GoPro Case Study: Entrepreneurship, Threats, and Recommendations

This report examines the concept of corporate entrepreneurship using GoPro as a case study. It discusses the 'dark sides' of entrepreneurship, such as the lack of personal life and the risks involved, and debunks common myths. The report analyzes GoPro's competitive advantages, highlighting customer engagement, market positioning, and focus strategy. It identifies potential threats like smartphone competition and the emergence of new competitors. Finally, it recommends a cost leadership strategy for GoPro to maintain its market position. This comprehensive analysis provides insights into GoPro's entrepreneurial journey and strategic challenges. Desklib provides access to similar assignments and study resources for students.

Running head: CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Corporate entrepreneurship
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The report discussed about the relevancy of the concept of entrepreneurship in the current time
and in doing so, a few dark sides of the concept are identified and discussed. It is also discussed
that entrepreneurship is not any magic or mystery nor it is god gifted rather it is to be learnt. In
addition, this report had also discussed about the sources of competitive advantages that are
being gained by GoPro from their marketing process. It is concluded that customer engagement
is the key to success for GoPro. Lastly, there are few threats for GoPro also identified and based
on these threats a few recommendations are also discussed in this report.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion of the dark sides of entrepreneurship............................................................................3
Discussion of myth about entrepreneurship....................................................................................4
Competitive analysis of gopro.........................................................................................................5
Potential threats for gopro...............................................................................................................7
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
Reference.......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The concept of entrepreneurship is much relevant in the current business state of affairs
and it is being defined in different alternate manner. This is due to the reason that the concept of
entrepreneurship is changing the existing trends of doing business and new concepts and
approaches are getting popularized. In the recent time, there are number of incidences being
emerged where the simple concept of entrepreneurship changed the entire industrial trend or
started a new business area. However, it should also be noted that even though the concept of
entrepreneurship is one of latest trends, there are dark sides also relevant (Dees, 2017). It is
important to also discuss about these dark sides why they are important to get determined. In the
recent time, one of the most successful examples of entrepreneurship is the emergence of gopro.
It was first founded in 2004 and since then GoPro changed the digital camera market by aligning
it with the adventure and active lifestyle of the customers.
This report will discuss about the major dark sides of the entrepreneurship that should
also be considered along with the approach being followed Nick Goodman in getting succeeded
in his entrepreneurship. The competitive advantages of GoPro along with its potential threats will
also be discussed in this report.
Discussion of the dark sides of entrepreneurship
Apart from the positive sides of the entrepreneurship, there are number of dark sides also
being faced by the entrepreneurs. One of the dark sides of the entrepreneurship is the lack of
personal life of the entrepreneurs. This is due to the fact that entrepreneurship is different from
the corporate job and unlike the corporate job; entrepreneurship will involve all the
responsibilities and liabilities to be fulfilled singlehandedly (Zahra & George, 2017). In the case

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of entrepreneurship, the business will grow from scratch and it is important for the entrepreneurs
to ensure that the business is growing in sustainable manner. In this process, the personal life of
the entrepreneurs is the one, which is affected. This is due to the reason that they will not get the
time for their personal responsibilities and the concept of entrepreneurship demands the extreme
devotion, which leads to the sacrificing of other expectations. Hence, there are number of
sacrifices associated with the entrepreneurs in getting succeeded in the entrepreneurship (Martin,
McNally & Kay, 2013). Another major dark side of entrepreneurship is the involved risks. This
denotes that entrepreneurship is nothing short of starting a new business and thus the future
uncertainties are involved. The entrepreneurs will not have the idea or understanding about the
probability of their entrepreneurship getting succeeded. In this case, it should also be noted that
loss in investment is having higher probability in entrepreneurship. The last dark side of
entrepreneurship is the lack of surety in getting clicked at first point. This denotes to the fact that
entrepreneurs are likely to get failed in their initial attempts and it will involve multiple times
(Frese & Gielnik, 2014). Thus, the entrepreneurs succeeded with their ideas got or witnessed
failure in the previous stage. Those who can survive these failures or can overcome the
limitations will be able to sustain or vice versa.
Discussion of myth about entrepreneurship
There are number of myths regarding entrepreneurship being communicated. According
to the Peter Drucker, one of the major myths is that entrepreneurship is a god gifted quality and it
cannot be inherited by everyone or entrepreneurship is mystery. The background story of
Woodman is the major proof that can bust these myths. This is due to the reason that the father of
Woodman was working in the Silicon Valley and he was not known for any types of
entrepreneurship activities (Kerr, Nanda & Rhodes-Kropf, 2014). Thus, entrepreneurship of

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Woodman proves that he has not inherited this quality from his father or it is not in his genes.
According to the myth, regarding entrepreneurship, it is a magic or it is mystery. However, in the
case of Woodman, none of these worked as in the given case study, it is stated that he had to
struggle a bit prior to getting succeeded with gopro. It is stated in the case study that the initial
motivation of Woodman in going ahead with his entrepreneurship idea is innovative business
organizations in the Silicon Valley. Woodman followed the replicant concept of entrepreneurship
in getting the same process of the innovative and established firms in the Silicon Valley. This
helped him in chalking out the basic plan about to ahead with his ideas (Wright & Stigliani,
2013). This is also denoting the fact that entrepreneurship is not mystery or magic due to the
reason that if it was a mystery, Woodman would not have found out about the ways of going
ahead with his business ideas. On the other hand, if the entrepreneurship is a magic, then he
would not have required to struggle in getting the process of the other organizations replicated.
In the case study, it was also stated that Woodman faced failure in his initial days with
Funburg. This venture was initiated by him but not well accepted in the market and ultimately
got failed. With entrepreneurship being a magic, this failure would not have being faced by
Woodman. In this case, it should also be noted that Peter Drucker also stated that
entrepreneurship is a discipline, which should be followed and initiated properly in order to get
succeeded. In the case of Woodman, he identified the reasons of failure with Funburg and got
them rectified (Fayolle, 2013). He followed the trial and error concept in facing and dealing with
the probable challenges. Thus, it can be concluded that the statement given by Peter Drucker is
true and relevant even in the current time.
Competitive analysis of gopro

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While most of the business organizations gain competitive advantages by communicating
with their customers, GoPro gained competitive advantages by engaging them in the process.
That said, GoPro is one of the most customer centric firms in the recent time. Customer
engagement is one of the major ways of gaining competitive advantages by GoPro due to the
reason that higher level of customer engagement is ensuring that GoPro is driven by the
customer trends and preference pattern. This is evident in their evolution of the product portfolio
and how they are getting changed with the change in the market trend (Paro et al., 2015). One of
the major examples of customer engagement in the marketing process of GoPro is their
advertisements. GoPro is one of those firms, which does not involve paid promotions and actors
in their advertisements rather the original video shot by the users by the GoPro camera are being
promoted. This is having dual advantages for GoPro with one being the engagement with the
existing users by promoting their videos and another is the communication of the capabilities of
the GoPro camera in shooting videos (Dobni, Klassen & Sands, 2016). In this case, GoPro is also
enjoying the trustworthiness among the potential customers by promoting the authentic videos
shot by GoPro camera. This is one of the major source of gaining competitive advantages for
gopro.
Another source of gaining competitive advantage by GoPro is their positioning in the
market and in this case, the entrepreneurship quality of Woodman is effective. Prior to the
introduction of GoPro in the market, digital camera was positioned for leisure activities and not
at all associated with the adventure and active lifestyle. It is the forecasting ability of Woodman
to position the GoPro camera as the adventure gadgets (Terry-Armstrong, 2017). The marketing
process of GoPro is also designed in the way that the customers seeking adventurous lifestyles
and gadgets will consider gopro. In this case, GoPro created a new market opportunity of

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enabling the users about recording the live moments of their activities. For example, the users
can record their bike riding moments using the GoPro camera. The promotional campaign of
GoPro includes the communication of toughness of their devices, which is beneficial for the
users in extreme conditions. Thus, the potential customers are getting attracted by getting
informed about the value proposition of the GoPro camera. Hence, it can be concluded that
effective positioning of the GoPro is helping them to gain competitive advantage in attracting the
new customers.
Market focus strategy is also being followed by gopro, which is another source of gaining
competitive advantages. As per the market focus strategy, GoPro is targeting only the adventure
seeking customers and not the casual users. This is enabling GoPro in determining the needs and
preferences of the target customer segment and offering the value proposition accordingly. Thus,
the marketing mix elements including the product level and promotion are being initiated
according to the trends of the target customer segments (Devis & Pocovi, 2017). This is ensuring
the only the cameras of GoPro are being able to meet the requirements of the adventure seeking
customers. This is also ensuring that GoPro is having lower sets of direct competition in the
market. This is another source of gaining competitive advantage for gopro.
Potential threats for gopro
The major threat of GoPro is the smartphone. This is due to the reason that the current
generation of smartphone in the market especially the flagship and premium devices are having
camera quality comparable with the digital cameras. Thus, customers will have the more value
propositions in having smartphone over GoPro cameras. Smartphone is having more utilities due
to the added features with it, which are absent in gopro (Boubezari et al., 2016). On the other

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hand, smartphone will attract the more mainstream sets of customers over the hardcore adventure
enthusiasts. Hence, the target audience of smartphone is also wide compared to the target
segments of gopro. The more will be the technological development of the smartphone in the
coming days, the more will be threat for GoPro in managing their business viability. Another
threat for GoPro is the emergence of new competitors in the market. As of now, they are facing
lower intensity of competition but in the coming years, probability is high of having more
alternatives of gopro. Hence, introduction of cheaper alternatives of GoPro by the new
competitors will reduce the market potentiality for gopro. If the customers can have same level
of value offerings in lower price, then they will unlikely to opt for expensive GoPro cameras.
However, the toughness and durability can be the key to success and retaining the market share
by gopro. This is due to the reason that the toughness possessed by GoPro cameras in dealing
with the extreme conditions is not offered by the smartphone and thus the hardcore segments will
still prefer the products of gopro.
Recommendations
It is recommended that cost leadership strategy should be initiated by GoPro in their
business process. With the help of the cost leadership strategy, a few production processes can be
outsourced to the external suppliers, which will reduce the cost of manufacturing. This cost
reduction can be passed on to the customers by offering the same existing products in lower
price. This will have dual benefits for gopro. They will be able to reduce their cost of
manufacturing, which will ensure that their manufacturing process is sustainable enough. On the
other hand, cost leadership approach will help to attract larger target customer segments, which
are still beyond the core target group due to the premium pricing. The products of GoPro will
become more competitive in that case among the customers.

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Conclusion
This report concludes that entrepreneurship is a broad topic and can be discussed from
different perspectives. In this report, it is analyzed that the concept of entrepreneurship is having
negative sides as well along with the fact that there are number of myths also going around it.
This report proved different points in busting these myths. In addition, it is also identified in this
report that the effectiveness of the entrepreneurship theory is what helped GoPro in becoming the
leading player in the market. The sources of competitive advantages of GoPro are also discussed
in this report along with the potential threats being faced by them. Based on these threats, a few
recommended steps are discussed in this report.

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Reference
Boubezari, R., Le Minh, H., Ghassemlooy, Z., & Bouridane, A. (2016). Smartphone camera
based visible light communication. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 34(17), 4121-4127.
Dees, J. G. (2017). 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case studies in social
entrepreneurship and sustainability (pp. 34-42). Routledge.
Devís, B. A., & Pocoví, M. (2017). Experiential Marketing: Searching for Emotional Connection
with Consumers in POS. In Applying Neuroscience to Business Practice (pp. 63-81). IGI
Global.
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strategy. Journal of Business Strategy, 37(5), 12-21.
Fayolle, A. (2013). Personal views on the future of entrepreneurship education.
Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 25(7-8), 692-701.
Frese, M., & Gielnik, M. M. (2014). The psychology of entrepreneurship. Annu. Rev. Organ.
Psychol. Organ. Behav., 1(1), 413-438.
Kerr, W. R., Nanda, R., & Rhodes-Kropf, M. (2014). Entrepreneurship as experimentation.
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entrepreneurship: A meta-analysis of entrepreneurship education outcomes. Journal of
Business Venturing, 28(2), 211-224.

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Paro, J. A., Nazareli, R., Gurjala, A., Berger, A., & Lee, G. K. (2015). Video-based self-review:
comparing Google Glass and GoPro technologies. Annals of plastic surgery, 74, S71-
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Wright, M., & Stigliani, I. (2013). Entrepreneurship and growth. International Small Business
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