani mentality is undergoing a change and more and more educated people are looking at business of their own rather than a &quot;naukri&#39;. This bold initiative by a few is likely to motivate young budding professionals to follow suit. Entrepreneurship is all about identifying a business opportunity and adding color to it to sound compelling. Idea has replaced finances as an engine to entrepreneurial spirit. Another factor that stands out is the ability of making calculated risks and being persistent in your struggle. Entrepreneurial character also helps in making you successful. The need of time is to allow small and medium enterprises SME to grow disproportionately to double the GDP growth of the country&quot;. This is a story of five entrepreneurs who surmounted the odds and build their enterprise into successful businesses.

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Because the college administration was critical in the development of student entrepreneurship competency, effective policy models were required. Entrepreneurial-based university (EBU) is breaking into one of the chance-leading strategies of developing an effective entrepreneurial development program within a spiritual religious framework. The purpose of this study is to examine how college entrepreneurship management is implemented in West Sumatra province to foster student entrepreneurship. The research was qualitative in nature, with descriptive analysis techniques used. Techniques for data retrieval include interviews, structured stickies, and observation. The research is being carried out at Universitas Negeri Padang (UNP) of West Sumatra Province. The framework of the factual model of college entrepreneurial management was built on the factual data of subsequent research results. The results show that development programs are carried out through the optimization of student act...

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Discussion Questions

Why should the entrepreneurial team begin with the end in mind?

How can a Gantt chart help in the preparation for starting the new venture?

Why would an angel investor stress to the startup team the importance of not getting too attached to the venture?

Should employees who are not part of the startup team receive an equity position in the venture? What are the benefits and drawbacks that inform this decision?

What biases might an entrepreneur encounter in starting the venture?

What actions can the entrepreneur take to avoid these biases?

What can be done to avoid personnel problems that occur after the venture has opened?

How can brainstorming and creating a mindmap improve problem recognition and follow through actions?

What are three methods you could use to find support for your new venture?

Why is it important to analyze and discuss decisions?

Why is it important to feel comfortable with a decision?

What are the benefits in becoming a mentor, consultant or champion?

What are the risks or drawbacks in becoming a mentor, consultant or champion?

How does a philanthropic desire align with entrepreneurship?

According to Rehman and Bailey, in which key moments is it highly important to reflect and journal?

What can you do to role model behavior that reflects your learning of the material in this chapter?

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