Five Hole for Food: Entrepreneurial Strategy

The founder of a non-profit organization that ran a cross-country ball hockey tournament in support of Food Banks Canada had to discuss the future of the organization with his team as it headed into its third year of operations. Foremost in his mind were questions about whether to continue Five Hole for Food as it had run for the first two years — organized exclusively on social media, managed completely by volunteers and funded by sponsorship donations — or else restructure it as a more formal organization, either independently or under the corporate social responsibility umbrella of a large corporation. The founder also faced serious challenges in assembling and organizing his management and operations teams: as the organization continued to grow, relying only on volunteer labour was going to become increasingly problematic. But if he started hiring and paying people for their time, would that change the organic nature of Five Hole for Food’s culture? He also wondered whether he should start to formalize the structure of the organization more, so it was less dependent on him as an individual. Could Five Hole for Food, which had raised over 50,000 pounds of food in its first two seasons, ever continue without him at the helm?

<ul><li>Understanding how entrepreneurship can happen in an era of social media.</li><li>Understanding the nature and culture of growth in an entrepreneurial start-up — what happens “when fun turns to work.”</li><li>Understanding how strategy works in small start-ups versus the large firms generally studied in business strategy courses. Effectuation theory is introduced, as well as the concept of “emergent” versus “deliberate” strategy. </li><li>Highlighting how non-profit organizations function in much the same way, strategically, as for-profit organizations. This allows for the introduction of topics such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the triple bottom line. Opportunities are also presented for discussions on corporate culture, segmentation, engagement and international expansion.</ul></li>

• Business growth
• social media
• startups
• non-profit management
• Canada