ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION February 2004 59
CASE STUDY
Developing an entrepreneurial identity by Patricia Lewis (Brunel School of Business and Management, Brunel
University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK, e-mail:
Patricia.Lewis@brunel.ac.uk)
The Case Study section of the International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation serves two purposes. First, the case studies presented areconcerned with problematical issues that are pertinent to students of
英国论文网entrepreneurship. Thus they constitute appropriate teaching and learningvehicles on a variety of postgraduate and undergraduate programmes. Eachcase study is accompanied by a set of guidelines for the use of tutors. Second,it is envisaged that those engaged in entrepreneurial activities will find thecases both interesting and useful.The case in this issue concerns an ex-corporate manager who is in theprocess of establishing and developing her own business after being maderedundant from her senior management position. It is based on two in-depthdiscussions, one held in the first year of setting up the business, the secondoccurring after the business had been up and running for 18 months.Focusing on the question of identity, the story illustrates the complex issuesinvolved in the transformation, development and maintenance of identityduring such a transition. The case is a real-life one but all names arepseudonyms.
Gillian Gavin has been working in marketing in a variety of countries over the past 14
the business ‘took off’. Up to that point,Gillian had been coaching clients on aone-to-one basis and was finding that shehad no difficulty attracting clients, butthe nature of the coaching work meantthat she was unable to build volume, andwithout this she would not be able tobuild a sustainable business. Recognizingthis problem signalled to her that sheneeded to develop different mediums forthe delivery of her coaching service,which while bearing her personal mark,did not rely on her personally to deliverthem:
. . . my background is in telecommunications.
I’m in marketing, telecommunications, and
I’m a coach, so it’s bringing the three together
. . . the thing with coaching is time, it’s a timebusiness. You don’t coach, you don’t get paid,so from a business model point of view Istarted becoming a lot smarter and saying‘OK, if I’m going to build sustainability intothe business, this model isn’t going to work’.So that’s one of the reasons I’ve developed acoaching computer package because it hasprograms on there that people can buy and it’sonce again my creativity, my knowledge,bringing that all together, packaging it in a waythat’s useful for them and they can buy thatany time of the day or night. . . Each timeyou’re creating a revenue stream for the samething, it’s all revenue streams, plus you’regetting the message out to people in a massmarket and obviously I need to make |
