Zandinger

1042-2587 Copyright 2003 by Baylor University

E T&P

Zandinger!*

George H. (Jody) Tompson

Most cases in entrepreneurship address strategic or operating difficulties of recently formed organizations. The case study presented here addresses an organization in its earliest stage of the life cycle: pre start-up. The case is about an entrepreneur who is planning to create a new venture based on a board game invented by his uncle. Accordingly, the case requires students to prioritize the tasks to create a venture from ground zero. The entrepreneur in this case already owns another successful business, has good marketing skills, and has received accolades from an expert in the toy industry. He seems to have a potentially successful product but is uncertain about what to do next. The case presents information for assessing industry structure and competitiveness, manufacturing options, and target marketing.

Introduction

Geoff Knox contemplated the presentation he had just made as he drove back to his office in Hamilton, New Zealand. He was the owner of a successful small business headquartered in Hamilton. Called “The Sweet House,” the business owned a New Zealand distribution network of confectionary products that were sold nationwide. Geoff started the business in his garage and in its fourth year of operations, the company’s total sales approximated NZ$4 million. Geoff’s presentation addressed a fourth-year class of entrepreneurship students at the University of Waikato in Hamilton. The topic of the presentation was not the Sweet House but rather his newer venture, which at the time of the presentation in August 1996, had no sales or customers. Despite the uncertain beginnings, the first slide in Geoff’s presentation made the venture’s mission clear to the students: “To take ‘Zandinger!’ to the world!” For nearly one year, Geoff had been trying to launch a venture based on a new board game created by his uncle, Trevor Green. Trevor was raised in a working...