Mark Zuckerberg was born on May 14, 1984, in White Plains, New York. He is arguably one of the most successful young entrepreneurs in the world. He is the current chairperson and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the social networking site Facebook. Zuckerberg has made a mark for himself on the global business arena as a strategic entrepreneur. Zuckerberg co-founded Facebook in 2004 with his five college friends at Harvard University. Although Mark did not finish his college education, he has managed to establish himself as one of the most influential people in the world. Statistics show that Facebook has reached more than one billion users. Through Facebook, Zuckerberg has made life better because keeping in touch with friends and family is much easier now. Zuckerberg is a world changer who identified a gap in society and provided people with an opportunity to have a better experience of life. In 2007, Continue reading
Entrepreneurship Case Studies
Case Study of Steve Jobs: The Ultimate Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur
Apple’s success can be without a doubt is credited to Late Steve Jobs and his entrepreneurial skills which reflected the way Apple developed their strategies and hence becoming a corporate Entrepreneur organization. Steve Jobs was an entrepreneur who turned into an intrapreneur due to demands of the environment he worked in. Apple was established on April 1st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne to sell the Apple I personal computer kit. The kits were hand-built by Wozniak. Steve Jobs was booted in 1985 and returned as CEO in 1997. By the time of his death in 2012 at the age of 56, he had transformed a company that was in such weak financial shape that it accepted a $150 million investment from Microsoft, into the most profitable technology company in the world. A consummate showman, Jobs was adept at explaining his vision to a mass audience and Continue reading
Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Richard Branson
This is a story that begins on July 18, 1950 in Shamley Green, Surrey, England. Growing up in a traditional family, Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson struggled throughout school due to an as of yet undiagnosed problem of dyslexia. He excelled in sports, serving as the captain of both his school’s football and cricket teams, but it was in business that he found his true calling. Despite failing in two early ventures — growing Christmas trees and raising Australian parrots — he was determined to create his own successful business. When he was 16 years old, he dropped out of school to move to London and launch Student Magazine, which did see relatively more success. But, it was in founding the Virgin mail order record company three years later that his life would become something of real significance. His success in selling mail order records led to the opening of Continue reading
Case Study of Kishore Biyani: India’s Retail King
Kishore Biyani’s saga starts with his family business in textiles, which he joined after graduating in commerce. In 1987, Biyani launched the first branded ready-made trousers brand known as Pantaloon through his company Pantaloon Fashions. The trousers were marketed through the Pantaloon Shoppe stores. By the time Pantaloon Fashions went public in 1992, it had 60 exclusive shops. Later, he started manufacturing garments under two more brands-John Miller and Bare. Despite pod products and competitive pricing, the business seemed unviable due to high distribution costs and margins. Therefore, in August 1997, Biyani decided to open his own store at Kolkata to market these brands. He was expecting to do business of around Rs 70 million in the first year, but beating all expectations, the store did a business of Rs 100 million. This experience was an eye-opener for Biyani, who came to know that Indian market is ‘under-retailed’. The year Continue reading
Case Study: A Phenomenon Called Steve Jobs
Ask any Techno-freak his list of dream gadgets and the odds are high that the list would be populated by products from Apple. Apple has reached to such an extent that these new age Geeks would consider it a sin akin to homicide not to know about Apple! No wonder many people may at least find it better to pretend to aspire for Apple products when in reality they may not even know its functionality! So who was (and is) behind this revolution called the “Apple Revolution” which has managed to dominate B-School case study discussions? (Dear Techno freaks this question is not for you!) The person attributed to this revolution was born in February 24, 1955 to an unmarried couple and was later adopted by a lower middle class family and was named Steven Paul (Steve) Jobs. Even before adoption Steve’s adopted parents had to assure his Biological mother Continue reading
Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Rashmi Garments
Mrs. Rashmi Agarwal, who is a post graduate in Economics, has established Rashmi Garments, in May, 1987, by installing two machines — one her own and the other purchased from a local dealer, with a total investment of Rs. 20,000. The idea of starting her own business came in 1984, when she saw an advertisement in the newspaper for a one month Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP) being conducted by the Small Industry Service (SISI), Okhla, New Delhi. She learnt how to start her own venture. Feeling encouraged, she decided to start a garment unit as she had learnt something about garments during her school days. In order to add to her technical know-how, in 1985, she enrolled herself for a two-year part time course in Fashion Designing with the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), New Delhi and completed the course in 1987. In the meantime, on the advice of her Continue reading