Ivey Business Marketing a Social Enterprise After Dragons Den Case Analysis Read the individual case then do a individual case analysis. Individual Case An

Ivey Business Marketing a Social Enterprise After Dragons Den Case Analysis Read the individual case then do a individual case analysis. Individual Case Analysis Memo
All students that are not required to submit a team write-up or perform a case presentation for
the current day’s case, will be required to conduct an individual case analysis. Each student is
required to submit a one-page single-spaced (12-pt font) memo analyzing the case. You are
required to complete 3 individual case analysis throughout the course (5 pts each). Once an
assignment/case has been discussed in class, late submissions of the same cannot be accepted
therefore, individual submission are due at the start of the class.
Problem Statement: 1-2 sentences
SWOT Analysis: Minimum 3 items under each category
Alternatives: List 3 alternative
Recommendation: Choose 1 alternative and explain why this is your recommendation. 1-2
paragraphs.
9B16A052
HOPE BLOOMS: MARKETING A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE AFTER
DRAGONS’ DEN
Margaret McKee, Ethan Pancer, and Chantal Hervieux wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do
not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names
and other identifying information to protect confidentiality.
This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized, or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the
permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights
organization. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Western
University, London, Ontario, Canada, N6G 0N1; (t) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com.
Copyright © 2016, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation
Version: 2016-10-07
A day before her last board of directors’ meeting for 2015, Jessie Jollymore, executive director and founder
of Hope Blooms (HB), reflected on the past year. An appearance on the CBC show Dragons’ Den two
years earlier had significantly increased the profile of HB and helped attract new customers and social
investors. The organization had recently moved into a permanent home in a newly renovated retail and
manufacturing space in the heart of Halifax, Nova Scotia. It had signed a new distribution deal with a major
grocery store chain that would sell HB’s dressings in a few selected pilot stores and return 100 per cent of
the sales to the organization. HB had also become a registered charity, which had its own unique
opportunities and challenges.
By making the business a registered charity, Jollymore aimed to protect and grow it for the youth involved
in HB’s programs. Yet, being a registered charity brought constraints and did not solve two of the
organization’s fundamental problems: how could the retail operations provide stable employment for its
youth members, and how could HB increase its profits to continue to expand its activities? The retail
business really had just one product category: fresh herb dressings. The dressings were popular and
consistently sold out at local markets and grocery stores, which constrained certain growth opportunities
based on production and capacity issues. As Jollymore prepared for her upcoming board of directors’
meeting, she had an eye on the future beyond securing charitable donations and grants. She was thinking
of ways to successfully grow the business while creating sustainable funding for youth-driven projects in a
community that had been marginalized for generations.
THE GERMINATION OF AN IDEA
Jollymore launched HB in 2007 while she was working as a registered dietitian at the North End
Community Health Centre. She had been with the health centre for eight years, helping to educate people
about healthy eating, food security issues, and dealing with food-related chronic illness such as diabetes.
Jollymore had come to realize that simply telling people about the importance of a healthy diet was not
enough. She realized that if people could not afford to buy healthy food, they felt disempowered. In getting
to know the youth and families through her time in the North End community, Jollymore had developed a
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love for their rich culture and heritage. She was fond of saying that “beauty and brilliance are not defined
by a postal code,” and she meant it. She had spent much of 2006 looking for a way to help the youth in the
North End become change makers who would actively build brighter futures for themselves while
contributing to the health and well-being of their home community.
Six months later, with these ideas still in the back of her mind, Jollymore was walking past an abandoned
garden next to Uniacke Square and Murray Warrington Park, in the heart of Halifax’s inner city. Jollymore
thought back to a magazine photo she had recently seen on a flight back to Nova Scotia, which showed two
African American teenagers from New York City’s Bronx district receiving a “Presidential Award” for
starting their own social business with coffee beans. In a flash, the inspiration came to her. She could
connect the teens in her community with the abandoned lot. The idea for HB was born: to create a business
venture spearheaded by youth from the inner city, who would learn to grow organic food for their families
and community, and develop as future business people and community leaders.
LAUNCHING HOPE BLOOMS
Jollymore contacted community members, local organizations and schools, and Halifax Regional
Municipality (HRM) staff to see who might be interested in partnering with her on this venture. Four months
later, after working through many meetings and speaking to elementary school classes, she managed to
secure permission to use the land as a community garden. She was warned that the garden would be
vandalized, and she was shrugged off as being too idealistic, but Jollymore did not get discouraged.
In the first year of operation, Jollymore recruited nine youths between six and nine years of age to take part
in the program. They had a launch party with a small barbeque, taking buckets of water to the garden in a
kid-sized wagon. The city donated over 100 tomato transplants, so the youths learned how to grow
tomatoes. They added some hot peppers and, after applying to the Black Business Initiative to have a
summer business school, they decided to start a salsa business. They named it “Salsamania.” They made
over 150 bottles of salsa and donated all of their profits to a shelter for women and children needing shortterm housing. Jollymore recounted that they walked away from the experience with two key learnings: they
never wanted to make another bottle of salsa again, and they needed to diversify what they were growing.
However, a love of entrepreneurship had also been born. The impact of this first year was so great that the
youth who started in HB in 2007 were still with HB in 2015.
The second year, they branched out and started planting seedlings themselves. They also expanded the
garden and attracted seven more youths. They grew over 130 kilograms of vegetables that summer and held
their own farmers’ market on-site at the garden, calling the business “Super Sonic Veggies.” Jollymore
recalled the key learnings from that year:
We learned a lot about the Four Ps of marketing. We learned that selling vegetables in a community
that faces food insecurity on a daily basis is not a viable business. We charged people $21 for a bag
of vegetables that they selected. They were happy, and so we were happy. But at the end of the
harvest, it was not a sustainable enterprise.
Over the next few months, Jollymore and the youths talked about their mistakes and performed market
research. Jollymore’s daughter, a trained chef and recent competitor on Top Chef Canada, suggested salad
dressing as a possible product. Some additional research showed there was strong consumer interest in
healthy alternatives to rich, creamy dressings. The herb dressings they considered had the advantages of
1
All currency amounts are in Canadian dollars (CA$); CA$1.00 = US$0.94 on September 30, 2008.
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being relatively easy to make without a full industrial kitchen and of having a one-year shelf life, assuming
pH levels were maintained. Having grown to include 26 youths and expanded from three garden plots to
15, the group felt this was doable and would allow them to stay true to their roots. They could continue to
grow food, give much of it away to their community, and still have enough produce to create a product that
would generate profits for community investment, including a scholarship fund for post-secondary studies.
That next summer, in 2010, Jollymore and the youths grew over 360 kilograms of vegetables for their
community. They also grew herbs and garlic for their dressings and sold over 500 bottles at the Saturday
farmers’ market, generating $5002 for their scholarship fund.
PITCHING ON DRAGONS’ DEN
The momentum continued over the next two years, and in 2013, Jollymore and the kids rocketed to national
attention. They were invited to appear on the hit CBC show, Dragons’ Den. Seven of the older youths
between the ages of 10 and 14 were picked to represent HB on the show. They prepared and rehearsed for
two months. They downloaded almost every episode of the program, and each person was assigned to be a
specialist in some aspect of HB’s operations. Their pitch to the “dragons” was for funding to make a new
greenhouse in return for a 5 per cent royalty until the initial loan could be repaid. They came home with a
$40,0003 contribution from the dragons; however, it was a straight donation, with no stipulations regarding
how monies were to be allocated. That year, viewers across Canada voted HB as the top story on “Only in
Canada,” a news segment on CBC’s The National.
Eight years since its conception, backed with a lot of perseverance and community support, HB was
thriving. Over 50 youths and their families were changing their community for the better. As Jollymore
said, “They’re demonstrating that, when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at
change.”
COMMUNITY OUTREACH PROGRAMS
The stated mission of HB was “to empower at-risk youth to be actively engaged in building environments
that directly impact the social determinants of health in their communities.” It worked to achieve this
mission through a number of initiatives—some commercially focused and others more community and
socially focused.
Community Garden and Greenhouse
The central activity of HB was operating a small, one-acre, urban community garden and greenhouse.
Between April and October each year, the garden yielded over 1,000 kilograms of produce. The garden was
subdivided into 30 plots, and 20 of these were made available free to local families. HB supported all the
gardeners with training, seeds, transplants, tools, and biweekly support. The greenhouse was used to grow
herbs for the dressings, and, with its aquaponics system and vertical farm, it also functioned as an
innovative, hands-on, outdoor classroom for schools and the community.
2
3
CA$1.00 = US$0.97 on October 3, 2010.
CA$1.00 = US$0.95 on November 14, 2013.
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Fresh Herb Dressing Program
The herb dressing program provided a much needed revenue source for HB and, at the same time,
contributed to the attainment of its broader social mission. The program helped develop the entrepreneurial
and leadership skills of youth members. Participating youth received training and instruction in all aspects
of the dressing operation. They attended sessions put on by HB’s staff and local volunteer experts on such
topics as organic and sustainable farming; the health components of the dressing; safe food handling;
dressing production; and public relations, marketing, and sales. Youth members who were interested in
taking on a youth leadership role could take advantage of additional management skills training and
mentorship.
Junior Leadership Development Program
HB’s mentorship program ran year-round, with meetings three times a week. Participating youth were
matched with leaders in their fields of interest. They had opportunities to develop their skills in organic
gardening, and four youth members completed a six-month master organic gardeners’ course. Members
could also take other courses on training and innovation.
Community Suppers and Soups for Seniors
Youth members used produce from their gardens to host free community suppers, and they provided seniors
facing food insecurity with homemade soup that HB members delivered to them free of charge.
Post-secondary Scholarship Program
A scholarship program was established for HB’s members. One dollar from every bottle of dressing sold
was invested in the scholarship fund. To be eligible to receive scholarship support, youths needed to
volunteer with HB for a minimum of four years and live in the catchment area.
Community Investment
A separate community investment fund was created. Again, one dollar from every bottle of dressing sold
was invested in the fund, and, in this case, HB members decided how the funds would be distributed in the
local community. Examples of contributions included: (1) a donation of funds to a shelter for women and
children experiencing or at risk of homelessness; (2) a $500 scholarship for an individual youth in the
community who was not involved in the program but was planning to attend college; (3) provision of
lunches to a local school lunch program; and (4) preparation of a three-course meal for an organization for
homeless and street-involved youth.
HOPE BLOOMS IN 2015
Jollymore had recently established HB as a registered charity. This allowed HB to generate non-taxable
income that kept pricing low and still presented adequate margins. HB also received direct donations and
gifts that provided tax exemptions for donors.
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The organization also established a board of directors. The board consisted of 10 people recruited from
local businesses and the community. This step allowed Jollymore to establish the older youths as official
members of HB and secure their position as the driving force and “owners” of the organization. It also
helped ensure that HB’s business operations remained aligned with its original mission and values.
Finally, Jollymore hoped the new charitable status would help ensure the sustainability of HB and position
it to realize a new, longer-term goal with an educational focus. Jollymore wanted to build on HB’s
successful track record of building a strong, impactful, child-to-adult mentorship program, to create a multiyear and multi-faceted educational program, and ultimately to lead HB participants to post-secondary
education.
Staffing
HB had two full-time staff members, four part-time staff members, and over 50 volunteers. Jollymore was
now the full-time executive director. She was responsible for operational management, fundraising,
financials, public relations, social media, outreach, and speaking engagements. Alvero Wiggins was the
program coordinator. He had been working with the organization since 2010. He had a background in youth
and recreation and was a native of the area. Wiggins was responsible for working with Jollymore to create,
implement, and oversee all programming. He was the lead on youth mentorship and program delivery. The
part-time staff included Peter Wilkinson, the urban greenhouse coordinator; Tara Downey, the community
garden coordinator; Ashley Cheverie, the bookkeeper; and Mamadou Wade, who was responsible for
marketing. HB was fortunate to have a lean but dedicated staff who made compensation compromises to
help achieve the HB vision. The total wages and benefits for all staff cost just $91,519 in the last fiscal year.
There were 14 youth leaders, aged 13 to 16, involved in running the social enterprise. They were each given
an honorarium up to a maximum of $1004 per month for four hours of work each week producing products,
marketing and selling the dressings, or helping with finances and administration. The remaining 38
members of HB were responsible for greenhouse and garden operations.
Facilities
After being housed for six years in the North End Community Centre, HB moved into its own dedicated
location on Cornwallis Street on December 5, 2014. The 93-square-metre space served as a production
facility, retail outlet, and gathering place for the youth and community at large. Its state-of-the-art, stainless
steel, commercial kitchen was built with the support of community members and donations from local
businesses—especially the restaurant sector—and was designed for dressing production, cooking
demonstrations, and community suppers. While the space met current needs, there was limited storage space
for the bottles and other supplies.
HB initially operated a small, cold-frame greenhouse and used that to start plants for six small garden plots
that it operated for the dressing business. Thanks to generous support from the community, a new 139square-metre, year-round greenhouse was constructed adjacent to the garden on Brunswick Street. It
officially opened on May 1, 2015. Built with generous contributions from Bullfrog Power and significant
volunteer assistance from a host of tradespeople from Build Right Nova Scotia, this new greenhouse, built
on HRM property, was a fully “off-grid” facility designed by a 14-year-old HB member involved with the
4
CA$1.00 = US$0.75 on December 1, 2015.
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project. The new facility made it possible for HB to grow as much as 900 kilograms of additional herbs and
vegetables year-round for its retail products and educational programs.
Marketing
HB’s primary retail product was a line of five fresh herb dressings. The dressings were made with herbs
from HB’s own garden and greenhouse and high-quality ingredients sourced from a variety of suppliers
(see Exhibit 1). The flavours consisted of Fresh Basil Pesto, Fire Roasted Oregano, Maple Sage Balsamic,
Orange Rosemary Dijon, and—the latest addition—Peppered Cranberry Chive, which was introduced in
2014. While the dressings were traditionally associated with vegetable or pasta salads, they also functioned
effectively as marinades for meat and fish or other dishes looking for flavour and spice.
The dressings were sold in 250 millilitre glass bottles with a black plastic tamper-proof cap. Each variety
featured a common label with a black and white photo of Barbara and Rylee, two of the youths participating
in the program, a green HB logo, and the tag line “Plant a Seed—Harvest a Dream.” Different accent colours
were used to distinguish the various flavours. One of the side labels featured a list of ingredients and
nutrition facts, and the other side label told the story of HB. This side label also prominently stated, “All
proceeds go back into community food security and access to education.”
HB produced 6,000 bottles of dressing in 2013, and by 2015, that number had grown to over 10,000 bottles.
Current production consistently sold out, so meeting demand presented a capacity challenge, and the
greenhouse offered a potential solution. Once the new greenhouse was producing at full capacity,
production was expected to increase to 15,000–20,000 bottles a year.
The group had experimented with a few small-scale retail ventures. For Christmas, HB offered “dressing
gift packs” in special bags the youth made from burlap. The bags were very labour intensive, so they only
provided a limited number. The gift packs were popular, and the inventory sold out very quickly with little
effort or publicity. The previous summer, a small team of HB members created a fresh vegetable juice
business as a mini-venture and sold their product at the farmers’ market. They were able to generate $1,000
in profits that they used to host a community Christmas event.
Th…
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