Case C Profile

Case C is an independent employee-owned organization founded in 1987 by 22 co-founders. Two founders were still actively involved in various aspects of the business. The entrepreneur in this research is the MD for one of the organization’s operating subsidiaries, of which he is also part-Chairman for the umbrella organization itself, of which the other founder is part-time Chairman.

The core competence of the business is in creating new businesses based on advances in technology such as digital printing, communications, instrumentations, electronics and sensors, micro-devices, medical products, drug discovery, micro devices, optics software and systems.

The organization developed and commercialized these various technologies and products for a wide range of markets and worked closely with global clients.

The culture of the organization was innovative and creative, with mostly informal communications between all levels of the management and employee teams. At the time of this interview there were 350 employees divided into seven groups each with a Group Head, and separate portfolio of clients, products, and development work. The organization regarded recruitment as an important strategic advantage and focused on recruiting commercially-minded, highly talented individuals.

7.5.1 Interaction with the Internal Stakeholders (Q1 and Q3)

The entrepreneur interacted with Group Heads across the seven groups. He was also responsible for global relationships in Japan, Korea, China, America and Europe. His daily interactions were with the internal stakeholder who was in the process of taking over the CEO role from the entrepreneur. His weekly and monthly interactions also involved other Group Heads in both formal meetings and informal communication when issues needed to be discussed.

Entrepreneur

I’m also Managing Director of the --- partnership which was the original sort of incubator/contract arm of the business. So I’m still Managing Director of that. I do have a deputy who assists with that so, erm, so I split my time between the group, and that business.

Iinteractions were usually driven by the internal stakeholder, who wanted feedback from the entrepreneur with regards to decision-making, or challenges they faced.

Entrepreneur

The ideal form of leadership management is where you’re more or less invisible. Um, actually, it’s sort of light touch, doesn’t mean disconnected. I tell my people that report to me, I expect them to know everything that’s happening within their business.

He preferred to lead from the front, but found it increasingly harder now that he was MD, and more hands-on with regards to the operations of the organization.

However, the majority of his interactions involved aspects of the culture, values and ethics, while he was trying to hand over the strategic decision-making to one of the internal stakeholders who was interviewed in Phase II. These interactions made the organization suitable for Phase II investigation.

7.5.2 Entrepreneurial Participation in Decision-Making (Q1, Q2 and Q3)

The entrepreneur was involved in decision-making in both his role as MD and Chairman, interacting with Group Heads throughout the process.

Entrepreneur

..it’s not independent, you know, so it does rely on collaborating with other people, it’s not a strategy of collaboration, if you like, but each bit of the business can, well...it’s small enough that people can see and be seen, and hear and be heard, take responsibility, feel involvement, and decide we’re going to do this.

The entrepreneur preferred not to make any decisions, which he believed should be made by the internal stakeholders, but instead encouraged them to take ownership and make decisions independently of each other.

He would encourage this process by asking them questions rather than giving them the answers. During this questioning process, the internal stakeholders produced decisions themselves which they communicated to him.

He believed that part of the delegation process was to exercise judgment in a situation when an internal stakeholder made a decision, rather than dictate what should be done. Additionally, the element of trust between the internal stakeholders and himself, enabled a decision to be made quickly without waiting for a committee of internal stakeholders to get together first. This interaction made the organization suitable for Phase II investigation.

7.5.3 Entrepreneurial Participation in Opportunity Recognition (Q1 and Q4)

The entrepreneur’s role in looking for new opportunities had changed from following up on sales opportunities, to more strategic networking, development and design opportunities through long-term relationships. The front-line sales opportunities and responsibilities had been transferred to the internal stakeholders in his group and across to the other groups. His interactions with internal stakeholders involved him asking the right questions regarding discussions about opportunities and strategic decisions. He believed that by asking the right questions, the individual and organization could be successful.

Although the entrepreneur was no longer directly involved with selling, he interacted with and managed the internal stakeholder, who was still growing that section of the business in China.

Entrepreneur

We were the first people in China, who were forming a bridge to China, so that people in the West could develop a product, and have it manufactured in China, satisfactorily. And um, and so we’ve been out in China whilst it’s all been growing and things like that.

The entrepreneur was also actively involved in ensuring that various parts of the business continued to grow by not targeting the same markets.

Entrepreneur

I sort of initiated, I guess, it’s situations like that where it sort of falls to me to resolve the situation. Um, so actually what we did we reviewed the strategy of this business, and it stopped doing that bespoke stuff and focused on its core business.

The organization did not have a formal long-term strategy for growth because they were constantly searching for and finding new opportunities and innovating according to the changes in the environment. The interaction between the entrepreneur and the internal stakeholders made the organization suitable for Phase II study.

7.5.4 Availability of the Entrepreneur and the Internal Stakeholders (Q2)

The entrepreneur was very aware of time, and regarded time as “running out”. I received agreement and commitment from the entrepreneur to interview him and four internal stakeholders. The internal stakeholders were selected by the entrepreneur on the basis of the most interaction he had with them. He was fully involved in the recruitment process and met everyone who was interviewed, which was one of the regular interactions with the internal stakeholders that the entrepreneur wanted to explore in Phase II of this research.