COMPREHENSIVE

CASE

DAN KIM: PART $1$

Dan Kim has worked for a carpentry company building homes in Hamilton,

Ontario, for the past five years. Although he has moved up in the

organization to be a project manager, he is becoming increasingly

frustrated with the negative aspects of working for a small company with

little room for advancement. Dan has suggested to the business owner that

he should consider expanding, perhaps consider moving into commercial

construction, and that Dan himself could handle more duties under his

proposed expansion plans. Dan has even offered to become a partner in

the business or eventually buy the company from the owner. The owner,

who is nearing retirement age, prefers to maintain the business as it is$.$ He

recognizes Dan as ambitious, dependable, and hardworking, but he has

little desire to grow his company at this stage in his life.

Dan, while making a good wage, is certain that he could make more money

if he worked on his own. Having grown up with parents who owned their

own restaurant, he also fondly remembers the freedom that his father had

in taking time off to attend Dan$$s hockey games and to take family trips. His

father$$s restaurant had been successful and had grown to the point where

he added four additional locations and eventually sold them all for a

significant profit. Dan is not certain he wants to work for someone else for

the rest of his life, nor is he even certain he wants to be a carpenter. Dan

has recently started to think about ideas to start his own business and has

been searching the Internet late into the evening for information on the

latest trends in the construction and housing industries. Dan is certain that

his experience and hands$-$on ability will help him identify an opportunity he

could turn into a company, and he has started making notes on his iPhone

about various business ideas he has during the day.

After spending six months thinking about various ideas for a business, Dan

believes he has found one that would work. After watching extension

ladders wobble, lean, and sometimes move, Dan thought there had to be a

better way to increase their stability without having someone stand and

hold a ladder all day. Dan spent the next few months building various

prototypes that would solve this problem, and he finally developed a set of

rails that could be easily attached to extension ladders to make them more

stable and increase their safety. The rails are made of lightweight

aluminum, bent so that they attach to a ladder through the holes of the

ladder rungs. Dan was thrilled with his invention, which he intends to call

the Ladder Helper. He is sure that the product will especially appeal to

those in the construction industry and to homeowners. He is confident that

he can produce enough ladder rails in his garage out of lightweight

aluminum $($the same material that ladders are made from$)$ with metal cutters

and benders to launch a viable business.

Dan brought the Ladder Helper to work and showed it to his boss. His boss

thought it was an interesting invention but stated he did not think people

would buy them. This reaction concerned Dan, and while he was excited

about the product$$s potential, he decided to post some information about

the concept on several crowdsourcing sites and on his Facebook page

asking for input. While most respondents agreed the idea was a good one,

many entrepreneurs stated that Dan would never be able to produce

enough of the ladders himself to meet demand. Others suggested that

rather than trying to make the extension, he should bring his concept to

some of the larger ladder manufacturers and see if they would buy the idea

from them. At this point, Dan was satisfied he had done enough research to

determine the idea was a good one, and he believed people would buy the

product. Although he appreciated all the advice he received online, he

wanted to be the one to build the ladders, and he was not interested in

selling the idea. After all, if he sold the idea, he would just be back working

at the same company again, albeit with a little more money in his pocket.

Dan is more determined than ever to start his own business. He feels that

his invention has great potential. He discusses the possibility of becoming

an entrepreneur with his wife, Suzie. Suzie is somewhat apprehensive

about the idea, because she and Dan both have good jobs and have

accumulated some savings. Furthermore, Suzie is concerned that Dan has

not done enough work to assess if the idea is good enough for Dan to quit

his job and start a business. She states that Dan$$s only real market research

was online and from friends, family, and other entrepreneurs and they

would, of course, be encouraging. She would prefer if Dan engaged in

more traditional market research or tried to pre$-$sell some of his ladders on

a crowdsourcing site. Dan is confident that he has collected enough

information to determine there i