Introduction
Entrepreneurs are born or made? Well there are two schools of thoughts one that a person can achieve anything with determination and focus and second school which is psychologist Adrian Atkinson believes entrepreneurs are born because you have to be a certain type of person to be an entrepreneur and if you are not then you are wasting your time. (Sunday Times (2007). (Drucker, 1999) believes it is just practice of a person to be successful in business not ant science or art. He further believes since 18th Century definition of entrepreneur is coined as one who shifts business resources from lower area to higher area but this does not make it clear to us who exactly fits in this definition.
2.1 Role of entrepreneur in starting a business
Historically it has been entrepreneurialism is defined in very narrow definition that someone who starts new business but (Price, 2004) argues that entrepreneurialism can also be finding new business opportunities and expansion of existing organisation.
Alasdair Kenny is one of those entrepreneurs who did not start his own business but joined family business as caretaker (Kirby, 2003). He has 5 years' experience when he took over MacGregor Industries as Manager Entrepreneur. He pushed company forward with his vision to raise profits and internal growth with in business. Alasdair Kenny accepted that he is not the real entrepreneur because he is using resources which he inherited from his family (Ioannou, S.).
Asad Baig fits in definition of entrepreneur as he started his business from scratch and inherited all difficulties and issues involved in business start-ups such as lack of experience and financial problems. There is no one, straightforward path that a entrepreneur can follow. You can stumble upon the path of entrepreneurship Sahar (Hashemi, 2003) His idea was to open a business which deal in products range similar to available in large retail markets but on very competitive price because people want competitive prices on product of their daily use. (Doug Richard)
2.0.1 Characteristics of entrepreneur and their motivation
An entrepreneur is characterised by innovative behaviour and will employ strategic management practices in the business. In a family of Business owners there are four distinguished species such as, Entrepreneurs, Quasi-entrepreneurs, administrators and Caretakers. (Kirby, 2003, p.110)
Understanding common characteristics and what motivates entrepreneur to start and sustain their venture is important to understand the entrepreneurial life-cycle, by definition entrepreneurs are idealistic and optimistic and they have great vision of commitment and vision and passion that can be observed.
Alasdair Kenny as a young boy was enthusiastic and very good player of games like rugby and passionate about adventure sports such as sailing. He was stubborn and was king of his own will. He always had tried to learn from his own experiences. He is careful and takes calculated risks. According to the (Kirby, 2003) that key entrepreneurial task is that to avoid risks.
Mr. Kenny was introduced to his family business at age of 10 years and he was greatly influenced by his father and grandfather. He is kind of person who stick to his agreement and always make sure to meet deadlines.
Asad Baig being a young boy always has a deep desire to be captain of his own soul, master of his ship. His intentions were to support his family and provide them with better standard or life. (Zampetakis et, al 2009) believes there is link between intention and action is explicated by, the social psychological theory of planned behaviour.
The place Mr. Baig belongs most of people around only worry to earn enough to provide necessities to family members. Asad Baig was innovative, aggressive, self-confident, willing to work long hours, fiercely competitive and intensely focused, and due to unfavourable economic conditions in Pakistan he planned to migrate to United Kingdom to give his dreams colours of reality.
2.2 Entrepreneurial Process
The process of starting a new venture is embodied in the entrepreneurial process, which involves more than just problem solving in a typical management position. The process is you research it you plan it you raise money for it and you implement it. An entrepreneur must find, evaluate, and develop an opportunity by overcoming the forces that resist the creation of something new. According to Hashemi entrepreneurial process starts when a lightning bolt struck someone and market research that specific gap in market should be done and give it a business plan and then most importantly raise capital for it and implement the business in main stream of market business.
When Alasdair Kenny took over Macgregor industries Ltd in 1985 he always think that he can give expansion to his family business while keeping the legacy of plastic as main product of company. There were few companies in United Kingdom Doing business in remote controlled model Planes. His plan was to provide customer better services with those model planes. Because he inherited the business so he did not faced any financial trouble. While Asad Baig always wanted to be his own boss, his start was his savings £60,000 which was not enough to start the business to he has to arrange loan, banks in UK are predominately source of SME finance (Irwin, D. and Scott, J. 2010). After market research for the location to start his new business he selected Edmonton High Street shop which was very business and where most of resident were immigrants who prefer to save money on daily use products.
Both Baig and Kenny have started something which was already in market but their idea was to provide a new face value and service related to those products
2.3 Competitive environment Analysis (Growth & Development)
The external environment faced by the firm and its business units affects the strategy of the firm, the value of the strategy, and thus the firm's performance. Environmental analysis is therefore not a passive exercise, but rather an active and essential input to strategy development, helping the firm and its business units identify attractive opportunities and make decisions on where and how to compete. The Owner manager's desire to compete and succeed is far most prominent in small organisations (Perren, 1999).
The drivers of change are for the most part external to the firm. As the global economy entered the new century, changes were taking place on multiple fronts at a very fast pace. Some of these changes made traditional business models and tools outdated, changing the rules for existing competitors and challenging the assumptions of others, both new and old. In this chapter we review some approaches that can guide us as we wrestle with the challenges of developing strategy in this fast-changing environment. All these drivers of change affect demand and supply of firm's products and affects revenue and profits for sure at last.
Macgregor industries and 1st Discount are facing change in business environment and thus business strategy needs change to identify those variables and their positive or negative impact on firms.
2.3.1Greiner Curve of Growth
The Greiner model describes the phases through which runs a business in growth. This affects all companies in each industry and size, whether industrial company, retailer or service provider. Each phase consists of a period of constant growth, always follows a crises when a major adjustment to be made in the organization of the company in order to facilitate further growth. Macgregor Industries Ltd and 1st Discount have surely faced all those phases described in Greiner Model of growth. (Fokus, 2010). 1st Discount has faced less leadership and Autonomy or control crises because Asad Baig was only one owner and manager as well. Whereas, Macgregor industries have gone through all phases of Greiner's Curve it had faced crises whenever management had changed even with in family (Figure: 1.2)
2.4 Profit and Worth of Business
Asad Baig started his business with £60K and until 2010 he own three branches of his business. 1St Discount's single branch average sale is approximately £2000 per day and annual estimated revenue is over £2million Limited financial information provided. In comparison Macgregor Industries which is a family business has estimated annual sale of over £4millions and estimated annual profit is £1.5 million.
2.5 Proposed Suggestions to Macgregor Industries and 1St Discount
After evaluation of both organisations these suggestions would help these organisations in business growth and increase in Profits and Goodwill;
Both organisations are lacking in use Information technology for marketing purposes and other marketing strategies. Macgregor Industries should consider business diversification because due to limited scope of its product company growth and profits are limited and this is not helping company with long term profits.
1st Discount business strategy is matched with current economic situation as low price and high sales. Information Technology is only thing what researcher believes it's missing which can take company to other major retailers' level of profit and business growth.
Appendices:
SWOT Analysis
The entrepreneurs' understanding of potential business opportunities in external environment should fit in well with internal situation (internal environment) of organization. Growth and development of an organization requires a match between strength and weakness of a business and current opportunities and threats. SWOT analysis provides best overview of an organization's strategic situation.
SWOT analysis will further elaborate Macgregor Industries and 1st Discount's growth and business development strategy and their current business situation (Due to limited Financial and strategic information available for both organisations' estimated values will be used in analysis).
Both Organisations have few internal strengths and weaknesses and in mean while external opportunities and threats which are mentioned in Figure1.1
Positive Negative
Strength
Weakness
Internal Factors
Core Competencies
Financial Strength
Innovative capacity
Skilled or trained management
Unique business contracts
Reputation
Family member employees
One decision maker
Inadequate Financial resources
Lack of experience or skills
Inadequate Innovation
Inadequate Facilities
Distribution Problems
Inadequate marketing skills
Opportunities
Threats
External Factors
Untapped Market Potentials
Deregulation
Emerging technologies
Increasing market fragmentation
New Competitors
Rising demands of Buyers and suppliers
Increased Regulation
Slow Market Growth
Substitute Products
Figure: 1.1 SWOT analyses (Adapted from Longenecker, J. 2010)
References & Biliography:
Drucker, P. (1999), "Management Challenges for the 21st Century", Harper Business, 1 edition.
Hashemi, S. (2003) "Anyone can do it, Building Coffee Republic from Our Kitchen Table - 57 Real-life Laws on Entrepreneurship", Published by John Wiley & Sons in 2003 , 2nd Revised edition
Irwin, D. and Scott, J. (2010) "Barriers faced by SMEs in raising bank finance", International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 16 Iss: 3, pp.245 - 259
Kirby, D (2003), "Entrepreneurship", McGraw-Hill Education UK Ltd, p.110
Zampetakis, L. And Kafetsion, K., Bouranta, N. And Dewett, T., Moustakis, V. (2009), "On the relationship between emotional intelligence and entrepreneurial attitudes and intentions" International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 15 No. 6, P.595-618
Longenecker, J. and Loeza, Ma. (2010), "Small Business Management: Launching and Growing Entrepreneurial Ventures". 14th Ed, Cengage Learning
Perren, L.(1999), "Factors in the growth of micro-enterprises (Part 1): Developing a framework". Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Volume 7, (1)
Price, R. (2004), "Roadmap to Entrepreneurial Success: Powerful Strategies for Building a High-Profit Business", AMACOM; 1st edition
Audio - Visual Sources:
Doug Richard, Chairman Conservative Party Small Business Task Force. "Makes something people want!" interview by Anthony Gell [Online]. Available at: http://bvo.com/topics/entrepreneurship-by-stelios/programmes/doug-richard-on-make-something-people-want (Accessed on 20th November 2010)
Sahar Hashemi, Founder Coffee Republic "process of successful entrepreneurship interview by Anthony Gell [online]. Available at: http://bvo.com/topics/entrepreneurship-by-stelios/programmes/sahar-hashemi-on-the-process-of-successful-entrepreneurship (Accessed on 20th November 2010)
Stelios Haji-Ioannou, Chairman Easy jet airlines, "when you can identify true leadership" interview by Anthony Gell [online]. Available at: http://bvo.com/topics/the-stelios-collection/programmes/stelios-on-when-you-can-identify-true-leadership-2 (Accessed on 20th November 2010)
Internet:
FoKus B2b marketing blog, (2010), "Growth and the Crisis in the Organisation - The Greiner Curve". Literature is in German Language under title of (Wachstum und die Krise in der Organisation - Die Greiner Curve), Translated by Google.co.uk. [Online] Available at: http://drl1933.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/wachstum-und-die-krise-in-der-organisation-die-greiner-curve/ (Accessed on 24th November 2010)
SUNDAY TIMES, (2007), Are entrepreneurs born or made? [Online] Available at: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article1364181.ece (Accessed: 18 November 2010)
