Big Cat Rescue Entrepreneurial Audit

Jaclyn Gutierrez & Josh Cooper ENT6930

 

Introduction

 

One of the main staples of Corporate Entrepreneurship at the University of Florida involves performing an entrepreneurial audit.  This audit is to be performed by a team of graduate students (Jaclyn Gutierrez and Josh Cooper) by the permission of the executive team of Big Cat Rescue.  The purpose of the entrepreneurial audit is to measure the frequency and intensity of entrepreneurship being performed at the company.  In addition, it highlights ways the company can incite increased innovation and entrepreneurial action through their employees.  Howard and Carole Baskin gave a wonderful tour of the Big Cat Rescue campus and allowed themselves as well as others a part of their team to be interviewed.

 

To begin it is very important to understand the concept of entrepreneurship and corporate entrepreneurship in the context it is being discussed in the class.  Entrepreneurship has many different definitions, but the majority of them include the same elements.  They way we define entrepreneurship in the course is “the process of creating value by bringing together a unique combination of resources to exploit an opportunity” (Morris).  On the other hand, corporate entrepreneurship holds many names including, “organizational entrepreneur,” “intrapreneurship,” and “corporate venturing.”(Morris)  By examining the definition of entrepreneurship above it becomes clear that entrepreneurship is not specified by organizational context.  As a result, “Corporate entrepreneurship is a term used to describe entrepreneurial behavior inside established mid-sized and large organizations” (Morris).  Thus corporate entrepreneurship relies on management and employees to innovate in every facet of the business.  Such entrepreneurship is paramount to helping companies that hope to establish a sustainable competitive advantage in the market.

 

The entrepreneurial audit aims to engage Big Cat Rescue in reflection of the entrepreneurial mindset present at the company.  The audit hopes to measure this presence in Big Cat Rescue as well as in the employees.  In the interest of the audit’s purpose, entrepreneurship must be quantified in a manner that enables Big Cat Rescue to decipher the amount of entrepreneurship present in their company as well as compared to other nonprofits similar to them.

 

This entrepreneurial audit of Big Cat Rescue will target aspects inside of the company that foster entrepreneurship.  The aspects inside of Big Cat Rescue that will be evaluated are strategy, and culture.

 

Background

 

Big Cat Rescue is an animal sanctuary located in Tampa, Florida committed to the rescue and rehabilitation of big cats.  The sanctuary is the largest in the United States serving specifically to big cats and is staunch on ending the private trade and ownership of big cats.  The nonprofit has evolved overtime and started when the founder Carole Baskin rescued numerous bobcat kittens from a fur farm.  Originally, the company bred and sold some big cats early on, but shifted focus once Carole Baskin came to the realization that big cats should not be pets nor bred in captivity.  As a result, Big Cat Rescue became determined to outlaw the private trade and ownership of Big Cats in the United States through legislation.  Pushing legislation has become a main focus for Big Cat Rescue and they engage their visitors to become active in joining their efforts.

 

Strategy

 

Entrepreneurship in strategy is key for companies that hope to stay ahead of their competition.  An entrepreneurial strategy is defined in the course as “a vision-directed, organization-wide reliance on entrepreneurial behavior that purposefully and continuously rejuvenates the organization and shapes the scope of its operations through the recognition and exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunity’ (Morris).  When this strategy is applied to organizations it enables the company to pros