TOPIC PAPER INSTRUCTIONS:
Read the topic documents for the week each topic paper is due. Write a 3-5 page overview with the following sections:
Introduction-Overview of article
Relationship to book topics-This must be specific to topics in book
Personal response to topic-Your position on the article’s topic
Conclusion-Sum up the topic and any comparisons or contrasts
References-Must be APA and include a minimum of 5 references (the book, the article and 3 external references).
On the dates indicated in the Course Schedule you will prepare the topic paper assignment and submit it as an email attachment using the class Blackboard/WebCT website. Your attachment MUST be a Word document and the file name MUST end in either .doc or .docx.
NOTE: This is NOT a research paper. It is about you keeping up with business subject matter, giving some thought to their implications, and relating the course material to real world events. The information contained in the each article relates to one or many subjects presented in the book and lecture materials.
Do not submit a paper without proofreading and spell checking it first!!! Required format is 12 pt, double spaced, Times New Roman font. Your paper must include a heading with your name, the course title and section number, along with the date of submission.
Things to think about while reading and preparing the topic paper response:
1)What happened? Identify the issue or event from the required article and provide details about what happened, when it happened, who or what companies were involved, and any other information you feel is pertinent.
2)Who’s impacted? Who (or what) might be impacted by this issue or event? What implications might it have for company employees, consumers, investors, and other interested parties (stakeholders)? Are there competitive issues implied by this issue or event?
3)How do you feel about it? Do you have any personal feelings about this issue or event? Might it affect you? Describe any ethical, social or moral issues surrounding this event that concern or interest you.
4)Course relevance. What topics covered or scheduled to be covered in this class are pertinent to this event?
Below is the essay that you have to read before writing this essay:
Business Horizons (2014) 57, 5—9
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect
www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor
KEYWORDS
Entrepreneurship;
Employment;
Sustainable business
model;
Value proposition;
Veterans
Abstract Based on helping dozens of military veterans refine their ideas for starting
a business, we identify and discuss a series of potential pitfalls that aspiring entrepreneurs–—veterans
and civilians alike–—must avoid in order to be successful. Potential
entrepreneurs must not confuse the pursuit of hobbies and self-employment with the
act of creating a business. People who wish to build a business around public speaking
or consulting need to firmly establish why customers should be willing to pay for their
advice. Individuals that seek to develop a new non-profit organization must have a
viable value proposition even though they are not pursing a profit motive. Overall, the
entrepreneurial ventures that are most likely to succeed are those that (1) are based
on a sustainable business model, (2) leverage the entrepreneur’s unique experiences
and attributes, and (3) are built around a process orsystem that enablesthe venture to
prosper even if the entrepreneur leaves the venture.
# 2013 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: rblass@fsu.edu (F.R. Blass),
ketchda@auburn.edu (D.J. Ketchen Jr.)
0007-6813/$ — see front matter # 2013 Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2013.09.006
admitted. EBV was created in 2007 at Syracuse
University and subsequently spread to more than
a half dozen other universities. More than 700 veterans
have completed the EBV program at one of the
host institutions.
Randy Blass has been the director of the EBV
program at Florida State University (FSU-EBV) since
its inception in 2008 and has taught at other EBV
locations as well. Prior to his civilian academic
career, Randy served 25 years in the U.S. Air Force.
Dave Ketchen has been a member of the teaching
team for FSU-EBV since 2008. We are both extremely
proud to be a part of EBV, an organization that
makes a tremendous positive difference in the lives
of individuals who have made huge sacrifices for
their country.
Each EBV student develops an idea for a business
over the course of his or her studies and is then
provided a year of free support as he/she develops
the business. Some of these ideas are brilliant right
from the start while others require a great deal of
refinement in order to be viable. Having vetted
many dozens of business ideas from aspiring ‘vetrepreneurs,’
we have noticed some potential pitfalls
that appear regularly within our EBV classes. If
these challenges are remedied, new ventures have a
much better chance of achieving strong organizational
performance. Left unchecked, however,
these challenges will undermine an entrepreneurial
effort and make success very unlikely.
Our goal in writing this Organizational Performance
Executive Digest is to help vet-repreneurs
in particular and entrepreneurs in general achieve
stronger organizational performance within their
ventures. We pursue this goal by describing a series
of challenges that arise frequently, illustrating the
challenges via real, albeit disguised, examples from
our EBV students, and explaining how to overcome
the challenges. Although these pitfalls were identi-
fied within the EBV setting, we believe–—based on
our decades of teaching and consulting experience
in other settings–—that the resultant lessons can be
applied broadly to anyone who seeks to start a
business.
2. Four frequent pitfalls
2.1. Why is your advice worth buying?
Many entrepreneurship-minded veterans aspire to
leverage their difficult experiences in order to become
motivational speakers and consultants. There
is a general perception among such folks that motivational
speaking and consulting are easy businesses
to enter and that the business model is simple:
people will pay good money to hear lessons based
on harrowing tales. Unfortunately, most people who
adopt this mindset ignore two fundamental issues:
1. What unique insights can you provide that others
cannot?
2. How will you grab people’s attention in order to
stand out from among the masses who wish to be
paid speakers and consultants?
These questions and others analyzed herein are
summarized in Table 1. Our belief is that aspiring
entrepreneurs must develop solid answers to these
questions in order to maximize their chances of
being successful.
Susan Alpha is a typical example. Susan had a
difficult childhood. As a consequence of her childhood
and her military service, she learned a lot
about perseverance. When looking at Susan, you
would not know that she had faced any unique trials.
She was, by all appearances, an average person.
Susan’s business idea was to tell her life story–—
with emphasis on her difficult childhood and her
Table 1. Questions to answer when developing a
business idea
Questions for all entrepreneurs:
Why should a customer choose to spend their
money with you rather than with your
competitors?
Does your business idea build effectively on your
unique skills, personality, or experience?
How will you maintain customer satisfaction with
your value proposition over time?
Are you pursuing a hobby or building a business?
Could your business continue if you were no
longer involved?
If the business idea is to become a consultant or
motivational speaker:
Why is your advice worth buying?
What unique insights can you provide that others
cannot?
How will you grab people’s attention in order to
stand out from among the masses who wish to
be paid speakers and consultants?
If the idea is to start a non-profit organization:
Does your non-profit have a sustainable business
model?
Why should donors invest their dollars in your
organization rather than in some other
non-profit?
6 ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
time in the military–—and then share what she
learned about self-motivation from those experiences.
Susan was comfortable speaking to an audience
and she was certain that organizations would be
willing to hire her as a speaker. However, Susan had
yet to be paid to speak to any group.
Rocky Bravo was also an aspiring professional
speaker. Rocky had a normal childhood. As a young
soldier, however, a violent event during combat
changed his life and physical appearance forever.
When looking at Rocky, it was obvious that he
had been through a near-death event: he was permanently
disfigured.
Rocky’s business idea centered on telling his story
of facing death and surviving painful medical procedures in
a way that might help audience members put
their everyday problems into perspective. Rocky was
a dynamic speaker that already had plenty of experience
in front of large audiences and television cameras.In
fact, Rocky was getting so many requests that
his biggest problem was managing his schedule.
Unfortunately, there are a lot more ‘Susans’
than there are ‘Rockys’ among the ranks of veterans
who wish to become motivational speakers
and consultants. Members of the former group
assume that their idiosyncratic experiences provide
some sort of unique insights that other people
want, need, and–—most importantly–—are willing
to pay to receive. Although Susan’s experiences
profoundly affected her personally, the painful
truth is that her story was a fairly common one.
Meanwhile, Rocky had certain assets at his disposal
that Susan lacked. Rocky’s disfigurement was
obviously a horrible turn of events, but it made
audiences pay attention to him instantly. Rocky’s
charisma also served him well. Not surprisingly,
Rocky has been very successful as a motivational
speaker while Susan was never able to gain any
traction within this line of work.
2.2. A hobby is not a business
John Foxtrot had military experience as a corpsman,
and he had twice served in combat zones. He was a
very skilled first responder and seemed to do best
when the situation was at its worst. John started
every morning with a bagel for breakfast and was
well known among his friends as a bagel lover. After
reading a magazine article on independent bagel
shops, John decided to open one in his hometown,
despite having no background in food service or
retailing. John believed that his love of bagels
and his sheer force of willpower would lead him
to success.
John’s plan was a disaster in the making. He
lacked the needed skill base to become a successful
‘bagel-preneur.’ John could have bridged this gap by
pursuing a bagel franchise because franchisors train
their franchisees how to run a business. But John’s
fierce independent streak made him insistent on
‘going it alone.’ Worse yet, John was ignoring the
unique and rare capabilities that he possessed. His
crisis management skills would be of little use in a
tame business setting like bagel making, but they
could provide him with a competitive advantage in a
setting where such skills are critical, such as an
ambulance service.
In sharp contrast to John Foxtrot is Jasmine Echo.
Jasmine was an expert in logistics. After 10 years of
running a supply shop for her unit and coordinating all
aspects of international distribution from air to land
to sea,she wasready to hang up her combat boots. As
she considered how to leverage her extensive experience
and love of logistics, she thought about going
to work for a majorshipping company untilshe read a
magazine on franchising. She noticed that a national
retail logistics company was offering to waive the
franchise fee for veterans. Her expertise made her
very qualified to run such a business.
The main lesson here is that simply having a
passion for an activity will not allow a person to
build a successful business around that activity.
Luckily, most people have more than one interest.
Building a business around a passion that is also
accompanied by the needed business skills is a great
way to go. Jasmine Echo was fortunate in this regard
because she enjoyed logistics and had extensive
logistics skills. In John Foxtrot’s case, making
doughy treats in his spare time would have been
the wisest way to satisfy his passion for bagels.
2.3. Even non-profits must have a value
proposition
Serving others is a noble calling. Many vets wish to
build on their military service by continuing to serve
others in the civilian world. Often their hope is to
create a non-profit organization that will help other
vets make a smooth transition to civilian life. One
example is Juan Charlie, who endured a difficult
time navigating the myriad of support programs
available to soldiers who are leaving military service.
There were so many veterans’ initiatives and
each had its own stipulations and nuances. After
Juan finally navigated the arcane system in order to
fill his unique needs, he believed that there had to
be a better way. Although Juan lacked any background
in advising, he decided that he had enough
knowledge to start a non-profit advisory organization
that would assist other transitioning veterans.
He was convinced that his recent experiences had
created valuable knowledge others would seek.
ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE 7
Juan felt he just needed to get the word out and
donors would support his gallant cause.
Heather Delta had a similar set of experiences,
but was pursuing a different path from Juan’s in
creating her non-profit. Heather realized that the
major problem facing transitioning veterans entailed
the lack of a ‘one-stop-shop’ clearinghouse
for information. Furthermore, Heather recognized
that each veteran potentially qualified for different
programs depending on a number of variablessuch as
whether he/she had been disabled during his/her
service. As Heather considered different options,
she realized that a web-based solution could deliver
individualized information given the unique variables
surrounding a veteran’s service. Based on her own
experience in fundraising, Heather had ideas about
how the site could be monetized using grants and
donor support. She began crafting a message that
clearly identified the program and then presented
her solution. She was ready to start raising money.
Both of these aspiring entrepreneurs had their
hearts in the right place, but only Heather Delta
was destined for success. Non-profits need money
to operate just like traditional businesses do. While
Heather had a realistic plan for generating funds,
Juan simply hoped and assumed that funds would
materialize.
Another big problem for Juan was that his idea
simply lacked a value proposition. The veterans’
support system that Juan had navigated requires
an individualized approach. Juan was not in a position
to provide such an approach because all he had
to build upon was his own idiosyncratic experience.
Meanwhile, Heather planned to construct a computerized
system that would match each veteran’s
unique situation to the best fitting programs among
the many that are available. Such algorithms are a
proven process; they have fueled the success of
online dating services, for example.
Socially-minded entrepreneurs often assume that
because a charitable operation is not aimed at
generating profits, such an operation does not need
a viable business model. In reality, the competition
for charitable donations and sponsorships is fierce.
There are far more worthy causes than there are
donor dollars available to support these causes.
Donors therefore target their monies at non-profits
they strongly believe are sustainable. Heather Delta’s
web-based solution appeared quite likely to be
sustainable while Juan Charlie’s operation was surrounded
by very difficult questions and few answers.
2.4. Self-employment is not a business
Most entrepreneurs seek to create a business
with strong short-term and long-term prospects.
Developing a business that can support the entrepreneur’s
family today is important, of course, but
building a legacy that can be passed on to one’s
children is often a key goal as well. Indeed, many
entrepreneurs aim to develop an enterprise that can
operate for many decades and without the entrepreneur
involved. This is particularly important for
the veterans we encounter in the Entrepreneurship
Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities program:
many of these wounded warriors are unsure regarding
how long their afflictions will allow them to
actively run their businesses. They travel a risky
road if their business is entirely dependent on their
ongoing involvement.
The cases of Edwin Golf and Travis Hotel are
instructive. After leaving the military, Edwin Golf
discovered that finding a job was very difficult.
Edwin then started doing odd jobs for money. He
hauled away junk in his truck, repaired a roof,
trimmed trees, and mowed lawns. Edwin soon found
that mowing lawns could at least provide recurring
work, so he focused his effort on getting more lawn
service customers. Customers loved Edwin because
he was hard working and conscientious. Occasionally,
however, Edwin’s war injuries would flare up.
This would cost him a day or two of work and would
sometimes lead to losing a customer.
After a few months, Edwin had enough customers
that he was working 6 days a week from dawn to dusk.
Edwin was pleased that he was earning enough to
cover his bills and he even had a little money left over
to start saving. But winter was coming and Edwin
knew that he would have to think ofsomething else to
do. Snow wasrare in his area,so the obvious choice of
operating a snow plow would not be viable.
After Travis Hotel’ssecond deploymentin 3 years,
he returned to his hometown. Travis landed a job
stocking shelves at the grocery store where he had
worked during high school. Travis often found himself
dreaming of owning his own business, but he had
no idea what kind of business to pursue.
One day,the store manager complained aboutthe
poor quality of the nightly janitorial service and
noted that she would be happy to pay more for
better cleaning. Travis realized that his skills in
running his military unit’s motor pool were really
just management skills in general. He offered to
solve the manager’s problem by starting a commercial
cleaning enterprise. Within a few short months,
Travis had five accounts and a full-time crew of four
people. Although Travis had started the new venture
with a mop in his hand, now most of his time is spent
bidding on new jobs and managing his team.
The contrast between Edwin Golf and Travis Hotel
illustrates the distinction between self-employment
and entrepreneurship. Self-employment involves an
8 ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE
individual simply trading his or her time for money.
Meanwhile, entrepreneurship is grounded in delivering
an innovative solution to a problem, creating
an economic exchange around that solution (i.e., a
value proposition), and creating a venture that can
sustain the delivery of the solution over time.
By pursuing self-employment, Edwin Golf had
created a trap for himself: with winter coming,
he had no way to support himself once people
stopped needing lawn care. And if Edwin’s health
took a turn for the worse, he would have no way to
support himself during warmer weather too. In
comparison, Travis Hotel had engaged in entrepreneurship.
His cleaning service was a sustainable
enterprise that could thrive in the future even if
Travis was no longer involved.
3. A road map to entrepreneurial
success
Several themes emerge from the four pitfalls and
eight EBV student examples discussed. Taken together,
these themes offer a road map for potential
entrepreneurs to follow in order to maximize their
chances of success. First, at the core of every
successful new venture is a solid value proposition.
A value proposition is simply the reason why a
customer would choose to spend their money with
you rather than with some other organization. In the
case of non-profits, the customer is simply the donor
or benefactor of funding. The value proposition that
a good non-profit delivers is a viable solution to a
social problem that a benefactor wishes to address
via his or her benevolence, such as Heather Delta’s
web-based system.
An owner of a profit-making business must answer
key questions: Is the value proposition that the
product or service is cheaper or better? Perhaps it
is unique or tailored to a specific need? Regardless,
the product or service must solve a problem for the
customer. It should be noted that a good value
proposition requires tending and defending, lest it
be bested by a rival’s value proposition in the future.
For example, Travis Hotel cannot count on having
the grocery store as a customer far into the future
simply because he filled the store manager’s need
for a superior janitorial service. Instead, he needs to
maintain and nurture that relationship over time.
The second theme that emerges is the merit of
leveraging the entrepreneur’s unique characteristics.
This is tied closely to the first theme in that
if some unique aspect of the entrepreneur’s skills,
personality, or experience is a core component of
the value proposition, protection is provided because
unique qualities can be difficult–—and in
some cases nearly impossible–—for a rival to replicate.
Aligning the business model with the entrepreneur’s
unique personal attributes was a key
driver of success for Rocky Bravo and Jasmine
Echo.
Finally, and with a respectful nod toward selfemployment,
successful entrepreneurs develop
systems and processes to ensure the quality and
delivery of the value proposition, with or without
their directinvolvement. Perhaps the most difficult
lesson for novice entrepreneurs to grasp is the need
to work on their business rather than in their business.
Entrepreneurs must build teams, secure talent,
and develop processes and systems to ensure
their product or service remains valued by customers.
Ideally, the venture will continue to enjoy
strong performance long after the entrepreneur
has retired.
In closing, we note that passing along lessons
learned is the centerpiece of a long-standing military
tradition called the ‘de-brief.’ As we look to the
future, it islikely that veterans will continue to view
entrepreneurship as an attractive path toward independence
and opportunity creation. Additionally,
veterans will continue to see entrepreneurship as a
way to leverage their unique experiences and skills.
Our hope in offering this de-brief is that entrepreneurs
in general–—and veterans in particular–—will
be able to build on the lessons learned by EBV
students in order to accelerate their path to successful
entrepreneurship.
Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge the research
support provided by the Center for
Veteran Outreach at Florida State University
and the Lowder Center for Family Business and
Entrepreneurship at Auburn University
