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Transcript of PRESSING FOR SUCCESS
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
Page 1
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
Page 2
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
Page 3
Page 4
Page 7
Page 8
Page 11
Page 12
Page 13
Page 16
Page 20
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:
Page 17
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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