Marking Notes to BME Interview Assignment - 2021

Key Course Concepts to Apply

MARKING NOTES TO BME INTERVIEW ASSIGNMENT - 2021

Key course concepts to apply in your analysis:

Remember the theme of “Motivation – Insight – Creation” and keep this in the back of your mind as you go through the interview and analysis. The key topics are listed below; you should touch on everything, but add other insights as they come up. You will be graded according to your understanding and application of these concepts as pertain to your subject entrepreneur. Exemplary marks will be earned through deeper strategic analysis and development of key business implications.

 1. Decision to become an entrepreneur: motivation, personality characteristics, attitudes and behaviours (chap. 1)

1. What are the main characteristics and essential skills that the founder of this company has employed that have led to success? Give brief examples as evidence, not just a “laundry list” of traits. (Refer to the charts, lists and concepts in chapter 1, as well as your in-class notes.)

2. Do the traits you perceive in this person align with the traits he/she attributes to themselves? Is there anything that you found lacking in the entrepreneur, that you would consider to be an essential skill or trait? Explain.

3. Discuss and get their perspective on at least two of the entrepreneurial “myths” outlined in the text.  

4. What was your subject’s motivation for starting his/her business venture? Was there a particular catalyst that encouraged or forced them into entrepreneurship?

2. Recognizing opportunities and generating ideas (chap. 2)

1. Recognizing opportunities: Where did the idea for this business come from and why did your subject feel that it was a real opportunity?

Apply the Four Essential Qualities of an Opportunity to this venture, as discussed .

2. How did your interviewee identify the opportunity?

Observing trends: Under what market conditions did your subject approach the start-up of his or her business venture? Describe the nature of the external business environment that led this entrepreneur to start the company at the time. (Consider the P.E.S.T. / C.R.E.S.T.E.D. model we discussed in class – pg. 45.) What has further influenced him/her to tweak the business and its resources to meet new needs and new realities up to the present day?

1. Solving a problem: Did the entrepreneur identify a challenge or problem that they could solve? How did they go about finding a solution?

2. Finding gaps in the marketplace: Was there a gap in current market offerings that the entrepreneur felt he/she could fill?

3. Personal Characteristics: What role did your subject’s prior knowledge and experience play in the creation of their business idea? Consider also their application of “entrepreneurial alertness” or sixth sense, their social networks and the creative process.

3. Feasibility Analysis 

Review the four approaches to feasibility analysis, as outlined in Figure 3.1. Apply this model to discuss how your entrepreneur went about assessing the feasibility of his/her proposed new venture.

1. What were their initial thoughts on their original idea?

2. Did that change once they had conducted more thorough analysis? Provide your strategic assessment.