Regents University

European Business School London

Lmmin

A Family Business Case Study

Submitted by Marianna Sgherri

Student ID: S00704495

for

EMG464.R_T2 - Family Business

Module Leader: Edward C. Gonsalves

16th March 2014

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Table of Content

INTRODUCTION 3

HISTORY 3

LMMIN 3

THE PROTOTYPING PROCESS 4

CHANNELS 4

THE LACK OF FUNDS 5

KICKSTARTER 5

GENERATED ISSUES 6

THEORETICAL NOTES 7

TEAM ROLES 7

CREATIVE MIND VS. RATIONAL MIND 8

FUNDRAISING 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY 11

APPENDICES 13

3

Introduction

Winter 2013: Daniele and Marianna went out to have a beer together during one of the rare

weekends they could spend together: Daniele worked in London and Marianna in Italy. Even

though they were in Italy, the weather was extremely cold and Marianna was wearing a thick white

wool scarf her mother handcrafted and gave her a couple of years before. It was not a simple scarf:

it was decorated with a hood. Daniele was immediately fascinated by the particular accessory his

girlfriend was wearing. Thats how Lmmin came to life.

Indeed, the young couple started in a while to think about the possibility to actually produce and

sell the accessory. At first for fun and then as a challenge and a real passion, the idea evolved to

actual production and commercialization of the modern and original hooded scarf.

History

The first ever made hooded scarf this is how the accessory will be called onwards was made as

mentioned before by Mariannas mother Minna, a Finnish textile designer. Even though the idea

was started from one of her handcrafts, Minna decided to take a step back since the beginning of

this story and offered her help for any future textile and manufacturer consultations.

Lmmin

Once realized the idea of creating their own brand was simply thrilling them, Marianna and Daniele

started to brainstorm about the name and corporate identity of the company. Marianna had her own

idea clear in her mind: she had the vision of an Italian company selling high quality products,

designed in Finland. On the other hand, Daniele thought a more pop and urban identity (and

name) was needed in order to appeal the customers. The two entrepreneurs engaged a discussion

that would have been lasting for a couple of months.

Finally, in May a name was chosen and a logo created (for the creative process see Appendix 1 and

2, for the final version see Appendix 3). Lmmin, that means warm in Finnish, was the picked

name and despite its origins, didnt sound odd in other languages. Laura, Mariannas sister, was

engaged for the creation of the whole graphic identity of the brand: she designed a logo and the not-

yet-existing website.

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Marianna had to liaise between Daniele and Laura, who had quite different views and working

methods. Being Daniele a business consultant, he had already a structured and processes oriented

way of thinking, working, behaving. Instead Laura was just graduated from Graphic Design and

Photography Schools; therefore her business attitude and mind set had still to develop. Creative and

business people relationships are never easy but in this case, Marianna felt the opposite working

methods were exasperated.

However, at the end of a process that seemed to be never ending, Lmmin name and logo were

registered, and all Marianna, Daniele and Laura were satisfied.

The Prototyping Process

Things didnt get better when the prototyping process started. Indeed, the accessory designs that

Daniele and Marianna fancied were the direct transpositions of their different views on brand

image. Daniele wanted to improve the shape and experiment new possibilities he believes there is

always space for improvement in order to make the hooded scarf more pop and urban, whilst

Marianna though her mothers design was already perfect: cosy and functional. A silent and

expensive the manufacturer charged the entrepreneurs for each sample they asked to be produced

war started, and the couple used their sporadic occasions to talk discussing about Lmmin.

This leaded also to some problems with the manufacturers and time to market issues. Due to the

opposite views of Lmmin creators, Claudia and Lorella, the founders of Maglificio Lady B

(Maglificio Lady B, 2014) told straight to the guys to came up and quickly with a single and

consistent idea of the hooded scarf design, as time was running and fall/winter season 2014 was

getting closer. They added they had nor time or resources to waste in creating prototypes differing

just few cm from one to the other. Even Minna tried to help the guys in this process giving tips and

suggestions, but the cold war seemed to have no end.

When all hope seemed to be gone, the summer was hot and it was already July, a definite design

was agreed (see Appendix 4) and the final sample created.

Channels

At least, since the beginning, Daniele and Marianna agreed on one thing. They wanted to sell their

hooded scarves online. In that way, they believed they could give an international breath to the

brand.

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To build up the website, Daniele called one of his University mates: Carlos who, together with his

colleague Andrea, created the website www.lamminhood.com (Lmmin, 2014) and the business

emails for us. Even though the website design was already created by Laura, the IT guys Carlos and

Andrea struggled to follow the graphic designers directions. This caused further tensions amongst

the Lmmin team: Laura felt her work to have been a waste of time because IT guys were not

following her instructions, Daniele apparently was defending his friend and Marianna her sister.

Besides all the generated tensions, after a month, a nice, modern and original website was created

(see the Homepage in Appendix 5).

The Lack of Funds

So, the hooded scarf model was defined, the brand name and logo were established and registered,

the website created. Marianna and Daniele agreed to register Lmmin as a sole trader company in

the name of Marianna, to avoid huge levels of taxation, bureaucracy issues and possible problems

for Daniele, who was working abroad. Though this was the cheapest option, it still cost them

1.000 just to register the company, and other instalments would have been due soon.

Anyhow, what was still missing was the actual production.

Marianna created an online marketing campaign for Lmmin, still hoping the production was

possible to be launched and first products to be sold for the fall/winter season 2013-2014. But her

optimistic attitude didnt help Lmmin to find the economic resources, and all the processes where

slowed down because in September she decided to move to London to study Marketing at Regents

University.

Kickstarter

Then in November, when the whole team had already developed bad feelings towards the future of

Lmmin, Daniele was told from one of his colleagues, Martin, about kickstarter.com (KS), a

crowdfunding website helping startups and small enterprises to rise funds. The Lmmin team ,

enriched by this new resource (see Appendix 6), decided to try to upload its project on KS, with the

help of Martin, UK citizen.

Among other requirements, a project on Kickstarter needs a presentation video aimed to describe

briefly the product or the team. The video (Lmmin Kickstarter Project, 2014) was recorded in

London by Giacomo Favilla and all the team members were satisfied with the result.

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Lmmins Kickstartetr project was launched 27th December 2013 and lasted 50 days: until 15th

February 2014. Lmmin managed to raise 22.000 even though pressure between Marianna and

Daniele went high again during the month of January. They spent their weekends (the only

timeframe they could spend together) contacting newspapers, journalists and magazines, blogs and

radios, friends and relatives and programming, planning next actions and strategies aiming to attract

people and money to their project. Particularly Danieles need and ability to plan and his result

oriented approach clashed with Mariannas nave attitude and attention to details and peoples

feelings.

Finally, the 15th of February arrived and Lmmin Luxurious High Quality Hooded Scarves

raised 22K (see Appendix 7 for some insights). Everything seemed to be ok, the manufacturer

was already aware of the quantity of pieces to produce, the backers ready to receive their rewards

when Kickstarter announced that one of the backers was not going to give them the money. And it

was not an average backer; he had pledged Lmmin for 5.000.

Suddenly, of the expected money was missing.

Generated Issues

Team Roles

Daniele and Marianna seem to have different sometimes opposite views when it comes to

business. On one hand Daniele seems to be more result oriented and able to work in parallel on

more tasks, on the other, Marianna has a natural inclination to empathy and tends to focus on

details, therefore loosing the big picture. How can Daniele and Marianna enhance the company

management combining their strengths and weaknesses to run Lmmin in a more effective way?

Creative Mind vs. Rational Mind

Logical and creative thinking can be seen as a paradox (De Wit et al., 2013) or especially

advertising and marketing communication research has investigate this natural tension during the

last 20 years (Semenik et al., 2012). How can Daniele and Laura accept their differences and

cooperate in order to facilitate the decision making process?

Fundraising

Kickstarter seems to be a good start for Lmmin, but still not enough. Which other channels might

Marianna and Daniele consider in order to continue their journey as entrepreneurs?

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Theoretical Notes

This section is provided with the purpose of suggesting possible theoretical and academic

frameworks within which collocate the issues arisen from the presented case.

Team Roles

In order to combine better Daniele and Mariannas strengths and weaknesses, it is believed the

application of Belbins theory (Belbin, 1981) of team roles to be a fair starting point. Therefore, the

completion of a self-perception Belbin test has been allocated to both the entrepreneurs, to possibly

understand better their behaviours. Below, the results of the self-perception test (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Daniele and Mariannas Belbin Self-Perception Test Results

(Source: Belbin 2012) [ME: Monintor Evaluator, PL: Plant, SH: Shaper, IMP: Implementer, CO: Coordinator, RI: Resource

Investigator, CF: Completer Finisher, SP: Specialist, TW: Teamworker]

According to Belbin (1981), people contribute in team with their functional (expertise) and team

(personal characteristics) roles. The figure above highlights that a balance between Daniele and

Mariannas favourite roles can exist.

Manning et al. (2006) suggest that the Belbin theory can be combined with the Big Five factor

model of personality (Digman & Inouye, 1986) in order to have a more precise definition of team

role behaviour, that is the combination of three major factors (see Figure 2).

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Figure 2: A model of Team Role Behaviour

(Source: Manning et al. 2006, pp. 289)

It is believed the combination of the above-mentioned frameworks, will be a valid instrument to

investigate further the tensions occurring between Daniele and Marianna, and possibly enhance the

running of Lmmin business. It has been researched (Manning et al., 2006) that team roles can be

trained and developed (especially leadership, problem solving, planning and interpersonal skills):

Daniele and Marianna have room for improvement in their business relation.

Creative Mind vs. Rational Mind

Laura, photographer and graphic designer, and Daniele, business consultant with an engineering

background, have developed tensions while interacting during the creative processes occurred in

Lmmin early stages. The conflict between creative and business people has been investigated and

some resolution models proposed (Semenik et al., 2012; Kover & Goldberg, 1995; Martin, 2009).

However, for the purpose of this paper, it is belived the interaction between Laura and Daniele to be

located within the team. Hence, a model proposed by Swailes and Senior (2004) can be adopted to

measure the effectiveness of Lmmin team performance by defining a balance in the different roles

(see Figure 3 below).

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Figure 3: Team Performance Dimensions and Balance

(Source: Senior & Swailes, 2004)

It is known that even in bigger companies, the creative department and management department do

not share always the same goals: creative people might use communication and marketing tools as

means for express their ideas, personality and beliefs, whereas management department see ads as

tools to reach predetermined objectives (Semenik et al. 2012). The differing background experience

does not simplify their relationship. Therefore it is believed a general harmonization and balance of

all the roles of the Lmmin team to be the key to solve the described tension. The above framework

can be used as a instrument to assess the actual equilibrium of the team as a whole.

Fundraising

The lack of human resources, has surely affected the depth of Lmmin business plan. The macro-

areas (see Figure 4 below) have been covered, but an underestimation of the overall costs

associated with a business has to be noted.

Figure 4: Business Plan Essentials

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As Linder and Cantrell (2000) highlight, one of the core elements of a firms business model and

plan is the economic model, providing forecasts for money earning. It is believed a starting

assessment of the firms business model to be fair to approach by using the framework provided

below (see Figure 5).

Figure 5: Components of a Business Model

(Source: Shafer et al., 2005)

A redefinition of Lmmin business plan and a more conscious assessment of the resources is

recommended in order to be available to implement the current (nave) strategy adopted by the

team.

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Bibliography

Belbin (2012) [online] Available at: www.belbin.com [Last accessed 16/03/2014].

Belbin R. M. (1981) Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail, Butterworth - Heinemann,

Oxford.

De Wit B., Meyer R. (2013) Strategy Process, Content, Context. An International Perspective, 4th

edition, South-Western, Cengage Learning, Zrinski, Croatia.

Digman J. M., Inouye, J. (1986) Further specification of the five robust factors of personality,

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50 (1), pp. 116 123.

Kover A. J., Goldberg S. M. (1995) The Games Compywriters Play: Conflict, Quasi-Control, a

New Proposal, Journal of Advertising Research, 25 (4), pp. 52 62.

Lmmin (2014) [online] Available at: http://www.lamminhood.com/ [Last accessed 16/03/2014].

Lmmin Kickstarter Project (2014) Lmmin - Luxurious High Quality Hooded Scarves [online]

Available at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1046837313/lammin-luxurious-high-quality-

hooded-scarves [Last accessed 16/03/2014].

Linder J., Cantrell S. (2000) Carved in water: Changing business models fluidly, Accenture

Institute for strategic change.

Maglificio Lady B (2014) [online] Available at: http://www.ladybfashion.com/ [Last accessed

16/03/2014].

Manning T., Parker R., Pogson G. (2006) A revised model of team roles and some research

findings, Industrial and Commercial Training, 38 (6), pp. 287 296.

Martin R. (2009) The Opposable Mind, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.

Semenik R. J., Allen C.T., OGuinn T. C., Kaufmann H. R. (2012) Advertising and Promotions: An

Integrate Brand Approach, 6th edition, South-Western, Cengage Learning, China.

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Senior B., Swailes, S. (2004) The dimensions of management team performance: a repertory grid

study, International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 53(3/4), pp. 317

330.

Shafer S. M., Smith H. J., Linder J. C. (2005) The power of business models, Business Horizons,

48, pp. 199 207.

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Appendices

Appendix 1 Lmmin Logo Design Creative Process 1

Appendix 2 Lmmin Logo Design Creative Process 2

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Appendix 3 - Lmmin Logo Registered Version

Appendix 4 Final Design

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Appendix 5 www.lamminhood.com Homepage

Appendix 6 The Lmmin Team

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Appendix 7 - Lmmin Luxurious High Quality Hooded Scarves insights

a)

b)