Business Commons^™

Lean Startups And Strategic Management, Joshua Binus, Horatiu Corban, Stephanie Miller, Hans Vanderschaaf

Engineering and Technology Management Student Projects

Slides from a group presentation that offers a lean startup methodology overview, examines challenges and solutions, reviews case studies and discusses lean and strategic management.

Sequential: Sustainability And Growth In The Biofuels Business, Dave Garten, Jacen Greene, Carolyn Niehaus, Devdeep Aikath

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

SeQuential, a vertically-integrated biodiesel company based in Portland, Oregon, pursued a more sustainable supply and production strategy than many competitors by securing inputs from used cooking oil (UCO) rather than new crops. A fragmented U.S. biodiesel industry produced more than 1.25 billion gallons of the fuel in 2016 from a mix of virgin materials and UCO, but the environmental impact of crop-based biodiesel was increasingly controversial. Meanwhile, UCO collection had grown rapidly in recent years, and with strong forecasted growth, offered a potential additional revenue stream for vertically-integrated biodiesel firms.

The price of the UCO used to produce SeQuential’s biodiesel …

Strategic Planning Objectives For Venture Capitalist Investments In Emerging Information Technologies: A Value-Focused Perspective, David L. Coss, Gupreet Dhillon, Ifeoma Udeh

The Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance

Abstract

Academic and practitioner literature suggests that Venture Capitalists often have problems with aligning information technology opportunities with investment objectives. To a large extent the alignment process is not formally documented and relies on intuitive instincts. Hence it is important to define Venture Capitalist objectives for investments in emerging information technologies. This paper uses the Value-Focused Thinking approach to identify, define and structure value driven objectives. Based on data collected from a number of Venture Capitalist interviews we identified 130 values, which resulted in 72 objectives. These objectives were organized into 22 clusters, which were bifurcated into fundamental and means …

Success Factors Of Small Business Owners Of Independent Financial Planning Firms, Joanne Snider

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small Business Administration statistics indicate that 20% of small businesses fail within the first 2 years and 50% fail within 5 years. The purpose of this case study was to explore the success factors and strategies of 12 small business owners of independent financial planning firms who achieved profitability beyond 5 years. A gap exists in the literature concerning such business owners, and their experiences provide valuable information to others desiring to start or maintain a financial planning business. The conceptual framework was entrepreneurship theory and Porter's 5 forces model of competitive strategy. The data were gathered via semistructured interviews …

Preparing For Service: A Template For 21st Century Legal Education, Michael J. Madison

Articles

Legal educators today grapple with the changing dynamics of legal employment markets; the evolution of technologies and business models driving changes to the legal profession; and the economics of operating – and attending – a law school. Accrediting organizations and practitioners pressure law schools to prepare new lawyers both to be ready to practice and to be ready for an ever-fluid career path. From the standpoint of law schools in general and any one law school in particular, constraints and limitations surround us. Adaptation through innovation is the order of the day.

How, when, and in what direction should innovation …

Gender Differences In Small Business Strategic Planning: Do Women Plan More Than Men?, Elizabeth Walker, Calvin Wang, Janice Redmond

Janice Redmond Dr

As the world of work changes and uncertainty continues in regard to employment conditions, more women are motivated to start their own businesses. However, many women-owned businesses are very small and appear to have limited growth capacity. There are few business role models for women in corporate Australia. So how do women break in? The evidence suggests that not only do many women have the capacity to grow their businesses, they also have the desire. Given the positive relationship between strategic planning and business success, this paper considers whether women are more likely than men to strategically plan their business …

Sustainability Through Profitability: The Triple Bottom Line, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Connie I Reimers-Hild, PhD, CPC

Today’s highly competitive, globalized world requires organizations and businesses to think differently about how they are going to stay in business. Businesses can no longer afford to focus on profits as their sole purpose for existence. Organizations must instead think about the “Triple Bottom Line” and its implications for their ability to grow their brand, customer loyalty and profits.

Six Questions For Entrepreneurial Leadership And Innovation In Distance Education, Connie Reimers-Hild, James King

Connie I Reimers-Hild, PhD, CPC

Institutions offering distance education courses and programs may benefit by encouraging administrators, faculty, staff and students to be more entrepreneurial. Organizational cultures designed to support this type of environment are characterized by entrepreneurial leadership, innovation and change. This article provides information on how distance education institutions can incorporate entrepreneurial leadership and innovation into their organizations. Six questions for administrators of distance education to consider are presented in an effort to provoke discussion and thought on the importance of incorporating entrepreneurial leadership and innovation throughout distance education organizations.

Sustainability Through Profitability: The Triple Bottom Line, Connie I. Reimers-Hild

Kimmel Education and Research Center: Presentations and White Papers

Today’s highly competitive, globalized world requires organizations and businesses to think differently about how they are going to stay in business. Businesses can no longer afford to focus on profits as their sole purpose for existence. Organizations must instead think about the “Triple Bottom Line” and its implications for their ability to grow their brand, customer loyalty and profits.

Clusters And Strategy In Regional Economic Development, Edward Feser

Edward J Feser

Many economic development practitioners view cluster theory and analysis as constituting a general approach to strategy making in economic development, which may lead them to prioritize policy and planning interventions that cannot address the actual development challenges in their cities and regions. This paper discusses the distinction between strategy formation and strategic planning, where the latter is the programming of development strategies that are identified through a blend of experience, intuition, and analysis. Cluster theories and analytical tools can provide useful informational inputs into a strategy making effort and they can also be helpful for programming specific interventions (i.e., strategic …

Racing To Success By Identifying Key Performance Drivers, Kathy Paulson Gjerde, Susan B. Hughes

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

This article focuses on ways to identify key performance drivers (KPDs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). Unfortunately, lists of KPIs published in the past often focus on one industry and assume a generic business strategy. In addition, an overemphasis on financial measures will mean that KPIs will reflect past activities rather than signaling future performance. Managers need to develop meaningful metrics for their own businesses, not use generic KPIs. This is particularly important in small and medium-sized enterprises. How adept are you at this task? Do you know what drives net income for your organization?

From Vision To Variables: A Scorecard To Continue The Professionalization Of A Family Firm, Ken Moores, Justin Craig

Justin B. Craig

This chapter builds on previous projects we have conducted that have concentrated on the key areas of corporate governance and strategic planning in family business. Whereas our previous projects have enlisted an additive approach (that saw the family perspective added to the business), this current research takes on an integrated approach and seeks to integrate issues that influence the family and business systems. Specifically, in this research we use innovation action research (Kaplan, 1998) to illustrate how the Balanced Scorecard that includes reference to family business challenges has been introduced and used to assist family members, board members and management …

Book Review 2 Optimize Your Life! The One-Page Strategic Planner By Bernhoff A. Dahl, M.D., William C. Mcpeck

William C. McPeck

This is my personal review of Optimize Your Life! The One-page Strategic Planner by Bernhoff A. Dahl and published by Wind-Breaker Press in 2003.

The Implementation Of Strategic Planning In Irish Hotel Groups., Frances Alexandra Keys

Masters

The primary objective of this research was to examine the relative importance and success of forty factors over the past five years (1994-1999) that have facilitated and/or impeded the implementation of strategic plans within Irish hotel groups. This research studied twenty-four hotel groups, which consisted of ninety-five strategic business units. An extensive review of strategic management literature by theorists such as Andrews(1971); Ansoff (1990); Chandler (1962); Cole (1997); Day (1984); Drucker (1969); Greenley (1986, 1989); Gupta (1986); Hayes (1985); Hofer (1973, 1976); Mintzberg (1978, 1987, 1990, 1994); Ohmae (1988); Porter (1980, 1985, 1991); Schaffer (1984); Schendel and Hatten (1972); Thompson …