Entrepreneurial Assessment: EG Group, COVID-19 Impact and Analysis

This report offers a comprehensive entrepreneurial assessment of the EG Group, examining the personality traits of its founders, Mohsin and Zuber Issa, using the OCEAN model. It explores the opportunities they recognized and created, the innovative products and services they introduced, and the importance of innovation within the organization. The report further analyzes how the entrepreneurs built their team, their roles as leaders, and their contributions to business growth. It also critically evaluates the company's impact on the economy and discusses the challenges faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing concluding recommendations. The report references various academic sources and includes an overview of the company's structure.

Entrepreneurial
Assessment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
Explain the personality traits of the entrepreneurs (OCEAN MODEL)................................1
Discuss the opportunities recognised or created by the entrepreneurs...................................2
Discuss the product/ service innovated by the entrepreneurs in the market and the importance
of innovation in organisation..................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Discuss the ways of building entrepreneurial team by the entrepreneurs..............................4
Discuss the role of entrepreneurs as a leader and how they can become successful leader...5
Discuss how entrepreneurs help in growing business............................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Discuss and critically evaluate the how the organisation contribute in the growth of economy
................................................................................................................................................6
Discuss the survival challenges faced by the organisation due to COVID -19 pandemic.....9
CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................10
References:.....................................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................12
APPENDIX- 1...............................................................................................................................13
Overview of the company....................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
In this revolutionary era where the technology changes rapidly and also the competition
level between the businesses is high the entrepreneurship has now become new business term. In
the holistic approach entrepreneurship refers to the creation or building of a business for
generating the profits(Alsafadi and et. al., 2020). The basic and modern entrepreneurship refers
to the building of the business with the available resources to change the world by solving its
problem through new product and service innovation. The person who deals with all the risk and
reward related to the entrepreneurial venture and manages the activities of the organisation is
called entrepreneur (Vu and Nwachukwu, 2021). The present report will highlight the personality
traits of the two entrepreneurs using the OCEAN model and the other information about the
entrepreneurs behind the organisation. The report will further discuss about entrepreneurial team,
role of entrepreneur as leader and the contribution in economy. At last report will showcase
challenges faced by the entrepreneurial organisation due to global pandemic.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Explain the personality traits of the entrepreneurs (OCEAN MODEL)
Entrepreneurs are the professionals that have the capability to take risk and start new
business venture called entrepreneurship. Mohsin and Zuber Issa are the two entrepreneur
brothers and own the organisation named as EG groups. The entrepreneurs with their
entrepreneurial skills and knowledge also acquired the firms like ASDA and TDR capitals. The
entrepreneurs are known for their unique personality traits that make them successful
entrepreneur (Melchiorre, Zangerle and Schedl, 2020). Some of the personality traits of these
two entrepreneurs are discussed below using the OCEAN model:
Openness
Openness refers to the trait in which person has a quality of willingness and open to try
innovative and new things in order to engage themselves into creative and imaginative activities.
Among the two entrepreneurs Zuber Issa is high in this trait he is more open and focused on
tackling new challenging activities and also so has a quality of thinking out of the box thereby
eager to learn and enjoy new things and experiences. Zuber is known for its building of new
innovative strategy for the business (Anderson and et. al., 2021).
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Conscientiousness
Conscientiousness is the person’s quality or ability to direct their impulse control so that they can
focus on goals. Mohsin Issa is high in this personality trait his highly goal-oriented and
thoughtful and spends most of the time in planning and preparing day-to-day activities for the
organisations alignment towards goals. Being high in the trait Mohsin is more organised, pays
more attention towards the details and is deliberated and self-disciplined.
Extraversion
Extraversion referred as a quality in which person has a tendency to be more interactive with
their social environment and like to be centre of attraction. Zuber and Mohsin both are highly
extraversion as they are comfortable and energized to be part of public gatherings and enjoy
meeting people (Bandera and Passerini, 2020). Zuber has good and a broad social friend circle
and also both the brothers have acquaintances in the outside business environment.
Agreeableness
Agreeableness is a term that is used for the people who are straight forward and tend to have
good relationship with others. Both the brothers Zuber and Mohsin are high in this trait as they
have cooperative behaviour and also have an interest in other people. The brothers have many
successful acquisitions with other firms as a result of this trait as they are trustworthy and
compliance with others.
Neuroticism
Neuroticism means the complete emotional stability of a person towards the way they perceive
the situations of the world. Zuber and Mohsin are low in this trait both have stable and
emotionally resilient behaviour (Lombardi and et. al., 2020). Zuber has a good knowledge and
experience of dealing with the pressurized and stressful situations and Mohsin is very relaxed
and calm in nature.
Discuss the opportunities recognised or created by the entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurs are commonly known as innovator as they produce new products and
services with new ideas and techniques which help them in creating the opportunities for the
successful future of the organisation. There are the internal as well as external factors that
facilitate the entrepreneurs to recognise or create the opportunities. Mohsin and Zuber Issa with
their innovative and critical thinking skills has recognised and created various opportunities for
the productivity and prosperity of the EG group (Armuña and et. al., 2020). By researching the
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market efficiently and effectively and with the personal experience the entrepreneurs have
recognised the various opportunities such as:
 In the early teen stage of the life the entrepreneurs used to work with their father and
mother at the petrol station from where they got the passion of petrol filling stations. This
gave the idea to both the bothers to work and save money to buy the first petrol station in
Bury, 2001.
 The entrepreneurs research and observed the external market and recognised the
opportunity to of selling the existing customers of the ASDA a fuel by opening the petrol
stations of EG group on the sites of the ASDA supermarket stores.
 By observing the competitors of petrol market the entrepreneurs recognised the
opportunity that if customers want cheap gasoline and have time to find a supermarket
that is good for them, we will focus on providing high-quality services to motorists on the
road (Tabares and et. al., 2021). Issa brothers saw an opportunity to add more sales to
their petrol stations by selling the motorists fizzy drinks and gums while they come to
their petrol stations from supermarket.
 By analysing the buying behaviour of the customers the Issa brothers created the another
opportunity to sell the fast food, groceries and coffees to their customers like motorists on
road by making collaboration with firms like subways, Starbucks etc. as this increase the
sales of petrol.
 The innovation is the one of the best way of Zuber and Mohsin Issa to create opportunity
and competitive advantage by enforcing the innovative ideas and methods into disruptive
market trends, unconnected market activities etc.
Discuss the product/ service innovated by the entrepreneurs in the market and the importance of
innovation in organisation
The EG groups does not require any digital strategy as a part of an innovation but the skilled
innovators and the entrepreneur Mohsin and Zuber of EG groups try to come up with
complementary ways to bring the product and services to their customers conveniently by aiming
to ensure that their consumers can buy what they want and when and how they wanted by
reducing the friction and providing maximum delight through their innovation. The innovation in
channel was a good channel strategy of EG groups as by this company bring fuel, food to go and
shopping at one destination (Hinson and Adcock, 2020). This helped the organisation to have
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differentiation in the market from their competitors. This innovation was the intelligent customer
facing activity of the EG group. Hence this helped the organisation and Zuber and Mohsin Issa to
deliver the vision of providing the customers with extensive convenience retail, food to go offer
and a branded fuel at one convenient site. This innovation was the value creating bundle. The
entrepreneurs also has innovation in its process by inclusion of alternative petrol charging
stations at some of their large sites and also hydrocarbon fuel pumps through their special sauce
processes to meet the future demands of consumers in upcoming competitive market.
The importance of innovation in organisation
The innovation helps the organisations like EG group in multiple ways and results in increasing
the brand equity, revenue and the prosperity of the organisation. The importance of innovation in
the EG group is discussed below:
 The innovation helped the organisation in differentiating themselves from their rival
companies. As the market is now highly volatile and dynamic therefore it is important for
the company to create the unique product or service which help them in gaining
competitive advantage. Hence, this helps the company to survive in the competitive
environment (Loebnitz and Schmidt, 2020).
 It is very important for the organisation like EG group to have the loyal customers. The
innovation of EG group has provided them benefit of having the long term loyal
customers and also to add new customers in the list. By innovation company make their
customers feel important and recognised by meeting their needs and demands.
Hence, it is important for the organisation to have innovation for the continuous improvement of
the organisation to keep cash flow running in their organisation to make their customers
satisfied.
TASK 2
Discuss the ways of building entrepreneurial team by the entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurial team is referred as a group of two or more entrepreneurs that have
committed to start an entrepreneurial venture together with same interest in terms of finance and
other factors for the success and growth of the entrepreneurial Venture (Awang and et. al., 2020).
In order to build a successful entrepreneurial team both the entrepreneurs are required to have
some kind of skills and characteristics that will help them in pursuing the activities of the
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enterprise interdependently towards the common goals and the success of the venture. Therefore
to build entrepreneurial team entrepreneurs like Zuber and Mohsin Issa of EG group have certain
skills and characteristics that are discussed below:
Trust and loyalty: one of the most important characteristics that an entrepreneur require to have
entrepreneurial team is to be trustworthy and loyal to each other as this maintain a healthy and
respectful relation which avoid any kind of conflict and also helps in fast decision making.
Vision: to build an entrepreneurial team both the entrepreneurs are required to have a creative
and common vision and mission to follow to certain pathway for the success of the venture. A
common vision also helps the entrepreneurs to build strong and goal oriented team for the
growth of the venture (Moudrý and Thaichon, 2020).
Communication: for the building an entrepreneurial team it is very important to have effective
and clear communication between the members of the team to have clarity of financial
contribution, shares and other roles and responsibilities for the future actions.
Discuss the role of entrepreneurs as a leader and how they can become successful leader
Entrepreneurs are also the leader of the organisation and also play a major role in leading an
organisation as a leader. As a leader the entrepreneurs has a major roles that are discussed below:
Communicate with transparency: as a leader the entrepreneur has a role to communicate the
vision mission and goals of the organisation with transparency to their subordinates in order to
create the sense of belonging among the employees. As a leader it is the responsibility of an
entrepreneur to communicate with their employees to resolve their issues, problems (Baines and
Smith, 2020).
Foster innovation: As a Leader an entrepreneur has rule of asking everyone's suggestions within
an organisation and providing their employees freedom of speech in order to motivate them to
drive and foster innovation and to implement their innovative ideas within the organisation in
order to boost their morale and confidence.
Create atmosphere of growth: With deep understanding about the entrepreneurial principles and
skills the entrepreneur as a leader has to create growth driving atmosphere for their employees by
encouraging them to learn new things. The entrepreneur leader should provide their employees
positive and honest feedback to help the employee to mitigate their weaknesses and improve
their strengths.
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In order to become successful leader the entrepreneur should have following characteristics
and qualities:
In order to become a successful leader entrepreneurs like Zuber and Mohsin Issa are required to
have clear vision in order to direct their actions and resources towards correct path. A successful
leader is also required to have two way communications to avoid misunderstanding, conflicts and
a poor performance of their Employees (Godley, Morawetz and Soga, 2021). To become a
successful leader it is very important to be supportive towards the employees and guide them
with positive and friendly attitude. The successful leader should be confident and believes in
itself while experimenting new things. To become a successful leader it is very important to have
good leadership styles which will help a leader in creating the atmosphere that increases other
employees of the organisation to grow and thrive.
Discuss how entrepreneurs help in growing business
It is very important for the entrepreneurs to grow their business timely in order to become
successful entrepreneurs. Zuber and Mohsin Issa are known as most successful entrepreneurs of
the EG groups. Both of entrepreneur brothers have worked really hard in order to grow their
business to the peak. The brothers expanded the business from single site of petrol station in
Bury 2001 to the 340 sites in the UK. Zuber and Mohsin have grew of the company through
series of acquisitions with the UK's largest companies. In 2015 the firm has acquisition with the
private equity firm TDR capital (Aceytuno, Sánchez-López and de Paz-Báñez, 2020). In 2018
the company announced to purchase 800 Kroger convenience stores in order to grow the
company by starting food outlets with the petrol stations. The company also made acquisition
with KFC's largest franchise UK bi acquisition of 145 outlets in 2020. Recently in 2021 the
company has acquired one of the fourth largest supermarket chains of UK Asda. With the help of
major acquisitions company has significant growth in the upcoming years by becoming largest
privately owned organisation in UK.
TASK 3
Discuss and critically evaluate the how the organisation contribute in the growth of economy
The entrepreneurial ventures highly contribute in the economy of UK. It is analysed that in UK
entrepreneurial wealth is considered strongest contribution in the economy of UK. It is executed
that in UK entrepreneurs are gaining more wealth and also creating more job opportunities which
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is turning could impact over the UK's economy. Due to the forward thinking innovation
entrepreneurs are creating more wealth with their entrepreneurial Ventures which is creating
more job opportunities and thereby contributing in growing the economy of country like UK.
Most of the entrepreneurial ventures are the small businesses that cover the major part of the
UK’s economy. 98% of the UK’s economy is grown by the private sector organisations EG
group which also owns Asda are the private organisations and has major contribution in the
economy of UK. The company has revenue of €20,018m in last two years which brings the
increment to the UK’s economy by creating wealth in oil industry (Sharma and et. al., 2020). The
company also have multiple stores and outlets of petrol stations, supermarket and other
acquisitions which tend to create more employment. Employment is the biggest factor for the
economy of UK. The higher the rate of employment the higher is the economy. Therefore EG
group helps in increasing the economy by creating more and more employment for the citizens
of UK. In UK it is considered that entrepreneurs important for the new commercial ventures and
the business start ups as there are considered as the heart of the GDP growth. By analysing the
national statistics of the UK it is analysed that most of the profitable organisations that our
customers forecast today also contributing to the social economy of the country are the
entrepreneurial ventures. Easy group is one of the organisations that are committed to provide
convenience to their customers as well as increasing the employment opportunities for the
citizens of UK by investing in the activities which will deliver the financial benefit to the
regional as well as national economy (Godley, Morawetz and Soga, 2021).
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Figure 1: Female entrepreneurs can add 95 billion in GVA to UK economy, 2020
(Source: Female entrepreneurs can add 95 billion in GVA to UK economy, 2020)
It is analysed from the above diagram that in UK there is potential contribution of the women’s
in the economy of the UK recently and in the upcoming future too. The female entrepreneurship
is becoming more visible in the market of UK especially in the fashion industry, food industry
(bakery) and in the NGOs (Baines and Smith, 2020). The female entrepreneurs are making
themselves more independent and becoming major contributor of UK’s economy.
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Figure 2: UK ENTREPRENEURS INDEX: ECONOMIC CONDITION SCORE
(Source: UK ENTREPRENEURS INDEX: ECONOMIC CONDITION SCORE)
The above bar graph represents the entrepreneurs of the London has clearly benchmarked there
economic condition and contributing majorly in the UK’s economy. The EG group is the firm
that has headquartered in London is also the contributor of UK’s economy. The bar chart states
that London is providing the highest rate employment to the citizens. Hence, the economies scale
can be raised by the entrepreneurs (Moudrý and Thaichon, 2020).
Discuss the survival challenges faced by the organisation due to COVID -19 pandemic
As the EG group operates in petrol filling stations and food outlets the company has major
impact of Covid-19 on its petrol filling stations. The company also offers the essential products
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and services therefore the stores where open during pandemic but the food products offered to
the public where limited in range due to the reduction in trading and supply chain. The company
has two businesses one of the petrol filling and other food service outlets. It was analysed that
these rules of the easy group that provides the essential items to the public were open throughout
the pandemic and had the wide range of products without disruption in their supply chain
(Kumar and et. al., 2020). Company faced the impact of covid-19 on its fuel volumes as due to
the restrictions of the government there were no customers on the petrol filling station in order to
take measures to contain the spread of the virus. Companies non fuel business streams such as
UK food service outlets of easy group were largely traded during the time of the pandemic and
has gain the revenue more than normal throughout the covid-19. With the growing time the
countries and had and have started to leave which started impacting the trading of EG group.
Due to covid-19 there was the impact to the colleagues especially there was a high risk and need
of the self isolation for the employees of the organisation. Many employees were resisting for
coming over the stores as the petroleum and food products and the food stores of the EG group
deemed to be the essential by the government of UK.
The one more survival impact that EG group faced due to the global pandemic was prolonged
outbreak of geographical movement restriction which were reducing the demand of fuel products
and the fuel at the petrol filling station thereby company losing its main revenue generating
element which impacted the balance sheet of the organisation and made difficult for the
organisation to survive.
Change in the customer’s behaviour due to the pandemic which was impacting the demand of
fuel products as well as the other food products as they were expecting to reduce the price of the
products which was impacting the survival of the organisation (Norouzi, 2021).
There was also a disruption in the global supply chain through the restrictions on the movement
by the government which was high risk and uncertainty for the business of EG group
CONCLUSION and RECOMMENDATIONS
It is concluded from the above information that entrepreneurship is becoming the new practice in
the business world to gain profit and start new small entrepreneurial ventures. It also observed
that big organisations like ASDA, Wal-Mart, EG groups, Tesco etc. grow their business through
entrepreneurship. To start the entrepreneurial venture it is very important to have innovation in
the products and services offered by the organisation and also to have personality traits like
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openness to think beyond the limits. Entrepreneurs are also required to act as leader to direct,
motivate and encourage their employees and to foster the innovation in an organisation. Hence,
the small and large entrepreneurial ventures are highly contributing in the growth of economy by
creating job opportunities. It is recommended that organisation should use digitalization and
technology to innovate new process, product or service to overcome the survival issues faced due
the pandemic. It is also suggested that company should regularly train their employees with the
updating technology and also come up with new products and services to meet the demand of the
market and to increase their sales and profit. Hence, entrepreneurship is vital for the growth and
prosperity of an organisation and to develop the economy of the country.
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References:
Books and Journals
Alsafadi, Y and et. al., 2020. The mediating impact of entrepreneurs among administrative
entrepreneurship, imitative entrepreneurship and acquisitive entrepreneurship on
creativity. Management Science Letters, 10(15), pp.3571-3576.
Vu, H.M. and Nwachukwu, C., 2021. Influence of entrepreneur competencies on profitability
and employee satisfaction. International Journal of Management and Enterprise
Development, 20(1), pp.1-16.
Melchiorre, A.B., Zangerle, E. and Schedl, M., 2020, September. Personality Bias of Music
Recommendation Algorithms. In Fourteenth ACM Conference on Recommender
Systems (pp. 533-538).
Anderson, I and et. al., 2021. “Just the Way You Are”: Linking Music Listening on Spotify and
Personality. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 12(4), pp.561-572.
Bandera, C. and Passerini, K., 2020. Personality traits and the digital entrepreneur: Much of the
same thing or a new breed?. Journal of the International Council for Small
Business, 1(2), pp.81-105.
Lombardi, R and et. al., 2020. Strategic entrepreneurship. Management Decision.
Armuña, C and et. al., 2020. From stand-up to start-up: exploring entrepreneurship competences
and STEM women’s intention. International Entrepreneurship and Management
Journal, 16(1), pp.69-92.
Tabares, A and et. al., 2021. Opportunity-related behaviors in international entrepreneurship
research: a multilevel analysis of antecedents, processes, and outcomes. International
Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, 17(1), pp.321-368.
Hinson, S. and Adcock, A., 2020. UK Hydrogen Economy: Debate Pack.
Loebnitz, S. and Schmidt, R.L., 2020. From Entrepreneur to Leader: A Qualitative Case Study
about Narratives of Entrepreneurs in Sweden expressing their emergent Leader Identity.
Awang, M.D and et. al., 2020. Knowledge, Acceptance and Application of Islamic Financial
Management among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Halal Entrepreneurs in
Peninsular of Malaysia. KnE Social Sciences, pp.216-226.
Moudrý, D.V. and Thaichon, P., 2020. Enrichment for retail businesses: How female
entrepreneurs and masculine traits enhance business success. Journal of Retailing and
Consumer Services, 54, p.102068.
Baines, N. and Smith, H.L., 2020. Knowledge and capabilities for products/services
development: the UK spin-off firms context. Journal of Knowledge Management.
Godley, A., Morawetz, N. and Soga, L., 2021. The complementarity perspective to the
entrepreneurial ecosystem taxonomy. Small Business Economics, 56(2), pp.723-738.
Aceytuno, M.T., Sánchez-López, C. and de Paz-Báñez, M.A., 2020. Rising Inequality and
Entrepreneurship during Economic Downturn: An Analysis of Opportunity and Necessity
Entrepreneurship in Spain. Sustainability, 12(11), p.4540.
Sharma, H.B and et. al., 2020. Challenges, opportunities, and innovations for effective solid
waste management during and post COVID-19 pandemic. Resources, conservation and
recycling, 162, p.105052.
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Kumar, M.S and et. al., 2020. Applications of industry 4.0 to overcome the COVID-19
operational challenges. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research &
Reviews, 14(5), pp.1283-1289.
Norouzi, N., 2021. Post‐COVID‐19 and globalization of oil and natural gas trade: Challenges,
opportunities, lessons, regulations, and strategies. International Journal of Energy
Research.
APPENDIX- 1
Overview of the company
The Euro Garage group also known as EG group is the British retailer headquarter in Blackburn,
UK. The company has petrol stations and food outlets all over the UK and in the other countries
like Australia, America and Germany etc. too. The company is the largest privately owned
organisation in UK. The company has acquisition with TDR capital and the recently in 2021 has
also acquired ASDA stores ltd. The company is owned and founded by two entrepreneur
brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa in 2001.
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