Questions and Answers of Entrepreneurship

What are some of the challenges you see social enterprises facing in this current climate?
What is your vision for the Social Entrepreneurs Fund and the social enterprise sector?
Speak to people from five different countries and ask what entrepreneurship means to them and how their national culture helps and/or hinders entrepreneurship.
Ask an entrepreneur about his or her business today and ask him or her to describe the decisions and series of events that led the business from start-up to its current form. Would you classify this
Ask two entrepreneurs and five students (not in this class) to fill out the HaynieShepherd “Measure of Adaptive Cognition”. How do you rate relative to the entrepreneurs? Relative to your fellow
When conducting a homework exercise for another class (especially a case analysis), ask yourself comprehension questions, connection questions, strategy questions, and reflection questions. What
What impact does entrepreneurship have on your natural environment? What impact does it have on sustaining local communities? Use data to back up your arguments.
To be cognitively flexible seems to require that the entrepreneur continually question himself or herself. Doesn’t that create doubt that can be seen by employees and financiers such that success
Do you believe that sustainable development should be part of an entrepreneurship course, or did the textbook authors just include a section on it to be “politically correct”?
Interview three individuals employed within the research and development (R&D) departments of large, well-established companies. From the interview, gain an understanding of what the company does to
Search the Internet for four accounts of successful corporate entrepreneurship. What key factors for success are common across all these accounts? Which are unique? If one company can foster an
Request the participation of managers from two companies and then ask them to fill out an “entrepreneurial management” scale. Based on the scale, which firm is more entrepreneurially managed?
Interview three employees that have worked on projects that were terminated. Ask them how they felt about the project, how they felt after it was terminated, and how they feel today. How did they
Isn’t “corporate entrepreneurship” an oxymoron? Do the characteristics of an established organization, such as its routines and structure, increase efficiency but at the same time kill any
What does it mean to say that something is important to you? Who has lost something that was important to them? How did it feel? What did you do to recover from the loss?
Choose three major inventions that have led to successful products. Who were the inventors? How did they invent the technology? Why do you believe they were the first to invent this technology?
Find three examples of firms that pioneered a new product in a new market and were able to achieve long-run success based on that entry. Find three examples of firms that were not the pioneers but
What is the failure rate of all new businesses? What is the failure rate of all new franchises? What inferences can you make from these numbers?
Come up with five examples of firms that have used imitation as a way of reducing the risk of entry. What aspects of risk was imitation meant to reduce? Was it successful? What aspects of the firm
Choose a product or technology. Interview five consumers who buy that product and ask them what major problems they have with the product (or what major things they dislike about it). Then ask them
Obtain a patent of a technology (e.g., go to the patent office Web site) and come up with 10 creative uses of the technology.
Choose three different products that you might be interested in purchasing and that are sold on the Internet. For each product, visit three Web sites and go through the process as if you were going
Take the following problem statement and brainstorm solutions. Be prepared to present your three most “creative” solutions. Problem statement: “Customers too frequently use an airline and fly
Choose a product and use the checklist method to develop new ideas. Be prepared to discuss your product and the three most creative ideas generated.
Interview three managers of multinational businesses to ascertain the benefits generated from engaging in international business as well as some of the challenges (problems).
Choose a country. Research and be prepared to report on that country’s (a) stage of economic development, (b) political-legal environment, (c) cultural environment, and (d) technological
Choose a transition economy. Research that country and its recent economic progress. Do you believe its economy will flourish or stagnate? Why? What can that country’s government do (if anything)
Choose a specific industry in a specific country. Which mode of entry has been used the most by foreign firms entering this industry in this country? Explain why, using examples of successful entry
Using the Internet, obtain copies of three patents that are at least three years old. What are the elements that are common across these patents? What are the differences? Which do you believe will
Search press reports for patent infringement cases. Describe the process and the outcome. Of particular value are examples that list the legal costs of defending patent infringements and the amount
What are some of the world’s most famous trademarks?
Provide a real-life example for each of the following different types of product liability: (a) negligence, (b) warranty, (c) strict liability, and (d) misrepresentation.When possible, report both
How much does it cost to apply for and obtain a patent?
Should firms such as Aereo (see opening profile) be allowed to provide access to television broadcasts without their approval? Consider both sides of the argument to make a more convincing argument.
There are many software packages that aim to help entrepreneurs write a business plan. Research the Internet and select three of these software packages. What is different about them? How are they
Find five business plans in your library. What are the common topics covered across all five plans? What are the differences? Choose the one that you believe is the best written and then describe why
Speak to three entrepreneurs and find out if they had to make a “pitch” to investors before completing their final business plan. Find out how important this “pitch” was to completing their
Given the difficulties in accurately predicting the future, is a business plan useful? Provide three reasons for writing one and three reasons for not preparing a plan. What is your conclusion and
Would the entrepreneur be better off spending more time selling his or her product rather than investing so much time in writing a business plan?
Participate in an online focus group. Then conduct research on the advantages and disadvantages of conducting a focus group online versus a “face-to-face” focus group.
Choose an industry and then use the library or the Internet to find data from secondary sources that will be highly useful in developing a marketing plan.
Find an example of a small business that is using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn to promote their products or services. How effective do you think this strategy is? Give some
In this country, what proportion of all businesses are(a) proprietorships,(b) partnerships,(c) private companies, (d) public companies? Provide an example of an industry that has a large share of
Review current business magazines and identify one large public corporation and one start-up that have a board of advisors. How will these boards be used differently or similarly? How would you
Study the local newspaper and choose three good examples and three poor examples of job advertisements. Be prepared to explain your choices.
Interview two entrepreneurs and ask them how they delegate responsibility in their organization. Ask them how they feel about delegating responsibility or involving an employee when a critical
Go online and identify some of the new Web-based financial software packages. How are they different? What advantages do Quickbooks, Peachtree, or AccountEdge have over these Web-based services?
Companies planning to make an initial public offering (IPO) must submit a financial plan as part of their prospectus. From the Internet, collect a prospectus from two different companies and analyze
A start-up has sales in the first three months of $20,000 yet there is not enough funds in the checking account to meet the payroll. How do you explain this? What can the owner do to assess this
Interview a business loan officer at a bank to determine the bank’s lending criteria for small businesses and new businesses. Does it use the five Cs? Which of the five Cs appears to be the most
Obtain a loan application from the local bank and categorize each question in terms of which of the five Cs it is attempting to assess.
Choose a type of business you would like to run. Then search the Internet for government grants that might be applicable for you and your business.
Interview three small-business owners about things they do (or have done) to bootstrap the financing of their business. How effective were these techniques? Be prepared to present this list to the
Should the government provide grants for entrepreneurs starting new businesses? Should the government guarantee loans for small businesses that are missing the necessary track record, assets, or
Go to a directory of venture capitalists and ascertain what percentage of funds for a typical venture-capital firm are invested in seed, start-up, expansion or development, and acquisitions or
Obtain an initial public offering prospectus for three companies. Use at least two different approaches for valuing each company.
Search the Internet for services that provide access to business angels or informal investors. How do these sites work? If you were an entrepreneur looking for funding, how much would it cost to use
How many companies went public per year over the last 10-year period? How do you explain this variation in the “popularity” of going public?
Analyze the prospectuses of 10 companies that went public in 2005. In your opinion, which companies are likely to do well in the public offering, and which are less likely to do well? Conduct the
Analyze the prospectuses of five companies going public. What are the reasons they state for going public? How are they going to use the proceeds? What are the major risk factors presented?
Assume that you have been very lucky and have been given a considerable fortune. You want to become a business angel (straight after graduation). How would you go about setting up and running your
Which are the three fastest-growing companies in the country? What opportunities have they pursued to achieve this level of growth? What growth mechanism have they used (internal, joint venture,
Use research to come up with three examples of founding entrepreneurs who stepped aside once their firms had grown to a certain size and brought in “professional managers.” In each case, what
Keep a record of how you use your time by documenting what you are doing every 15 minutes over a two-day period. Then analyze these records to determine where you waste time and what you could do to
What different software packages are available to help entrepreneurs with their different record-keeping and control activities? How effective do you believe software can be for each of these tasks?
The firm needs to make sales. What is the best way to motivate salespeople to make more sales and improve the performance of the firm? How would you effectively monitor their performance under the
Categorize those people in the class who you believe would be well-suited for starting a business and managing initial growth but would be less effective at conducting the professional management
Think of a company that produces one product and sells it to one group of customers (or make one up). Advise the entrepreneur of the many opportunities there are for growth—opportunities for
Are you a time waster or a time server? What time management techniques do you use? How can you better manage your time?
Find information about three joint ventures that were failures, and be prepared to discuss the underlying reasons for the failure in each case.
Search on the Internet for franchises for sale. Choose three. What commonalities are there across the businesses and the information provided? What differences are there? For one of these businesses,
Interview three franchisees to better understand their relationship with the franchisor.
Find three types of business license agreements (only one of these should be a software license agreement). In what ways are these license agreements the same and in what ways are they different? Why
Find three reports of acquisitions that were unsuccessful. Why were these acquisitions deemed unsuccessful?
Recently, the Chinese government has been encouraging foreign firms to enter into joint venture relationships with local (Chinese) firms. What are the benefits to the Chinese economy from these joint
Identify a local franchise in your area, and determine where the competitors are located and where other franchises from the same organization are located. Evaluate the existing potential for the
Find three accounts by entrepreneurs in which they describe their experience with poorly performing firms and the process of going through bankruptcy. In what ways were their experiences similar? In
Interview a member of a family business and gain a deeper understanding of the issues surrounding the management of such a business, especially those related to succession.
Find three very successful entrepreneurs that have also had at least one failure. How are they different? What are some of the similarities in their approach to success?
What are the issues facing an entrepreneur in deciding whether or not the business needs to be put into bankruptcy today?
Kelly Myers, a friend of yours, just told you an interesting story. She was at her parents’ house over the weekend and her father saw this book lying next to her backpack. He pickup it up and read
Assess the industry attractiveness for the industry that Songkick, the subject of the “You Be the VC 1.2” feature, will be participating in. YOU BE THE VC 1.2 Company: Songkick Web:
Suppose you were hired by the founders of ecoATM, the subject of the “You Be the VC 2.2” feature, to conduct a survey of potential users prior to the launch of the company. The purpose of the
What do you think were the 8 to 10 most important nonfinancial resources that the founders of InstyMeds, the subject of the “You Be the VC 3.1” feature, needed to have in place before they
Bill Gross is both a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Idealab, an incubator-type organization that has launched over 75 companies. He’s also an Internet pioneer and the creator of the
Just a few years ago, Tom Patterson was working as a medical device salesman. Today, his company, Tommy John, brings in about $2 million in revenue and makes the top selling men’s undershirts at
Spend some time looking at Equipois, the focus of the “You Be the VC 3.2” feature.Name five things that Equipois could have done in its feasibility analysis that would have been particularly
Write a mission statement and a tagline for SafetyWeb, the subject of the “You Be the VC 4.1” feature. What is the rationale for the mission statement and the tagline you wrote? YOU BE THE VC 4.1
Segment the wind-generated power industry in a way that shows where Windspire Energy, the subject of the “You Be the VC 1.1”feature, is located in the industry. How does Windspire’s awareness
One of the challenges business owners have is determining how closely to stick to their business plan once the business is launched and they start receiving customer feedback. In almost all cases,
Because new businesses are resource constrained, they often make partnering an essential part of their business plans. As illustrated throughout this book, effective partnering can help a start-up in
It was a cool B2B business idea. While working at Liz Claiborne, David Reinke had the idea to use crowdsourcing to help retailers select the women’s clothing they would feature in their stores.
Imagine the following. You’re in the audience of a business plan competition. The next team up to present is d.light, a for-profit social enterprise that plans to bring light to people without
The “You Be the VC 5.1” feature focuses on Xeros, the maker of a virtually waterless laundry machine. Spend some time studying Xeros’s Web site(www.xerosltd.com) as well as additional
The “You Be the VC 5.2” feature focuses on Mission Motors, a company in the transportation industry—more specifically the motorcycle part of that industry.Spend some time studying the
The “You Be the VC 7.1” feature focuses on Quora, an online question-and-answer site that encourages in-depth questions and answers and combines social networking with substantive questions and
The “You Be the VC 1.2” feature focuses on Songkick, a company that has created a single place for music lovers to track or keep up with their favorite bands, so they’ll always know where and
The “You Be the VC 2.2” feature focuses on ecoATM, a company that is deploying a network of self-service kiosks that enables shoppers to recycle unwanted electronic gear. Imagine you’re in a
How could the founders of Songkick, the subject of the “You Be the VC 1.2” feature at the end of Chapter 1, have utilized library and Internet research to flesh out their business idea? What
problem his company solves is personal. Taylor’s father, who is fighting both heart disease and cancer, takes 26 different medications to fight his illnesses. Any mix-up or error associated with

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