In preparation for your site visit to the Guinness Enterprise Centre, we will hear the following theme throughout the presentation (which is part of a quote in the article above) – “the power of entrepreneurship and the impact that it can have on the community, which benefits everyone.” In short, individuals and organizations who are interested in community economic development often focus on supporting small entrepreneurs who are seeking to launch interesting new ventures in certain neighborhoods or in the geographic area of a city like Dublin. Based on your quick review of the article on the Guinness Enterprise Centre, identify one commercial opportunity and one commercial challenge they are addressing in their efforts to support the development of local entrepreneurs in Dublin.
One huge commercial opportunity for the Guinness Enterprise Centre is the expansion of the facility to hold more startups. This allows for more engagement amongst the different companies and it acts as even more of a catalyst for innovation. This also opens up the government and business cooperation and partnership for efforts within the community. One commercial challenge they face is funding the center itself, as a costly expansion must be warranted to donors with extensive research and data. They also have difficulty having all the startups currently, which opens up the challenge of funding an expansion.
Finally, acting as members of consulting teams that might choose to write a group paper about the commercial opportunities and challenges connected to the Guinness Enterprise Centre, what specific questions do you have about the business model for the Guinness Enterprise Centre that relate to our course material (Triple Bottom Line and sustainability, market segmentation, maximization versus shared value, etc.)? Give us a specific question for tomorrow’s visit.
How does the Guinness Enterprise Centre select which startups it facilitates? Does the Guinness Enterprise profit off these startups or are they funded by investors and donors?