Master of Business Administration

Course Title:

Course Code: EPS 6110

Course Credits: 2

Program Title: MBA

Instructor Name:

Student ID

Student Name:
Table of Content:

1. Introduction:................................................................................................................4

2. Case Analysis:............................................................................................................4

2.1 Resources Used by Nezar to Start Max Pro Journey:.........................................4

2.1.1 Collaboration:.................................................................................................4

2.1.2 Financial Resource:.......................................................................................4

2.1.3 Manufacturing Operations:............................................................................4

2.2 Enterprise Skills:...................................................................................................5

2.3 Entrepreneurs need a minimum level of resources to launch a new venture:.....5

3. Opportunities and Challenges Nezar face:.................................................................5

3.1 Opportunities:.......................................................................................................5

3.1.1 Low-Cost Entry:.............................................................................................5

3.1.2 Utilization of Social Media Platforms:............................................................5

3.1.3 Testing Opportunity:......................................................................................6

3.1.4 Expansion:.....................................................................................................6

4. Challenges:.................................................................................................................6

4.1 Limited Resources:...............................................................................................6

4.2 Covid-19 Pandemic:.............................................................................................6

5. Recommendations:.....................................................................................................6

6. Conclusion:.................................................................................................................7
 1. Introduction:

The purpose of this paper is to examine a given case study i.e.,” From Resistance
Bands to Max Pro: An Entrepreneurship” and identify the opportunities and issues
explained in the case regarding entrepreneurship. The paper will also suggest certain
suggestions on the relevant theories to overcome the identified issues.

2. Case Analysis:

In this contemporary environment, the trends of fitness are changed as wide people
across the world now went to gym by believing that it can positively affect their mental
health and increase their life expectancy. But now due to the pandemic of Covid-19, the
fitness activities are halted that arises a need of home-based fitness market and its
value is been growing from $5.4 billion to $11.45 billion. By analyzing such valuation of
home-based fitness market, Mr. Nezar Akeel has created a Max Pro Fitness Resistant
Band. He actually came up with this idea in 1999 when he used to travel a lot and was
not able to have a regular training at gym. This led him to create a product that allow
him to remain in shape while travelling around for work.

2.1 Resources Used by Nezar to Start Max Pro Journey:

To start any kind of business, the owner needs to have some specific resources and, in
this case, Nezar, an entrepreneur had all the required resources potentially available at
his finger-tips and among all of them was his enterprise skills. The potential resources
are explained below:

2.1.1 Collaboration:

The resource that was helpful for Nezar to start his journey for Max Pro Resistant Band
was collaboration. He made a team of different collaborators belongs to different
countries of Asia. Nezar leveraged the gig economy as he had an experience to work
along with short-term contracts. By this, he started to collaborate with electronic
engineers based in Sri Lanka, mechanical designers based in China and application
developers from Venezuela. By having collaboration with all experienced engineers
through short-term contracts, he becomes able to develop a product.
 2.1.2 Financial Resource:

The other major resource that is required by Nezar to produce Max Pro Resistant Band
was the financial aid. To achieve the financial assistance for supporting his idea, he
approached Kickstarter.com in 2019 and from here, he received 50% secured funds. To
raise more funds, he participated in pitch competitions where he won prize money.
Lastly, he also gets a state support offered by the government.

2.1.3 Manufacturing Operations:

After securing the required funds, Nezar aimed to set a manufacturing operation in
Detriot where he wanted to support the lower socio-economic groups under the local
society. He not only wanted to achieve solo money but wanted to gain knowledge about
the product that could benefit the wider population with regards to well-being and health
of people. For this, he was required to have a place where he could act as a lower
barrier to enter and low cost to be incurred. For this, he decided to launched his product
line in Asia instead of USA.

2.2 Enterprise Skills:

As explained in the case, Nezar was a qualified mechanical engineer and his long-term
experience as a production engineer with the model of lean manufacturing formed the
basis of Max Pro product which was an extension of his sports and engineering
background. He had worked in Toyota company and GMC which has provided him an
experience of 27 years in the automotive industry in Japan as he had worked as a
production engineer in Toyota where he gets specialized in car manufacturing
components which has initialized a designing skill in him. From 2008 to 2013, he ran a
consultancy business where he improved the productivity through reducing the losses
and maximizes the profits. He had also worked for a failed company i.e., AAC in Egypt
where the company was going in heavy loss. By working there, he had enhanced his
communication and leadership skills. By having such experiences in various areas, he
had achieved huge success not only as a production engineer but he becomes the best
components designers by developing wide skills such as he developed an ability to
fluently speak Japanese and understands different cultures. Moreover, by working in
different areas, he also had an experience to deal with banks to have an operational
survival. All such experiences are regarded as a major resource for him to develop Max
Pro Resistant Bands.

2.3 Entrepreneurs need a minimum level of resources to launch a new venture:

Starting a new business is always daunting but there are many entrepreneurs around
the globe who have opened new ventures successfully by spending significant time in
raising the capital, having a deep market research and developing a realistic business
plan before launching new venture. Although the careful preparations do not provide
guarantee of success but it can improve the chances. Entrepreneurs are regarded as
the key players in the economy as they use initiatives and skills to anticipate the needs
of markets. To start a new venture does not require wide variety of resources or capital
etc. but in fact, it requires a minimum level of resources that includes some funds,
educational, physical and emotional resources (Tarver, 2021). This stance can be
proved by the case of Nezar who does not have wide variety of resources to produce
Max Pro but he had wider professional experiences and enterprise skills that helped him
to achieve his goal.

3. Opportunities and Challenges Nezar face:

In his journey towards the development of Max Pro Resistant Band, Nezar had faced
various opportunities and challenges. Some of these are explained below:

3.1 Opportunities:
3.1.1 Low-Cost Entry:

Nezar had an opportunity to grow the business in an area where he could have low cost
of entry and even have low cost of production. For this, he decided to start up the line of
production in Asia where there are very much low barriers to entry and low cost to be
incurred due to low labor cost. The market of Asia is quite large where wide number of
populations have good purchasing power.

3.1.2 Utilization of Social Media Platforms:

In this contemporary business world, Nezar had an opportunity to expand the product
by using the various sites on social media platform. For this, Nezar has made a website
i.e., www.maxprofitness.com where people not only used to get all the required
information about the product but also place their orders. After this, he made an effort to
make this product available on Amazon from 2021. This step acted as a low barrier for
Nezar with regards to the entry in market.

3.1.3 Testing Opportunity:

Nezar got the opportunity for testing the Max Pro through various shows and expos as
Max pro had won Consumer Electronic Show’s award of Best Innovation in 2019 in the
category of Fitness and Health. Nezar had also won the editor’s choice for Runners
World which has given a huge press coverage and positive reviews to the product from
customers which provides him an opportunity to test the product at shows and then
make further developments on the basis of reviews.

3.1.4 Expansion:

The other major opportunity, Nezar has taken by selling the product in wide number of
states. The case indicates that Nezar had retailed the product in 50 states within USA
and 56 other countries around the globe. This had provided him a global reach through
retail of Amazon. Nezar claimed that direct mailing, approach of gig economy and 3D
printing were the key resources that aided in the development, growth and expansion of
Max Pro.

4. Challenges:
4.1 Limited Resources:

As explained in the case, Nezar had a very limited resources to startup the new
business. He did not have proper financial plan neither he had such resources to
promote the product. He did not even have resources to train or made a set-up for
remote workers. All he had was his professional experience and approach of gig
economy that led him to develop the product.

4.2 Covid-19 Pandemic:

The other major challenge faced by Nezar during his journey for introducing Max Pro
was the pandemic of Covid-19. However, despite of having wide number of orders from
customers, there were still an instance where the product fails to meet the required
standards such as the quality of parts used in the Max Pro. This issue was highly
attributed to the restrictions on operation by the governments due to pandemic of Covid-
19

5. Recommendations:

As it has been explained above that Nezar had a very limited resources to introduce a
new product i.e., Max Pro. For this, he needs to introduce a line of product in a place
where it could incur low cost of entry and production. For this, Nezar had decided to
start a production line in Asia state where he would have low barriers for entry. It would
be suggested that Nezar should also made further expansions in all such states where
he could have low entry barriers like Middle East or Africa that will not only help him to
expand his business but will also enhance his product reputation around the globe.

Secondly, the pandemic of Covid-19 has imposed certain restrictions that had impacted
the quality for parts used for the production of Max Pro. This has not only impacted the
sales but ruin their image. For this, Nezar needs to promote more transparency, clear
communication and quick resolutions offered to customers. This will not only help to
regain their image but also increase their sales and profit.

Thirdly, Nezar was also having an issue to promote the product due to the limited
resources or financial support. For this, Nezar had started to use online channels
especially Amazon which has increased their sales. It would be suggested that Nezar
should further use more online channels such as Facebook or Instagram which had
wide number of users (Thompson, 2021). This will help him to provide an easy access
to public and the development of strong relations with customers.

Fourthly, Nezar had faced an issue of high barriers for entry in the markets due to the
poor quality of products used in the process of production and the less efficient time
management due to which Nezar had faced a serious challenge by changing various
times the mechanical and electronic engineers. However, it would be suggested that to
encounter this issue, Nezar should make a recruitment approach more specific and hire
such professional who had long-term experience in the field and by their experience,
they could improve the quality of product and enhance more sales.

Lastly, to gain the financial assistance was the major challenge for Nezar to introduce
the Max Pro. For this he had been gone through a hard struggle, approached
Kickstarter.com, participated in various competitions to win the price money and was
able to manage the amount. It would be suggested that to introduce such innovative
product in the market, Nezar must made his first approach to government as the
governmental institution highly promotes innovative products for enhancing the
economy (Forbes, 2019). This would lead Nezar to struggle less and achieve the goal in
less time.

6. Conclusion:

The paper highlights the importance of innovative products and their success in this
contemporary business environment. The case identifies the facts that entrepreneurs
had to take risks before starting any new ventures as they do not have much available
resources or funds to take a good start but by having a good enterprise experience
could results in high achievements. It can be analyzed by the case that Nezar had took
a high level of risk by introducing Max Pro business which was based on his faith in
expertise, passion and knowledge related to the fitness and mechanical engineering.
But he had achieved high revenues and wide number of positive reviews from
customers that provides him competitive advantage.
References:

Forbes. (2019). How Government Should Promote Innovation. Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/2019/06/03/how-government-should-promote-
innovation.html?sh=b9ea537e2312

Tarver, E. (2021). Skills Every Entrepreneur Should Have. Retrieved from

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/080615/5-skills-every-
entrepreneur-needs.asp

Thompson, N. (2021). Best Social Media Platforms for Business. Retrieved from
https://optinmonster.com/best-social-media-platforms-for-business/
#:~:text=Social%20media%20can%20be%20one,leads%20to%20fill%20your
%20funnel.