case study:

Life Cycle In Organizations: A Stationery Shop Case Study Dr. Lorena Hernndez von Wobeser, Universidad del Caribe, Mxico

CASE SCENARIO Silvestre Stationery Shop This case study was constructed as proposed by Yin, (2009) in a single case approach. The data of the case was collected by using different methodological tools such as: a) longitudinal observation of the business; b) a survey applied to its owner; and c) a semi-structured interview.

Stationery Shop Silvestre is a micro sized business located in the non-touristic area of Cancun, Mxico. The owner, Graciela M. - a sixty year-old woman with basic education- opened the business in 2005. Graciela M. narrates her reasons for starting a business: a better future for her children, the only alternative against the difficulty to get a job (being an elderly woman), the hope for a better life, and being able to have an independent old age. A single mother, she raised five children herself. Her childrens childhood was very difficult; a big poor family struggling to survive. Graciela remembers her children studying for the elementary school exams by candlelight since they had no money to pay for electricity. Before starting a business Graciela used to work as an independent seamstress. In this context, the entrepreneurship was a tangible possibility for changing the present and future of Gracielas family. My grandchildren will not suffer what my children did! Graciela points.

Graciela narrates (and conceptualized) the life of the Stationery Shop Silvestre in three stages named by her as: the Beginning, the Expansion and the Foundation. The Beginning stage was difficult but exciting. With less than 600 dollars ($10,000 Mexican pesos) and a property that shares room with a shop, she opened the Stationery Shop Silvestre. My daughter Sofa told me: - lets open a Stationery Shop-. We were in a group saving pool, and each of us contributed with 5,000 pesos. So we had 10,000 pesos and we went shopping What a surprise, it wasnt enough merchandise for the business! The shop shelves looked empty!(Graciela). Despite the difficulty Graciela states: I felt fulfilled, it was as if I were living a dream which had come true (Graciela).

During the Expansion stage, Graciela and her daughter Sofa reinvested their savings from the business to stock up. Little by little, the business conditions improved. As pointed by Graciela: A year and a half had passed, the shop started looking much better, and it was as if the business flirted with me! But shortly, Sofa, the young daughter got pregnant and Graciela told her: you can be the sole owner of the Stationary Shop, we can move the shop to your house and Ill start over again with another business1. After moving the Shop, Graciela and Natalia, a youngest daughter got a loan. After a year of preparation they opened a second Stationary Shop which included a cybercaf. So we started buying two computers, then we began growing little by little until we acquire twelve computers. The main clients of the business were neighbors who were studying elementary and high school and needed both computers and stationary products.

Nowadays, in the Foundation stage Graciela evaluates her business which is in a difficult stable moment: we are surviving thanks to the school period, our main income comes from small sales: molding clay, cardboards, pencils, stuff like that. With a second loan to pay, small profit earnings, high taxes and long work journeys (13 hours: from 9 am to 11 pm); Stationary Shop and Cyber Silvestre subsists.

CONCLUSION

The biological influenced Life Cycle Model for understanding organizations has allowed the emergence of different stage models proposals and theories about what makes organizations change between stages. One of the implications of the uses of this metaphor (or model) is that includes a pro-life position in organizations. From this point of view, it is desirable a business is born, grows and even reproduces (via franchise or subsidiary). But the common assumption that enterprises (and- especially small businesses-) are expected to develop and grow has also its limitations. Cleri (2007) argues that it is common to think that small businesses are the starting point in the evolutionary specie of the enterprise. He thinks this is a fallacy that emerges when organizations are assimilated to human life since not all enterprises follow this trajectory; the majority, it remains small with the passing of time (Cleri, 2007: pp. 36-37). It also could be possible that an enterprise would be born medium- sized or even, big (they arent necessarily born small). This metaphor does not take into account the businesses that survive in an unsuccessful way, even for years; or businesses that close their doors in a successful way, for example when owners decide to close the business during financial peak because they are just too tired to continue. Finally this metaphor neither takes into account the cases where it is more convenient to stay small (because the owner cant assimilate the growth or because there is no a market for the product/service).

Answer the following question:

a. How do you imagine the future of the Stationery Shop Silvestre? Will it stay in the same stage or will it change to another Adizes stage? b. Based on the story of the Stationery Shop Silvestre, can the terms organizational survival and organizational success be used indistinctly? Why? Which could be the possible contributions and limitations of this theoretical model for the understanding of Mexican micro-sized businesses reality?