Entrepreneurship concepts and applications

¶ … organizing implications do you see in Glory Foods story?

The founder of Glory Foods, William Williams, saw an unmet consumer need that he could fill: the nostalgic desire of many African-Americans and Southerners living all over the country who wanted to re-experience the soul food of their youth or bring it to their children. There was also a resurgence of interest in soul food, given the boom in ethnic-style foods across America. Williams had experience in the food industry as a restaurant owner. He also put a great deal of thought into the aspects of the product that would affect demand: soul food is quite labor-intensive to prepare, thus there would be an interest in prepared soul foods. Consumer's busy lives were not conducive to day-long cooking extravaganzas (this is one reason that pizza, which requires an extremely hot oven and kneaded dough, is a more popular take-out food than another iconic American junk food item, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, although both items are made with relatively inexpensive high-profit margin ingredients).

Williams and his co-founders took a realistic view of the competitive food industry. While growing the business they 'kept their day jobs.' This also ensured that they did not drain their business' profits during the fragile early start-up period: all of the money they earned went back into growing Glory Foods, not their salaries. Keeping an eye on industry trends, while perfecting the recipes, they were careful to make Southern staples lower in calories and fat, given they were selling everyday, take-home dinner items for people likely watching their weight. Put the business first, proceed with caution, and know your customers are the lessons to be learned from the Glory Foods story. They were willing to spend money -- and time -- to do market research to create a desirable product.

Q2. What are the advantages and drawbacks to the partnership approach to organizing?

Williams chose to work with two partners with experience in the food industry. The three entrepreneurs were able to pool their collective knowledge. Partnership agreements can ensure that risk is shared by all individuals with a stake in the enterprise: however, unless the partners are in agreement about the direction of the business, it can cause divisiveness and divert attention away from crucial aspects of organizing the business. Williams chose his partners carefully, and his decision seems to have proven successful. Even with the pooled resources of his partners, the company was underfinanced during its early years of expansion, although its struggles actually worked in the company's favor in the long run: using women from churches to market the product (in exchange for donations) associated the food with positive religious influences in the black community, and the extra time enabled Williams to find farmers that would act as an affordable source of fresh produce.

Williams was determined to be loyal to his partners, and never accepted offers of venture capitalists, which would have diluted his equity portions and those of the co-founders. Although this might be seen as a weakness of business partnership agreements, it gave the founders greater control over the vision and the spirit of the company