Facile/LigFerv: Hot Water in Three Seconds, Thirty Years of Entrepreneurial Process

João Paulo Moreira Silva,Liliane De Oliveira Guimarães,José Márcio De Castro

doi:10.1590/1982-7849rac2021200221.en

João Paulo Moreira Silva, Liliane De Oliveira Guimarães + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-7849rac2021200221.en

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Abstract

ABSTRACT This teaching case aims to discuss an entrepreneurial process involving the trajectory of an innovative product over thirty years until culminating in a significant event in the change of the company’s business model in the midst of the crisis triggered by the pandemic of the new coronavirus. The case offers opportunities for discussing theories related to the entrepreneurial process - causation and effectuation logic. In addition, in the course of the recent trajectory, in which the company is selected for an acceleration program, a possible change in the business model emerges. Reported from the perspective of the founder, but also supported by materials from secondary sources, the case presents the trajectory of Facile. The teaching strategy consists in enabling the student to learn, first, about the entrepreneur’s decision-making and action, emulating transitions between the causation and effectuation logic throughout the case to explain such behavior. Subsequently, the case inquires about possible alternatives for changing the business model for the company after the acceleration program, in which students will be able to identify more suitable alternatives in the face of both the company’s skills and, not least, the pandemic that changed the behavior of customers and entrepreneurs.

Highlights

The traditional models that propose to plan and explain the entrepreneurial process are based on planned sequential phases (Hisrich, Peters, & Shepherd, 2014)
The analysis of the process of creation of a company from the effectuation logic starts from the principle that, in its decision-making process, the entrepreneur considers three categories that correspond to a set of means: (a) who they are — it concerns their own characteristics, preferences, and abilities; (b) what they know — it is the knowledge and information they possess; (c) who they know — that is, the social networks they are part of (Sarasvathy, 2001)
In a context of difficulties generated by the pandemic and, considering the characteristics of the product and the current business model, the acceleration process leads to a possibility of profound change in the Faciletec business model

Summary

INTRODUCTION

He thought about the product LigFerv, in the company Faciletec, in the process of business acceleration. With a lot of investment in product certification and professionalization of the company, a new business model had been planned, along with the proposal to adopt an innovative marketing system. The advice of mentor Márcio, who followed the entire company’s acceleration process by providing mentoring, covered three central issues for the future of LigFerv: (a) the need to certify the product at Inmetro; (b) obtaining a factory regularized to the standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001 for production certification; (c) and the possibility of finding a recurring recipe model for Faciletec, since LigFerv has a very long lifespan. For Nilson, this was a way out of the ‘good problem’ he had, since LigFerv has a long life span and “those who have it don’t run out.”

30 YEARS OF NOVELTY

Which business model should Faciletec follow when selling its LigFerv product?

Findings

Conclusion of marketing research