Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Theory Application
Component
Manoj Dassaye- Le
Point
and at what pace to still have control over the business. Delegating and empowerment of staff
plays a major role during this period as one person doing everything in a business will make it
stall and affect the growth. Mr Dassaye shows the required skills for managing growth based
from studies of different authors and he possess those traits described in their research.
On a final note, a final conclusion was written to define the entrepreneur. The definition was
based on information gathered from our interview Mr Dassaye and also previous researches
made from publication by different authors.
Table of Contents
4.3 Conclusion
5.0 Final Conclusion................................................................................................. Page 13
1.0 Introduction
Starting with a wise quote from Napoleon Hill, if u cannot do great things, do small things in a
great way. (BrainyQuote 2014) This will be our entrepreneur interview projects and theory
application component which will be in a report format. To start we will briefly discuss who our
entrepreneur is. In the main body, at first we will discuss how an entrepreneur recognizes
opportunities then we will tackle how an entrepreneur manages growth and finally we will
discuss how an entrepreneur plans strategically. We will also summaries all theories in the
literature review then we will come up with the analysis from the interview.
after the creation of Le Point, the business status with large corporations has been going up while
still satisfying and supplying the local customer and the businesses. Nowadays Le Point has
expanded and deals with the retailing and wholesaling of office supply and stationery.
Importation and distribution also forms part of the business activities.
Previously in Task 1, the perspective on how entrepreneurs can disclose and identify
opportunities was discussed. In order to analyse and have a better view on the topic, a literature
review was prepared. Several journals articles and authors with different school of thought were
compared and contrasted in relation to the chosen topic. The paper analysed mainly Schumpeter,
Drucker and Kirzner theories. It elaborated on micro perspective about how entrepreneurs can
recognise opportunities. Theses authors related opportunity recognition to innovation and
entrepreneurial profit. On another perspective, competition between businesses is evolving due
to expanding globalization. The economic sectors are turbulent, uncertain and are dynamic as it
keeps on changing. Entrepreneur must adapt to these changes and their businesses must be both
proactive and reactive with initiatives of change; highlighting the importance of opportunity
recognition.
Schumpeters theory, which says that: the entrepreneur initiate change through innovation to
actively create new opportunities (ledzik 2013).
Concerning the challenges faced, according to the entrepreneur, when starting a business from
scratch, the main issues are the lack of experience and financial constraints (M.Dassaye, personal
communication Oct 15, 2014). He did not did not customers trust yet, and did not know if the
reaction of customers and suppliers would be positive or not. To overcome these difficulties,
Manoj used a tactic that many people would have avoided. He used to buy on credit and sell for
cash, often selling at cost price or below cost (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15,
2014). He limited all cost and tried to master the job. He is a man who value good relation with
customers/suppliers and relies on positive word of mouth. This is related to (Bhattacharyya
2010) paper which says that networking is the key to entrepreneur so as to create and grow an
enterprise.
Mr Dassaye is very enthusiastic about the future of Le Point. As the entrepreneur is someone
who likes to develop with time, the business is currently working on a website so as to enable
them to have a presence online as e-commerce is an emerging trend.
The next step for the firm would be to open a new outlet in Grand Bay La Croisette. On a
personal plan the entrepreneur has identify an opportunity in the home furniture sector and is
planning to enter the market in the near future. This go in line with Kirzner theory that
opportunities are not created and that they already exist and are eligible to be discovered
(Kirzner 1979). He is also looking for the possibility of opening a furniture outlet in the East of
the Island afterward (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15, 2014).
2.3 Conclusion
Base on previous research linked to literature review with the interview of our entrepreneur, we
came to the conclusion that Mr.Manoj Dassaye has the trait and characteristics of an
entrepreneur. Studies shows that some are his traits about innovation and creating opportunities
are linked to Schumpeter and Kirzner theories. We also discovered other aspect of his personality
and other characteristics that an entrepreneur may possess, these includes necessity, risk taking
intuition, networking as well as a customer driven approach.
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proper planning, he would never have been a good entrepreneur. According to Mr Dassaye
planning far ahead is very important but planning strategically should be done wisely.
During the interview Mr Dassaye says he often reads the book of Robin Sharma and he is very
inspired from him. He often act and do according to Robin Sharma. He acknowledge that he plan
strategically using a balance scorecard and often make use of interactive planning which he finds
very important tool for his business to prosper. According to Mr Dassaye the balance scorecard is
an important tool for him which enables him to plan strategically. He said perfection and
planning always lead to strategic management. Mr Dassaye uses a balance scorecard to measure
performance and always tries to do better. Dassaye further argued that the balance scorecard is
not only for measuring performance but it also help him to keep track upon customers and
innovate. (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15, 2014).
The BSC measures performance and it appears suitable for any business. (Giannopoulos et al.
2013). The balance scorecard helps to search for the missing links and required language. It
helps to link vision mission and strategies of the business to every employer. This is mainly done
by translating all strategies into clear priorities and objectives while also relating it to strategic
outcomes. (De Waal, A., A. 2003). For example Mr Dassaye explain to us that once he was
facing problems whereby customers were not satisfied, the key indicator help him to know where
to improve and how to make customers satisfied again.(M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct
15, 2014).
Moreover the balance scorecard is an agenda that also helps organisations to interpret strategy
into objectives that would be able to increase performance. The BSC helps the company to reach
its mission vision values and objectives set. Normally a balance scorecard approach will
enormously help Mr Dassaye in both financial and non-financial. The BSC was developed by
Kaplan and Norton. (Kulkarni et Al, 2008)
Another tool which Mr Dassaye acknowledge he use is interactive planning. He argued that
interactive planning is indeed important for him to be a successful entrepreneur. He uses
interactive planning because its a well organizes step by step process which can be easily
followed. (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15, 2014). Interactive planning was
conceived by Russell Ackoff. According to him it is a step by step process which guides a
systematic development of the organisation. Interactive planning has four types of planning
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namely Reactivism, Inactivism, Proactivism and Interativism. Mr Dassaye says that he doesnt
adopt reactivism and inactivism and is against them, but he often makes use of Proactivism and
Interativism. Mr Dassaye likes to forecast and modernize which is being proactive while
interativism means how much effort has been done till now and our future depends at least on
how much we need to do. Mr Dassaye fully agrees to this sentence and thinks alike. (Haftor,
2011).
3.3 Conclusion
To conclude we can say that Mr Manoj Dassaye is a very good entrepreneur who needs planning
to better tackle problems in his business. He understands the needs to plan and has some
preference to which theories he really need. Mr Dassaye is well aware that he does not plan his
business would not have attain so much success. Nevertheless he argued that at times he needs to
take decision instinctively but shows much concern about a feasibility study.
entrepreneur possesses concerning growth. In the literature review, researches and papers from
different authors were compared and contrasted namely from Green, Welsh and Dehler who
talked about the past mistakes and lessons learnt from past experiences. Some authors said that
there is a positive side of failure where people learn from past mistake but some authors also
mention that entrepreneur are discourage from mistakes or losses and never get back on track
and close down. (Gordon 1994) stated that skills and abilities to set up the business is not the
same to that needed to run it. Also during the growth period, several situations may arise and
entrepreneur must be able to find ways and means to overcome those situations and keep the
business on track and try to move at a constant pace.
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Having a manager or some senior staff was not important at that time as he was focusing on
cutting overhead costs to be able to survive and was spending more on marketing rather than
salary (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15, 2014) . As he grew bigger when he got
contracts from the government and had to supply stationary to large corporates, he realized the
importance of delegating and empowering other people in the company. This is when Mr
Dassaye decided to employ some qualified staff in the administrative and marketing field to
boost up his business and also manage it properly. (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15,
2014)
Being a very proactive person, Mr Dassaye never found it a problem to change rapidly or to
adapt to changes. He was always on the move, always going with the trend, the needs and taste
of customers. So coming to the question about adopting changing which can be due to
technological factors, he mentioned that he will soon have an e-commerce component to his
existing website and negotiation is taking place with his banking institution. (M.Dassaye,
personal communication Oct 15, 2014) This goes in line with the study made by (Kelmar and
Wingham, 1995) where they stated that performance of entrepreneur is based on how proactive
they are and their ability to adapt to changes which are also is technological.
When he was questioned about his future plans, Mr Dassaye mentioned that he is diversifying
into a new field which is dealing in furniture made of solid wood. He is focusing mainly on
large orders for renovations of buildings (M.Dassaye, personal communication Oct 15, 2014).
He mentioned that this is being quite successful as two containers of furniture has already been
sold on catalogue before the business has been officially launched.
4.3 Conclusion
After analysing the interview with Mr Dassaye and the characteristics of an entrepreneur from
the literature review, it can be concluded that Mr Manoj Dassaye has the traits of an entrepreneur,
as his way of doing business and how he manages his business are in line with description made
by several authors namely Majumdar, Kelmar, Wingham and Gordon among others. His ability
to adapt to changes, to handle losses and to get back on track also to build good relationship with
stakeholders.
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People are born entrepreneur. As you know, necessity is the mother of invention. I come from a
basic family with many children. When I was younger, I wanted to become a Judge, but due to
some restrictions I was unable to go abroad to study law. Therefore I had to find a career for
myself. My father used to have a small shop and I often helped him, I liked the interaction with
customers and wanted to be on my own boss rather than join an existing company. At that time, I
thought that there was a scarcity for stationery and I have always love stationery.
4. As an entrepreneur, how do you identify the potential business opportunities for the
future?
We are currently working on our website. I believe that the future of business will be related to
online selling and e-commerce. We have to go with market trend and adapt to changes. Usually I
do not have a pre-defined set of step that I follow for identifying opportunities. I believe that
entrepreneur do not really make a lot of feasibility study and I personally do things base on my
instinct.
5. Le point currently have only one outlet across the country, what is the next step for
the firm? What are you plan for the future?
We currently have our main outlet which is found in Port Louis and our main warehouse is at
Vallee des Pretes. In a near future we are planning to open a store at Grand Bay La Croisette. On
a personal note, I will soon enter home furniture sector and I am planning of opening an outlet in
the East of the Island.
6. How do you define growth?
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For me growth is starting from scratch to standing where i am now, a well-established business,
always expanding, diversifying into new fields. Going through all the difficulties and competing
with the powerful businesses in the field.
7. During the last 21 years, Le Point Stationary has grown quite big, how did you
manage that growth?
Well during the first few years of operation, it was not very easy with all the difficulties that arise
at that time. Without the help of friends and family i had to rely on myself and my intuition to
survive. Employing the first staff was a great step and i was very proud of it. Since then we
have been employing more and more staff as a business cannot be ran by one person.
10. Do you see the importance of having a manager? At what point in time did you
realise that you cannot do all the work on your own and that you need to delegate.
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As your business starts to grow, it is obvious that you will have to employ staff and as it grows
bigger you will have to employ managers and supervisors. When I opened my first stationary
store, I employed 3 staff and it kept on increasing. Now I can relax a bit and practice my hobby
which is horse racing peacefully.
11. Did it ever happen to you that while you had everything planned and everything was
running smoothly when suddenly you had to change your plans and adapt to
changes like for example the technological changes over years and also the economy
crisis?
We always have to move with time and understand the market to minimise loss. With time we
had to have a website and now we are working on e-commerce of our products. We have to go
with trends and what people want.
12. Do you plan to expand more? What are your future plans?
We are actually expanding our business by opening an outlet in Grand Bay La Croisette shopping
mall. Also we are diversifying into new markets by importing and commercializing solid wood
furniture and floorings. I believe this will do very good in Mauritius due to our competitive price
and high quality products.
13. Do you know what is strategic planning? If yes, do you prefer any type of strategic
planning? Is it successful?
Strategic planning is the best way a business can be successful. According to our entrepreneur
Mr Manoj Dassaye strategic planning means to forecast the future and plan what are your goals
and objective. He also said that strategic planning helps to devise a good mission and vision
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which will be in line with business goals. Mr Dassaye is against using swot analysis because it is
time consuming and not so reliant to him as he is in the business of stationary he argued that
interactive planning and a balance scorecard often help him to plan.
14. Are you aware of the advantages that strategic planning bring to your organisation?
According to you what skills and knowledge do you have to apply to your business?
Our entrepreneur explains that strategic planning is very important in any business as it clearly
define its purpose and create realistic goals. When someone plan they develop a sense of
ownership to that plan. Planning provide a form of progress which can be clearly seen. Mr
Dassaye says that when someone plans and he achieve what he had plan its produces
satisfaction and increase the level of motivation. Mr Dassaye explains that when doing a
business one should know what the market is demanding and what is your customers
knowledge.
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Mr Dassaye explains that it is indeed very important to plan ahead because he need to plan how
much to order, what quantity he will sell in the near future and what types of product will he
order for his client.
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