Small Business Management

The Final assessment consist of a case study -report- of 3-4 pages including bibliography (instead of 6-8 initially indicated in my announcement dated Oct 10), of a firm of your choice (start up or well established) precisely describing the first steps of their growth. The example must not be older than 10 years.

How to proceed :

-Find a list of innovative start up on the Internet (try from 2011 to 2019, you will find plenty in various industries and in various countries e.g. type on Google : Innovative start-ups 2015)

-Select one firm you want to explore

-Google the firm’s name on the internet and collect all informtion needed (if you do not find enough information, select another firm until you find what you need)

-Your document shall include the following parts :

1-Introduction (firm name, location -city/country-, year of inception, CEO/founder/main partners ; business model) (half page)

2-Description of product/services/marketing approach (half page)

3-How and why did they started, what was the idea ?, the opportunity ? what is their strategy (cost leadership ? differentiation ?) ; their mission and vision (half page)

4-How did they finance their start (quater/half page)

5-How did they grow (born global ; in domestic country first and then abroad ?-if they did not develop abroad yet, do they have plan to do so ? do they plan to go public -IPO- at a point of time? How many years each step took ?) (half page)

6-How did they develop : on their own ? through franchise ? partnership with large firm ? (half page)

7-Conclusion/recommendation : express what did you learned from your research for this task , what would you recommend to the entrepreneurs ¼ to ½ page

8-Bibliography (use Harvard referencing system, you will find information on Harvard ref. system on the course page, under week 1 banner) If, despite your efforts, you cannot find the information related to one of the 6 points above (conclusion and bibliography are compulsory), just explain this in your document e.g. How did they finance their start : I found no information related to this point)

DO NOT COPY-PASTE text from published material, instead, summarize the author(s) text with your own words or sentences (do not either only change few words from copied sentences. Turnitin will pick that up- you may copy some figures, graphs, pictures, though ; in this case indicate your reference right underneath the figure or graphs.