1. Analyze and describe the founding leader(s), leadership style, and major business principles of a profit-oriented entrepreneurial approach in which the primary goal is to provide a product or service to consumers and to make a profit.
According to Boone (2011), profits represents “rewards for businesspeople who take the risks involved in blending people, technology, and information to create and market want-satisfying goods and services.” Entrepreneurship is the “willingness to take risks to create and operate a business to achieve success in the marketplace and earn those profits” (Ibid., pp. 6). Profits are the central focus of any business; a company could not survive without it; Leon L. Bean was one of those people.
Leon L. Bean, named by Fortune Magazine, as “1of 200 best entrepreneurial for 2011” (Gale Encyclopedia, Und.). An avid outdoorsman, Leon Bean started out by creating a comfortable, functional boot for exploring the Maine woods. His idea came as a result of him returning from a hunting trip with cold, damp feet. While Bean had to refund money on “90 of the first 100 pairs of shoes, when the shoes developed cracks” (Ibid., Und.), it did not stop him; it led to the creation of “the Maine Hunting Shoe” which changed outdoor footwear forever and began one of the most successful family-run businesses in the country (Ibid., Und.).
Treating customer well became a “hallmark of Bean’s business strategy; guaranteeing his product to give perfect satisfaction in every way” (Ibid., Und.). He kept his company open 24 hours a day, aware that hunters and fishermen frequently needed equipment or a license in the middle of the night. He listened to and addressed every complaint about the quality of his merchandise. As noted on the L.L. Bean, Inc. website, his approach, often called “L.L. Bean’s golden rule” to his dealings with customers was simple: “sell good