PRESSING FOR SUCCESS

Prepared For:

Dr. A. K. M. Saiful Majid

Course Instructor: Entrepreneurship (W301)

Professor

BBA Program

Institute of Business Administration

University of Dhaka

Prepared By:

Arko Ashraf Antar

ZR - 86, Section B, Batch 20

BBA Program

Institute of Business Administration

University of Dhaka

Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka

October 23, 2014

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

October 20, 2014

Dr. A.K.M Saiful Majid SirProfessorInstitute of Business AdministrationUniversity of Dhaka

Subject: Submission of the case study “ Pressing for Success”

Dear Sir:

In compliance with your instructions to fulfill the requirements of the course “Entrepreneurship (W301)”, I would like to present the case study entitled “Pressing for success”

The main purpose of the document is to understand the entrepreneurial journey of real-life personality, who, in his own way, has been an example and has been trying to live out what we learn in books. Moreover, this case study also includes how the entrepreneur has given shape to his dreams through his venture and what this dream looks like. It overlooks how the venture started out, who it started out with, how it overcame many problems and its future outlook. I hope that I learn much from this paper and will be able to replicate the lesson learnt in my own life.

Thank you, sir, for giving me the opportunity to learn in an innovative and experiential manner and provide me the guidelines for completing the task. I hope to meet your expectation in the paper and that the cases meet your approval.

Yours sincerely,Arko Ashraf AntarZR - 86, Batch BBA 20th (B)Institute of Business AdministrationUniversity of Dhaka

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Case Study 1: The Entrepreneur

Case Study 1: Questions

Case Study 2: The Venture

Case Study 2: Questions

Appendix 1: Benchmarking

Appendix 2: Case Study Methods Used

Appendix 3: The Questionnaire

Appendix 4: The Road Not Taken

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CASE 1: THE ENTREPRENEUR“Two roads divulged in a yellow wood

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one, as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth”

In the year 1990, Ashraful Haque Mukul a student fresh out of Dhaka

University with visions of a bright future stands at an impasse in his life. As a

student of philosophy, he is well aware of the poem “the Road Not Taken” by

Robert Frost. It was a very ironic situation for him that just six months ago, he

was writing the synopsis of the poem in his exam and now, he was in that

exact situation. There were two options for him in his life now, one was a

secure safe one of a job while the other, one full of risks and hardships was

that of an entrepreneur.

While people argue on whether leaders

are born or made, anyone who knew

Ashraful Haque Mukul would say in one

breath he was one. Being heavily invested

in student politics, Ashraful Haque Mukul

was the General Secretary of DUCSU,

back in a time when that position meant

something, and was determined by the

voting of all the general students in the

university. His friends described him as

friendly and outgoing with the uncanny

ability of getting things done and getting

the best out of people around him. One

complain that was there against him was

that he was a control-freak as well as

being over-meticulous.

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On the other hand, the origins of Ashraful was very humble. His father was a

retired agricultural officer in Bhairab, Kishoreganj. Ashraful was the eldest son

in the family, with two younger brothers and two younger sisters. One of his

sisters was still unmarried while his immediate younger brother was currently

studying engineering in Russia. That meant that the responsibility of the entire

family was on his shoulders. Any decision he took now would have a

consequence on his entire family and he knew it. It was not his own future, but

the present of his family and the responsibilities that come with being the eldest

son was also at stake. Whatever decision he took would have an impact on his

family and he knew it.

From being in a non-entrepreneurial family, he was facing some pressure from

his father. He himself was doubting whether he had the fabled “entrepreneurial

blood” flowing though him. He says “People in that time thought businessmen

were a special breed. Business was something which could not be taught or

learnt. You either had it in you or you didn’t”. He admits that he had faced a lot

of dilemma regarding starting his own business mainly because of the social

prejudice against businessmen at that time as well as the fact that there was

no set future in this field. Getting a government job by applying through BCS

was a lot more secure option.

While all this was going on, Ashraful had also to keep his own ideologies and

conscience to take care of. As mentioned before, Ashraful was into student

politics, left-wing students politics to be exact. Throughout his life, he was of

the belief that the bourgeoisie class, fueled by their greed for profits was

oppressing the proletariat, the common people. If he decided to become a

businessman, he would become the very thing he stood against up until that

point in his life. But if he was sure of anything at that point, it was that taking

orders from people would not be something he would be great at. With that in

mind, he decided to go into a business that had the level of respect that he

craved, did not exploit the general people as much while having almost

nonegative connotations that one usually associated with businessmen. He

decided to go into the field of printing by opening up a printing press.

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When he arrived at that decision, it opened up a whole new can of worms for

Ashraful. A business press was a capital intensive set-up in the sense that one

had to invest a heavy sum of money initially in the form of buying the

machinery as well as getting a piece of land from which to operate on. He

resolved those issues within a short amount of time by managing both the

start-up capital as well as the land through help of his friends and family. Since

then, it has been 24 years and that printing press with its’ humble beginnings

has grown to be the pioneer of the Nilkhet cluster of printing presses while

itself growing in size exponentially. That man, who was struggling to make his

ends meet now not only owns this press, but also owns partnership of a

shrimp hatchery in Cox’s Bazaar.

Now, when asked on what particular

characteristics of Ashraful helped him

with his success, he replies very

promptly, “I hate doing things in the

11th hour! At that time, if something

goes wrong, which inevitably does,

there is not much one can do to fix it.”

His philosophy in life, to not leave

things till the alst minute has helped

his printing press Bersha Pvt. Ltd. To

develop a reputation of always

meeting delivery deadlines which is

one of the main contributing factors in

the business’ success.

Ashraful has no regrets on the decision he made at that impasse 24 years

ago. According to him, all has worked out for the best and he is living a happy

life till this day. Looking around him, at his peers who once studied with him but

got into jobs, he contently recited the last two lines of that famous poem which

started the story:

“Two roads divulged in a yellow road and I-

I took the road less travelled by

And that, has made all the difference.” Page 6

CASE 1: QUESTIONS

• Considering the situation of Ashraful, make a SWOT

analysis on the situation he faced at 1990.

• Which personality traits of Ashraful helped him become a

successful entrepreneur. With the help of this answer,

relate to the trait theory.

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CASE 2: THE VENTURE

It was the year 1990, a young graduate of Dhaka University, fresh out of the

philosophy department decided to start a printing press in Nilkhet, beside his

old university as he felt he would be able to wriggle out some advantage by

operating from where he had passed the past 6 years of his life. To the young

entrepreneur, Ashraful Haque Mukul, the sky was the limit. As time passed by,

business continued to boom and what was once, a single printing press

became a thriving cluster of printing presses ensuring the firms there enjoying

external economies of scale.

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We are getting ahead of the story here, so let’s start from the beginning. When

starting the business, the entire set-up back at that time cost 10,000 Tk. It was

considered a hefty sum of investment for a completely new business. It as a risk, but

backed up by some strong logic. Being right beside Dhaka University, the central hub

of education of the country at that time, Nilkhet was a promising location for setting

up a printing press which would print books supporting the theme of academia that

one associated with DU at that time. Moreover, there was some political orders

guaranteed to come in because: a) it was right beside DU which was the thriving hub

of meaningful student politics at that time. b) Ashraful had contacts with some

of these political parties as he himself was heavily involved with student politics

during his tenure as a student. What this ensured was at-least some business

at the beginning, reducing the risk of the business tanking.

It was going comparatively well, not splendid, but quite well. Then, within a

span of two years around 1992, something changed. More and more printing

presses got set up on the Nilkhet belt and suddenly, business boomed! This

perplexed Ashraful towards the beginning. There were more printing presses

set up, which should translate to more competition, yet the exact opposite was

happening! Instead of business going down with a number of firms now fighting

over a limited number of customers, the number of customers coming in was

increasing. Moreover, subsidiary value adding services like binding, color and

plate shops were set up around the area which made raw materials cheaper

and more available.

This boom continued into the new millennium and the Nilkhet belt became a

thriving center of printing presses around the area. But with advantages, there

also comes a lot of disadvantages. One of the main disadvantages was the big

number of new entrants that became common towards the latter years. Small

businesses with a small start-up amount set up even smaller shops but what is

worth mentioning is that these businesses are not very sustainable. There was

a steady inflow and outflow of these small businesses in the market. Let’s go

into why this happened. There was a regional Press Owners Association for

this area which had set up minimum prices, but the association guidelines were

not followed by everyone. These small new start-ups wanted to survive and to

do that, they started to provide services at a rate lower than the association

stated level and there was a lot of under-invoicing taking place. On the other

hand, due to the fact that these firms have small term survival in mind, they

usually do not survive in the long term as this kind of business is not very

sustainable. Slowly, but surely, competition was becoming a factor.

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In the year 2012, something happened which changed the entire ball-game of

this region. Suddenly, on one fine sunny day, the government realized that the

strip of land where the biggest printing presses of the area was on, was

actually khaash land and without any warning, a magistrate with a bull-dozer

came in and started demolishing the businesses running the bull-dozer over

crores of worth of machinery. A multi-crore taka industry came to stand-still with

in a matter of few hours. Bersha Pvt. Ltd. got really lucky as it was the only

press spared in that entire belt.

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Now, in this current day, the entire net

worth of Bersha Pvt. Ltd. is worth around

4 crores. It provides employment to

around 50 people and it is the leader of

the regional Press Owner’s Association. A

saying in local Bengali goes “kaaro poush mash, kaaro shorbonash” , which

basically means that one person’s misfortune could be another person’s boon.

Ashraful, feels that he can take advantage of this situation at hand. There was

a lot of business prior to the demolition incident and Bersha believes that with

the elimination of it’s biggest competitors, it’s own business will be booming.

With that expectation in mind, Ashraful is thinking of buying another machine

worth 0.8 crores to meet the large number of orders he is expecting to come

in. He is aware that this might back-fire and this is an impasse in the business

for Bersha pvt. Ltd. which he agrees is a make or break moment for his

business.

CASE 2: QUESTIONS

• Analyze on what Bersha Pvt. Ltd. should do in light of

recent events in terms of the decision to buy new

machinery.

• What else can Bersha Pvt. Ltd. do to alleviate

themselves from the situation they now find themselves

in.

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APPENDIX 1: BENCHMARKING

• http://www.businessinsider.com/ford-flop-bill-gates-favorite-case-studies-2014-7

• http://pure.au.dk/portal-asb-student/files/10107/Master_thesis_-_Stig_H._Folkestad.pdf

• http://repository.excellencegateway.org.uk/fedora/objects/eg:1745/datastreams/DOC/content

• http://repository.excellencegateway.org.uk/fedora/objects/eg:1749/datastreams/DOC/content

These are the benchmark Case Studies that Istudied to get an idea of case studies and write thecase studies I have written.

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APPENDIX 2: CASE STUDY METHODS USED

The type of Case Study used is Descriptive Case Study Method.

A descriptive case study is one that is focused and detailed, inwhich propositions and questions about a phenomenon arecarefully scrutinized and articulated at the outset. Thisarticulation of what is already known about the phenomenon iscalled a descriptive theory. It helps to specify the boundaries ofthe case, and it contributes significantly to the rigor of thefinished case study. The power and promise of a descriptivecase study lie in its potential for mining for abstractinterpretations of data and theory development. The main goalof the descriptive case study is to assess a sample in detail andin depth, based on an articulation of a descriptive theory.

One of the goals of science is description (other goals includeprediction and explanation). Descriptive research methods arepretty much as they sound — they describe situations. They donot make accurate predictions, and they do not determinecause and effect.

There are three main types of descriptive methods:observational methods, case-study methods and surveymethods. This article will briefly describe each of thesemethods, their advantages, and their drawbacks. This may helpyou better understand research findings, whether reported inthe mainstream media, or when reading a research study onyour own.

Observational Method

With the observational method (sometimes referred to as fieldobservation) animal and human behavior is closelyobserved. There are two main categories of the observationalmethod — naturalistic observation and laboratory observation.

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The biggest advantage of the naturalistic method of research isthat researchers view participants in their naturalenvironments. This leads to greater ecological validity thanlaboratory observation, proponents say.

Ecological validity refers to the extent to which research can beused in real-life situations.

Proponents of laboratory observation often suggest that due tomore control in the laboratory, the results found when usinglaboratory observation are more meaningful than thoseobtained with naturalistic observation.

Laboratory observations are usually less time-consuming andcheaper than naturalistic observations. Of course, bothnaturalistic and laboratory observation are important in regardto the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Case Study Method

Case study research involves an in-depth study of an individualor group of indviduals. Case studies often lead to testablehypotheses and allow us to study rare phenomena. Casestudies should not be used to determine cause and effect, andthey have limited use for making accurate predictions.

There are two serious problems with case studies — expectancyeffects and atypical individuals. Expectancy effects include theexperimenter’s underlying biases that might affect the actionstaken while conducting research. These biases can lead tomisrepresenting participants’ descriptions. Describing atypicalindividuals may lead to poor generalizations and detract fromexternal validity.

Survey Method

In survey method research, participants answer questionsadministered through interviews or questionnaires. Afterparticipants answer the questions, researchers describe theresponses given. In order for the survey to be both reliable andvalid it is important that the questions are constructedproperly. Questions should be written so they are clear andeasy to comprehend.

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Another consideration when designing questions is whether toinclude open-ended, closed-ended, partially open-ended, orrating-scale questions (for a detailed discussion refer to Jackson,2009). Advantages and disadvantages can be found with eachtype:

Open-ended questions allow for a greater variety of responsesfrom participants but are difficult to analyze statistically becausethe data must be coded or reduced in some manner. Closed-ended questions are easy to analyze statistically, but theyseriously limit the responses that participants can give. Manyresearchers prefer to use a Likert-type scale because it’s veryeasy to analyze statistically. (Jackson, 2009, p. 89)

In addition to the methods listed above some individuals alsoinclude qualitative (as a distinct method) and archival methodswhen discussing descriptive research methods.

It is important to emphasize that descriptive research methodscan only describe a set of observations or the data collected. Itcannot draw conclusions from that data about which way therelationship goes — Does A cause B, or does B cause A?

Unfortunately, in many studies published today, researchersforget this fundamental limitation of their research and suggesttheir data can actually demonstrate or “suggest” causalrelationships. Nothing could be further from the truth.

References

Jackson, S.L. (2009). Research Methods and Statistics: A CriticalThinking Approach 3rd edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

I have tried to use all 3 methods in the case study.

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APPENDIX 3: THE QUESTIONNAIRE

PERSONAL INFORMATION:

Full name:

Date of birth:

Birth place:

Father’s name:

Father’s profession, company name: _______________, Paradigm

Where did you spend your childhood? _______

Who else is entrepreneur in the family?

What sort of business venture they started?

Was your family supportive of your choice of career i.e. starting your own

company?

Is your family culture supportive and nurturing of entrepreneurial spirit?

Who inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

Did you face any sort of legal problems while applying for the license for your

company?

How would you describe your relationship with your partners?

What is the growth potential of your company?

What is the market potential of your company?

Which personal attributes of yours help you in running your company?

Do you have any plan to start a side business besides Bersha?

Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years

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What did you learn from your failures?

Who do you view as your main competitor(s)?

What are the difficulties you faced while starting your company (initial

difficulties)?

ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY:

Venture name:

License obtained:

Operation started :

Venture type:

Partners:

Start-up capital/investment:

Idea / source generation:

Source of inspiration:

Vision: Mission:

Target market:

FAILURES:

SUCCESSES:

OTHER ENTREPRENEURIAL ATTEMPTS:

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Creativeness

Innovation

Simulation

Opportunity seeking ability

Opportunity creation

Need for achievement

Need for power

over people

over his own life Need for affiliation

Realistic Action-orientation Tenacity

Thinker Analytical ability Methodical Planner Challenging Self-confidence

Energetic Responsible Future focused

Desire for continuous feedback/ communication

Advice solicitor

Putting achievement over wealth

Establishment story of Bersha

The specific tasks of each partner in Bersha in like 4 to 5 lines

Number of employees

Brief explanation of what Bersha has done for its clients

Problems it had faced

How those problems have been overcome

Prospects

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• Please rank yourself on the 5-points scale for the following traits.

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Traits/ Factors

5-points

scale Additional

comments (if you1 2 3 4 5

(very (low) (indifferent) (high) (very have any)

low) high)

Destiny/ Lucky

Dreamer

Initiation

Looks for details/

Thoroughness

Devotion to the cause

Organizing ability/skill

Dedication

Determination

Decisiveness

Doers

APPENDIX 4: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

ROBERT FROST

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