Learning Unit 5: Case study to solve: Colonel Sanders
- Knowledge of how a successful entrepreneur came to be.
- Knowledge of the skills and experiences that can be applied to a senior entrepreneur business.
- Ability to identify the skills and experience needed to be a senior entrepreneur.
- Discuss how a senior entrepreneur came to be successful.
- Willingness to use successful senior entrepreneurs’ experiences in one’s own entrepreneurship.
- Confidence in one’s skills and experience in becoming a senior entrepreneur.
A new age for business – the story of colonel sanders
When Sanders was six years old his father passed away leaving Sanders to cook and care for his siblings. In seventh grade, Sanders dropped out of school and left home to work as a farmhand. At just 16 years old, he faked his age to enlist in the United States army. After being honourably discharged a year later, he got hired by the railway as a labourer. However, he later got fired for fighting with his co-worker. While he worked for the railway, he studied law until he ruined his legal career by getting into another fight. Sanders was forced to move back home with his mother and get a job selling life insurance. Which he then got fired for insubordination.
In 1920, he founded a ferry boat company. Later, he tried cashing in his ferry boat business to create a lamp manufacturing company, only to find out that another company already sold a better version of his lamp. It wasn’t until age 40 that he began selling chicken dishes in a service station. As he began to advertise his food, an argument with a competitor resulted in a deadly shootout. Four years later, he bought a motel that burned to the ground along with his restaurant. Sanders rebuilt and ran a new motel until World War II forced him to close it down.
Following the war, he tried to franchise his restaurant. His recipe was rejected 1,009 times before anyone accepted it. Sander’s “secret recipe” was coined “Kentucky Fried Chicken” and quickly became a hit.
However, the booming restaurant was crippled when an interstate opened nearby, so Sanders sold it and pursued his dream of spreading KFC franchises and hiring KFC franchises and hiring KFC workers all across the country. After years of failures and misfortunes, Sanders finally hit it big. KFC expanded internationally, and he sold the company for 2 million dollars ($15.3 million today). Even today, Sanders remains central in KFC’s branding, and his face still appears in their logo. His goatee, white suit, and western string tie continue to symbolize delicious country-fried chicken all over the world.
STEP 1
- Read and examine the case thoroughly.
STEP 2
- Identify the transferrable skills and knowledge and link these to the case study.
STEP 3
- Explore and prepare a plan for your senior entrepreneurial idea that you could then use for mentoring senior entrepreneurs.
STEP 4
- Present your case study and plan.
TO COMPLETE EACH STEP YOU WILL NEED:
STEP 1
- Take notes, highlight relevant facts, underline key points.
STEP 2
- Identify 2 to 5 key skills or experiences.
- How did they impact the Senior Entrepreneur.
STEP 3
- Prepare a small presentation with your findings and conclusions about the case study (present in your preferred format).
- Prepare and present your senior entrepreneurial idea that you can use for mentoring senior entrepreneurs.
- Answer any questions asked at the end.