ECU 302: ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION TAKE-AWAY CAT

Question one (30 marks)

Case: Post-it Notes
Read the case below and answer the questions that follow

One way in which new products are developed is to take a current product and modify it in some way.
Another way is to determine how previously developed product can be marketed or used by a particular
group of customers.

The 3M Company is famous for many products, among them adhesive and abrasives. A few years ago one
of the 3m managers, a member of a church choir, wanted to mark the ages of his hymnal so that he could
quickly find them. A bookmark would not do because the piece of paper could easily fall out. The
manager needed something that would adhere to the page but not tear it. Back at work, the manager asked
one of the members of research and development department if there was an adhesive that would do this.
There was, but it had to be marketed because the company found that the adhesive was not strong enough
for industrial use. At the manager’s request, a batch of glue was prepared and attached to small pieces of
paper that could be used as bookmarks.

As a manager who had requested the product began to think about the new product. He concluded that it
had uses other than as bookmark. Secretaries could use it to attach messages to files and managers could
use it to send notes along with letters and memos. In an effort to spur interest in the product, the manager
had a large batch of these “attachable”, now called “Post-it Notes”, made and began distributing them to
secretaries throughout the company. Before long more and more people began to ask for them. The
manager then ordered the supply cut off and told everyone who wanted them that they would have to
contact the Marketing Department. When that department became inundated with calls for Post-it notes, it
concluded that there would be a strong demand throughout the industry for these notes, and full
production began. Today Post-its is one of the largest and most successful product lines at 3M Company.
Questions
a) In the development of this product, how did the creative thinking process work? Describe what
took place in each of the four steps of creative process. (10 marks)
b) Why did the manager have the Post-it sent to the secretaries throughout the company? What was
the objective of doing this? (6 marks)
c) What type of innovation was this? Defend your answer. (4 marks)
d) Explain what sources of innovation that help to account for the success of this product.

Question two (25 marks)

a) “The entrepreneur is mostly like the distance runner who runs mainly to try to better his or her
previous time over distance”. Discuss this statement. (5 marks)

b) Discuss convincingly the most appropriate pricing strategy for a new product in a slow growth
market
(5
Marks)
c) Explain the concept of internal locus of control and its significance for entrepreneurship.
(5
marks)
d) With Engineering Examples, discuss the creativity process.
(10
marks)