MNG91002 Entrepreneurship: GoPro Case Study Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of GoPro's entrepreneurial journey, focusing on the challenges and triumphs faced by the company. It examines the three major traits associated with the 'dark side' of entrepreneurship, such as risk-taking, and the ability to handle failures. The report analyzes how GoPro acquired a competitive advantage through its marketing processes, including building a strong brand image and utilizing crowd-sourcing. It also discusses the importance of discipline and perseverance, referencing Peter Drucker's insights. The report further delves into potential challenges GoPro may face, such as market saturation and competition from cheaper brands, and offers recommendations to overcome these obstacles. The case study highlights the contributions of the founder Nick Woodman, the company's strategic decisions, and the brand's evolution in the action camera market.

Running Head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
MNG91002 Entrepreneurship
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Executive Summary
Entrepreneurship has a dark side where the individual needs to open to failures and loss of
capital. It is not always possible for the person to make an immense amount of profit in the initial
stage of the business. However, with time and with patience, the entrepreneur needs to build on
the investment and increases the development of the product. The case study highlights the
different ups and down through which the company GoPro survived and thrived throughout the
year. The study is an account of the major traits of entrepreneurship and how the founder
Woodman contributed to the establishment of the growth of the company. The study also
discusses the strengths of the products and its various technologies which it has used to launch
the products through the time to maintain its position in the market. The threat provides the
future situation of the company in the market of action cameras.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1................................................................................................................................................3
Question 1....................................................................................................................................3
Description of the three major traits which are related to the dark side of the
entrepreneurship......................................................................................................................3
Question 2....................................................................................................................................4
Success in entrepreneurship requires discipline which needs to learn and adopted. Reference
and concept of the statement, tool and technique....................................................................4
Part 2................................................................................................................................................5
Question 1....................................................................................................................................5
Explanation of the process by which GoPro have acquired a competitive advantage through
their marketing processes, analysis of the reason for achievement and its justification.........5
Question 2....................................................................................................................................7
Theoretical analysis of the challenges which the organization can face and recommendation
to overcome them....................................................................................................................7
Conclusions......................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
The road through which an entrepreneur becomes successful is long and tedious. However, it is
important for the entrepreneur to have the perseverance in order to overcome the challenges and
the setbacks. Many people dream to be a successful entrepreneur. Amongst them, some want to
initiate a new business while some want to launch a new product which would be successful in
simplifying any existing issue or disruption. In most of the time, it is observed that due to the
various challenges to start a company or business, an entrepreneur either do not start the business
or may fail miserably.
Part 1
Question 1
Description of the three major traits which are related to the dark side of the
entrepreneurship
When an individual decides to be an entrepreneur, the personality traits and the behaviour of the
individuals play an important role in the success of the business. These traits or qualities can also
play a detrimental role for them as a manager or as a co-worker (Kuratko 2016). It is essential
for the individual to have adequate energy in order to achieve the business success although at
times the dreams and the desires may at times be dysfunctional at a business setting. Among the
various traits which an entrepreneur should possess are as follows:
Risk taking the ability of the individual
Entrepreneurs should have a high tendency in risk-taking propensity which sometimes may
extend in their lives. They are more engaged in rules in order to seek an experience which is
unfamiliar. In most of the cases, it is essential to take chances and defy eh conventional process
of business operation. They have the ability to see the future and how their product or service is
going to assist people (Spivack and McKelvie 2018). Although such a situation may open to new
experiences it is essential that the entrepreneur should understand that raising capital will be
tough at the beginning. There are times when personal investments will be more than the revenue

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generated. Hence reliance on personal saving and reserves are one of the harsh realities of
beginning a business.
Open to the negative aspect of starting the new business
In spite of spending capital, time and hard work on the business most of the cases initially the
entrepreneur may face major or minor failure which can interfere with the plan of vision for the
business. It is to be understood that in a business failure will be inevitable and a part of
entrepreneurship. It is the mindset and the ability for the individual to recover from the failure
which can separate them from ones who succeed from the ones who do not take opportunities
because of the fear of failure.
Taking a hard decision
The third trait which adds to the dark side of the entrepreneurship is to understand that in spite of
the rigorous and intricate planning of the decisions taken by the individual for the company, it
may not always be correct for the business. There are times when the individual does have to
take hard and stress-inducing decisions which may seem logically correct in a certain situation
however it may not be successful while implementing. Even the things which one interprets may
not happen as envisioned.
Question 2
Success in entrepreneurship requires discipline which needs to learn and adopted.
Reference and concept of the statement, tool and technique
The main idea which Peter Drucker wanted to portray through this statement is that to make a
business successful resilience and patience is crucial. Even if the business is successful, in order
to continue increasing its revenue, it is important for the leader to accept changes. There are
times when the business model currently followed by the individual may require to be invented
several times (Brown et al. 2018). It is important for the entrepreneurs to not only focus on the
economic outcome of the business but also deal with the various social issues and the
sustainability of the organization I order to survive in the competitive market. According to
Peter Drucker, these abilities do not come magically. It comes through practice, experience and
learning discipline.

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The case highlights the ability of Nick Woodman's to continue dreaming and creating a future
company for the success of the GoPro brand. In the case after the initial research and
development of the product when it was launched in the market at first it made a huge success.
But instead of getting carried away, Nick Woodman continued his vision and wanted to continue
developing his product. In his previous experience, he had lost an immense amount of capital,
however, he was found to be ready to take the risk of newer initiative (Trotter et al., 2019). In
order to keep the company under privatization, he had to invest from his personal saving and also
had to borrow from his mother and father so that the development can be conducted smoothly.
But the case shows that his decision paid off with the increase in the profit margin of 15% made
by the product. And further, by the year 2011, the company had attained ventures from well-
known brands like Steamboat Ventures, Disney's Ventures and from Flextronics. If Woodman
has given up his vision and failure during the financial crisis in 2007 where he was looking for
investors thinking that the crisis may affect the revenue of the business. Due to the lower
valuation which was quoted by the investors even if the business was not yet got affected with
the financial crisis made Woodman’s re-think on the decision of giving up his dreams.
Part 2
Question 1
Explanation of the process by which GoPro have acquired a competitive advantage
through their marketing processes, analysis of the reason for achievement and its
justification
The competitive advantage of the company GoPro lay in its business model which helped the
business to thrive. The various aspects that helped in the growth of the organization included
high brand equity, the promotional efforts taken by the organization, an attaining a dominant
market share. The main aim of the organization was to change the process by which the
consumers capture the images and the quality of the images which were captured (Guo 2018).
The main marketing strategy of the organization as it is selling an experience rather than a
product, the memory of the adventures which the consumer wants to capture. This had worked

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effectively amongst the consumers and the tool used was known as the crowd-sourcing of the
promotional efforts.
One of the biggest assets of GoPro was its brand image. This has allowed an increase in the
market share of the organization. Currently, the brand has a market share of 21.5% in the US
market. In the recent market, there are several competitors who have been using similar
technologies with interesting features, for example, Kodak has the ability to capture 360 views
similar to that of GoPro. But the brand awareness of the users and the brand loyalty of the
investors have continued in increasing the revenue of the organization. In addition, the
technology which governed the functionalities of the GoPro software is called the Ambrella have
been innovating with time (Qbc.com 2019). Recently the organization has launched the Karma
drone which is compatible with the GoPro which the customer possesses. The main competitive
advantage which the GoPro by its ability to have an identifiable brand in the market of the action
market compared to its competitors. Although the technology is at par with its competitive
brands but the brand image alone has succeeded in maintaining its position in the market.
Further, GoPro has retained clients through the process of building associations individually with
respect to the objective markets. The company utilizes a publicizing system which is known as
the beating methodology that helps in the streamlining of the expenses of the business with the
distribution of the assets (Klotz and Neubaum 2016). This is process by which the companies
select circumstances, places or dates for the promotion of their product so that they can create a
strong brand image amongst the consumers. The technique is selected based on the type of
association which the organization has with the customers through promotion so that the
customer feel a part of the team. They have also launched various online platforms for
networking where individuals can share their recording related to their adventures and sports and
their web journals created by the GoPro product. With time the company is continuously
innovating methods for enhancing and refreshing the items. The CEO of the organization
specifically invests on technicians and specialist who have knowledge and experiences in the
technology. They invest in improving the GoPro, so that they are not only effective but also
faster in order to maintain its market position.

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Question 2
Theoretical analysis of the challenges which the organization can face and recommendation
to overcome them
In the year 2018, the company GoPro found to deteriorate in terms of the stock and share. In
addition, the position of the GoPro further weakened due to the growth in the market niche for
action cameras being operated with a complete saturation in the photographic industry. This
saturation was combined with the pressure created by the competitive price of the same products
and the fluctuation in the market demand (Qz.com 2015). This has added to the uncertainty in the
revenue of the products in future. Secondly, the range of the action cameras and their varieties
had already reached the level of saturation.
In 2016, according to the CEO of the GoPro Company, it was reported that the growth of the
action and sports camera had slowed down as it specifically targets the upper class and the
middle-class individuals who are passionate in extreme sports. The interest and the investment
on cameras by these individuals were found to fluctuate depending upon the season (Winters et
al. 2017). Additionally, the Chinese brands of cameras were cheaper can be bought through
online websites which were found to outplay in the market and have resulted in the economic
downturn of the company GoPro.
The main aim of the launch of the GoPro cameras was to target taking images of the extreme
sports and adventures like snowboarding, surfing, sky diving where the individual did not want
to spoil expensive gadgets being soiled or getting affected during the shoots. However, currently,
there are several Smartphone which are available in the market that are rugged as well as
waterproof that can serve the same purpose as the GoPro cameras. Additionally, the company
although sold several sets of Hero4 model of the GoPro camera was found to have reduced its
price in order to sell more in the market.
The price of the Hero4 was rescued due to the low demand. The launch of the drone cameras
could not compete with the existing brand of cameras already available in the market of the
brand DJI or Parrot (Smirnova and Vitols 2016). The technology of aerial photography had
already been used by other manufacturers of the action camera. The drones were found to be
expensive and the consumers preferred other brands than the GoPro. After some time, the

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company had to remove the products from the stores. The additional investments which are made
by the organization like virtual reality technology will take time to make its position in the
market.
Conclusions
Entrepreneurship and investment in the business involved in various form of up and downs. In
one hand when in one hand one can control the skills and the strength which the work demands
in addition to the satisfaction of the job. In the other hand, it also provides flexibility and
excitement of trying and exploring new methods for the success of the business. However, it also
brings certain negative aspects like staying competitive with the market demand and on the other
brands and technology. Paperwork and unpredictable work schedule can also affect the personal
life of the individual.

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Reference List
Brown, S., Hackley, C., Hunt, S. D., Marsh, C., O’Shaughnessy, N., Phillips, B. J., ... and
Nilsson, T. 2018. Marketing (as) Rhetoric: paradigms, provocations, and perspectives. Journal of
Marketing Management, 34(15-16), pp.1336-1378.
Guo, P. 2018. Social Media Promotion and Arts Marketing: Sideways Stories from Wayside
School, Chicago Street Theatre.
Klotz, A. C., and Neubaum, D. O. 2016. Article Commentary: Research on the Dark Side of
Personality Traits in Entrepreneurship: Observations from an Organizational Behavior
Perspective. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 40(1), pp.7-17.
Kuratko, D.F., 2016. Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Qbc.com 2019. DJI Osmo Action camera poses threat to GoPro. Available at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48279408 [Accessed on 18th May 2019]
Qz.com 2015. What GoPro needs to do in 2016 if it wants to survive. Available at:
https://qz.com/575404/what-gopro-needs-to-do-in-2016-if-it-wants-to-survive/ [Accessed on 18th
May 2019]
Smirnova, J., and Vitols, G. 2016. Procedure for testing Jelgava school websites on mobile
devices using a GoPro head camera. In 15th International scientific conference" Engineering for
rural development": proceedings, Jelgava, Latvia. 23-34.
Spivack, A. J., and McKelvie, A. 2018. Entrepreneurship Addiction: Shedding Light on the
Manifestation of the “Dark Side” in Work-Behavior Patterns. Academy of Management
Perspectives, 32(3), pp.358-378.
Trotter, B., Smith, B., Rawar, E., Karami, N., and Matthews, T. 2019. SuperSelfie Marketing
Plan. International Marketing Journal, 2(3), pp.34-56.

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Winters, G., Edelist, D., Shem‐Tov, R., Beer, S., and Rilov, G. 2017. A low-cost field‐survey
method for mapping seagrasses and their potential threats: an example from the northern Gulf of
Aqaba, Red Sea. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 27(2), pp.324-339.