Strategic Entrepreneurship: Journal Entries, BMC, and SWOT Analysis

This assignment delves into the realm of strategic entrepreneurship, encompassing personal journal entries, an analysis of Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, and a business model canvas (BMC) framework. The project begins with self-assessment of entrepreneurial traits and personality, followed by jo...Read More

STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEUERSHIP

Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................3
2.0 First personal journal entry set..................................................................................................4
3.0 Second personal journal entry set..............................................................................................5
Poster entrepreneur: Mark Zuckerberg........................................................................................5
4.0 Third personal journal entry set.................................................................................................7
Poster entrepreneurial company..................................................................................................7
5.0 Fourth personal journal entry set...............................................................................................9
Poster Company’s BMC..............................................................................................................9
6.0 Fifth personal journal entry set................................................................................................15
7.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................17
References:....................................................................................................................................18
Page 2 of 20

1.0 Introduction
Entrepreneurship represents the capacity of a unit to establish and successfully lead a start-up
business. In the opinion of Johannisson (2017), entrepreneur definitely needs to have few
positive traits to conduct a successful business that includes, optimistic nature, positive body
language, transparent communication, leadership, team handling, correct allocation, sales and
marketing and finance management. The initial section of the current project deals with the
evaluation of entrepreneurial abilities within self through traits and personality analysis
examination. The second section highlights a discussion over an individual selection of
entrepreneur aspiring life. The third section underscores the company or business run by the
entrepreneur and the final part is linked to self-reflection and beneficial aspects gathered from
the project.
Page 3 of 20

2.0 First personal journal entry set
Strength
 Motivating
 Energetic
 Easy-going
 Approachable
Weakness
 Short-tempered
 Lacking good interpersonal skills
Opportunity
 Mobilising people in research and survey
 Conducting programs and thereby improving interpersonal and group skills
Threat
 Other group members being more aggressive in terms of behavioural skills
 Tend to be more close ended in terms of leadership skills
Page 4 of 20

3.0 Second personal journal entry set
Poster entrepreneur: Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on 14th May 1984 in New York into well educated and
financially stable family. Zuckerberg developed his interests in computers since he was 12, he
used Atari BASIC to establish a messaging program named ‘Zucknet’ (Biography.com Editors.,
2018). The program was used by his father in his dental office to maintain a smooth
communication between receptionists and patient. Zuckerberg enrolled at Harvard University in
2002 and created a program named CourseMatch, which helped students to select their class on
the basis of course selections. He also invented Facemash, which went popular for a short time
span (Biography.com Editors., 2018). In 2005, he received a high boost from the venture capital
firm, Accel Partners. The firm invested $12.7 million into the new invented network Facebook
and granted its access to high schools, international schools and other colleges, which
contributed the site with 5.5 million user base by the end of that year.
As per the records of Forbes, Mark Zuckerberg believes in the philosophy of speed. He considers
it as the key component, which people needs to have behind their work (Reynolds, 2018). If the
sense of urgency is missing, the possibilities of development and growth would slow down.
Following this philosophy, he had managed the rise and steady progress of Facebook. Moreover,
Zuckerberg also claimed the fact that Facebook has never guessed on any fact, rather it always
has undergone all possible tests to measure the security, web access programs and every
innovation (Huspeni, 2018). During the creation of Facebook, he had the vision of creating a site
that his peer would find useful. He along with his friends had created a side that allowed users to
Page 5 of 20

create their individual profile, upload pictures and communicate with one another. However, the
financial support and interest received from the venture capital firm have boosted the rapid
expansion of Facebook all over the world. Although Zuckerberg has also come across several
philanthropic challenges and legal accusations from the very onset, yet his determination and
zeal have been his strength, which helped him to overcome all hurdles (Mosakowski, 2017). As
per my observation, all aspects of Zuckerberg’s including his personal and professional life is
truly aspiring. This has been the reason why I chose him under poster entrepreneur, the
enthusiasm and creativity he brings within Facebook has no doubt in turning it into the most
iconic and accessible brand.
Page 6 of 20

4.0 Third personal journal entry set
Poster entrepreneurial company
The company Mark Zuckerberg has invented was named as TheFacebook, which was established
in the year 2004 as a messenger application by him along with other friends in Harvard
University named Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Chris Hughes (Hall, 2018). At the
very onset, he was only opened to the members of Harvard through their college email address
and within the very first month 50% of the students had signed up the site. From the very initial
stage, TheFacebook has been an instant hit that grew at a rapid pace with the passage of time.
The membership was opened to all most every university of Canada and US, where users were
clamouring to sing up. In 2005, the brand receives the further financial support of $ 12.7 million
from Accel and $1 million from Jim Breyer, the personal venture capitalist (Boyd, 2018).
In August 2005, ‘The' was dropped and the brand was officially named as Facebook, which
encouraged it to move beyond the student base. The mission and vision statement of the brand
was to allow people with the power of building community and bring the world more closely
(Smithson, 2018). Zuckerberg usually emphasised on the term “empowering people”, which
signifies his goals of making it online social networking service as the means of making people
more digitally capable. At present, Facebook is not only used for the communication purpose
but also to stay connected to family, friends, discovering the world's social affairs and sharing
the news to other channels. It shows that Mark Zuckerberg has not only restricted Facebook as a
small basic online social site. Instead, the business models are improvised on a constant basis to
Page 7 of 20

facilitate knowledge acquisitions and valuable communications of every user (Birley & Stockley,
2017).
The reason that led me to choose the company is its strong brand image and the impact it has
created all over the globe. The tremendous innovation and user-friendly access Zuckerberg and
his team had framed are just highly aspiring. The tremendous innovation and user-friendly access
to Facebook have been the most appealing factor for me. The simple steps to create a profile
interest in every segment of the world ranging from urban to rural users to access the social
networking site. Hence, I believe that Zuckerberg is truly a charismatic personality, who is
standing by his ideology of “empowering people”. I believe his focus, determination and
innovation had been his driving factor towards his success. This would definitely a learning
factor for me to evolve in my career aspects.
Page 8 of 20

5.0 Fourth personal journal entry set
Poster Company’s BMC
Business model canvas
Customer segments
Internet users, advertisers, marketers and developers are the usual customer's segment of
Facebook. However, Kumar & Reinartz (2018) argued that nowadays the brand is constantly
changing its business model to successfully gain a global access, which covers the teenagers of
13 years to elderly people.
Value propositions
Connecting with friends, discovering, learning and getting a platform to express oneself have
been the major value proposition of the selected brand (Lin, 2017). Reach, relevance,
engagement and social context have also been its proposition factor.
Channels
Facebook specifically rely on channels like websites, mobile applications, Facebook adverts,
Facebook pages, developer tools and APIs.
Customer relationships
From the very initial phase, Facebook has managed to form a strong engagement with its
customers, whether through negative allegations or positive appealing (Muhammad et al. 2018).
The brand has always managed a strong relationship with its users. It enabled the brand to
Page 9 of 20

generate a monthly active user base of 2.23 billion by the second quarter of 2018 since the time
of 2008 (Statista., 2018).
Figure: Facebook monthly active users worldwide as of 2nd quarter 2018
(Source: Statista., 2018)
Revenue streams
Facebook usually uses three types of revenue streams that include free posting and access,
revenues earned through ads and also the payment forms. Users are also given the change to post
or promote their website content at a minimal rate and get wider visibility of the digital traffic.
Key resources
Page 10 of 20

The online portal and the social media platform of Facebook has been its most efficient resource.
And on the other side, its technological infrastructure has been it’s another key resource. The
brand entirely thrives on the mode of innovation and creativity (Tuten & Solomon,).
Key activities
Platform developmental actions and data centre operation management had been its key
activities. The brand usually allows its users with the online space, where they have uploaded
their data to utilise the space to get digital advantages.
Key partnerships
The content partners have been the key partners of Facebook. It includes all kinds of TV shows,
movies, music, new based articles, social campaigns, recent event and community-based events,
etc (Gerbaudo, 2018).
Cost structures
The cost structure involves ever possible costs associated with the running of the online business
(Thirumalai et al. 2017). The brand specifically counts on the factors like data centre costs, sales
and marketing, general and administrative and research and developmental activities.
Page 11 of 20

Figure: Facebook’s Business Model Canvas framework
(Source: Businessmodelinnovation., 2018)
SWOT of Facebook
Strength
Andreassen et al. (2017) determined that Facebook’s social networking popularity comes
alongside its sturdy brand image. The brand has enabled to establish its business as the trustable
social media service provider. It also simultaneously contributed it with the large numbers of
active members who readily accept every innovation of Facebook and access the profile.
Weakness
The company suffers from numerous weaknesses due to the nature of its business. The social
media and digital advertising technologies are imposing weakness on the brand to enable steady
competition (Yousef, 2018). It also exerts a considerate force on the brand's industrial position.
Page 12 of 20

In addition, Facebook also suffers from a lower degree of diversification, which is maximising
the risk of its exposure.
Opportunities
Facebook has the opportunity of diversifying its business beyond its core social media and digital
advertising business. The brand has taken the steps of utilising the external factor like acquiring
Oculus VR, which is one of the leading virtual reality business that steadily complements its
networking business.
Threats
Imitation, cybercrime and market saturation can be its biggest threats. Imitation can be its
primary threat, where the other subsequent firm can develop a social networking website and
mobile applications following Facebook’s business model (Brooks et al. 2014). Moreover, with
the increasing degree of membership, the brand is becoming an attractive cybercrime target.
Blue Ocean Strategy
The Blue Ocean Strategy permitted Mark Zuckerberg to enhance the scope of success following
the idea of innovation and improvising its existing business models to fit the market trends. As
per the consideration of Kim & Mauborgne (2014), it might also re-improvise both the mission
and vision statement of Zuckerberg to form a reorientation of its online service lines. The method
used in the transformation of the Red Ocean to Blue Ocean includes stages of service offering,
the value of innovation and evaluating competitive aspects of social media platforms (Kim &
Mauborgne, 2017). The next stage of the framework involves evaluation of the elements that can
amplify, reduce and eliminate. Herein, Zuckerberg has undergone the factors that can enhance its
Page 13 of 20

business prospects in the competitive market by eliminating the unwanted elements that have the
future possibilities of imposing challenges or threats.
Page 14 of 20

6.0 Fifth personal journal entry set
As per my observation, entrepreneurship has become one of the highest concerns in the recent
time. The intensity of competition is getting fierce with the passage o time, which is also
bringing several vulnerabilities and challenges to the operating firms. In addition to the latter
context, the degree of market fluctuations is rising over time, which is somewhat encouraging
every brand to alter its business models and experiment with new strategies that fit the ongoing
trends. This particular subject has definitely helped to understand the different aspects of the
current market considering its competitive rate, user fluctuations, accessibilities, driving forces,
threat, scopes, vulnerabilities, etc.
My viewpoint is the subject to entrepreneurship was restricted to limited aspects like leadership
and strategic management. However, after conducting this project, I have explored the fact that
entrepreneurship is all about capital management, resources handling, diversity, operation, stress
handling, training, supply chain, marketing factors, etc. The above-stated factors are the driving
components that can deliver an entrepreneur to have a successful goal attainment. In the case of
Facebook, the management merely has any claim of the gigantic shape it would take after getting
launched in the public forum. The most appealing factor for me had been the determination and
focus Zuckerberg has paid to retain the steady rise and demand of the brand.
The brand had come across several allegations, philanthropic challenges and legal impositions.
However, despite the negative accusations, Zuckerberg has still enabled to generate 2.23 billion
of monthly active user bases by the second quarter of 2018. The figure claims the determination,
smart work and hard effort Zuckerberg has paid towards the company to retain its goodwill and
Page 15 of 20

stood by its vision statement, which is “empowering people”. Today, Facebook has definitely
represented a brand icon that user seeks to get, express and share any community-related
information. The philosophy followed by Mark Zuckerberg has really motivated me to gather
more information of digital platform and identify its scope in the future prospects. I personally
gain several benefits from the subject. Initially, I had laid back approach towards my future
prospects. However, after coming across the biography of Zuckerberg and his business sense, I
have become sincere in life. I would definitely like to work on my weaker points and get more
focus and determined with my works. I am looking forward to polishing my both professional
and personal skills so that I can definitely see myself as a successful entrepreneur in few years
down the line.
Page 16 of 20

7.0 Conclusion
An inference drawn from the above discussion is that suitable entrepreneurship represents the
accomplishments of noteworthy business efficacies through the combination of clubbed
opportunity seeking elements. Evaluation of my individual personality and analysis of Mark
Zuckerberg has helped me to better identify the expertise an skills on needs to develop within
selves. The project has definitely been a learning experience for me, which would relatively add-
on to my personality traits and help me to evolve both personalities and professionally in the near
future.
Page 17 of 20

References:
Andreassen, C. S., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M. D. (2017). The relationship between addictive
use of social media, narcissism, and
Biography.com Editors. (2018). Mark Zuckerberg. Retrieved from
https://www.biography.com/people/mark-zuckerberg-507402
Birley, S., & Stockley, S. (2017). Entrepreneurial teams and venture growth. The Blackwell
handbook of entrepreneurship, 287-307.
Boyd, J. (2018). The History of Facebook: From BASIC to global giant. Retrieved from
https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/history-of-facebook
Brooks, G., Heffner, A., & Henderson, D. (2014). A SWOT analysis of competitive knowledge
from social media for a small start-up business. The Review of Business Information Systems
(Online), 18(1), 23.
Businessmodelinnovation. (2018). Facebook business model | Understanding Business Models.
Retrieved from https://businessmodelinnovationmatters.wordpress.com/tag/facebook-business-
model/)
Gerbaudo, P. (2018). Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto
Press.
Page 18 of 20

Hall, M. (2018). Facebook | Overview, History, & Facts. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Facebook
Huspeni, A. (2018). Mark Zuckerberg Reveals the 5 Strategies That Helped Facebook Grow at
an Insane Rate. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/294787
Johannisson, B. (2017). Networking and entrepreneurial growth. The Blackwell handbook of
entrepreneurship, 368-386.
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (2014). Blue ocean strategy, expanded edition: How to create
uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant. Harvard business review Press.
Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. A. (2017). Blue Ocean Leadership (Harvard Business Review
Classics). Harvard Business Review Press.
Kumar, V., & Reinartz, W. (2018). Customer relationship management: Concept, strategy, and
tools. Springer.
Lin, N. (2017). Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28).
Routledge.
Mosakowski, E. (2017). Overcoming resource disadvantages in entrepreneurial firms: When less
is more. Strategic Entrepreneurship: Creating a new mindset, 106-126.
Muhammad, S. S., Dey, B. L., & Weerakkody, V. (2018). Analysis of factors that influence
customers’ willingness to leave big data digital footprints on social media: A systematic review
of literature. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(3), 559-576.
Page 19 of 20