Weeel Evaluation

1. Main issues analysed

When Manuel Sena just graduated, his career objective was to become CEO of a global multinational. Nowadays however, the entrepreneur owns his own company with 3 partners, and does not want to change this for the world. With a Nova degree in his pocket, Sena went in the strategic consulting business, where he acquired very useful skills and tools for his later career, he states. Afterwards, he did a MBA and after a passage as Head of Digital Sales at Timue, Sena ended up working for giant Philip Morris, where he was responsible for Regional Sales. Obsessed with his job, Sena worked like an animal and was making a lot of money. However, Sena felt the urge of calling the sheets himself, and wanted to establish his own business. With his 3 associates, he came up with a good USP: selling frozen yoghurt. One of the reasons why his product was so good was because people focus more and more on their health, and frozen yoghurt provides a tasteful alternative over other healthy products, which are usually boring and tasteless. After dealing with a lot of problems and challenges like

searching for funding, creating a proper business plan, identifying key success factors,  cash flow control, getting the right people on the job,… Weeel is doing a great job and Sena is enjoying every minute of it; being his own boss.

1. Strengths of the case or practices

One of the remarkable strengths Sena experiences is the fact that every Monday, he gets out of bed very cheerfully, because he has the honour of working for his own company again the following week. Sena enjoys working for his own since it gives him the flexibility he requires, and he was willing to give up his high salary at Philip Morris in order to achieve that.

Another important advantage Sena disposes of, are his rich past experiences. Throughout those experiences, Sena acquired the knowledge, skills and network to be able to lead his own business today.

To continue, Sena answers to the cliché about true entrepreneurs:’ accept your own failures and move on by searching for new opportunities’. It is a generalized fact that entrepreneurs experience a lot of problems and challenges that can lead to failures. There are a gazillion of things that an entrepreneur cannot foresee or predict. Yet, even after experiencing a burnout while he was working for Timue, Manuel Sena did not give up, pursued his career and eventually became a successful entrepreneur.

Furthermore, Sena can also be praised for his emphasis on continuous improvement. One of the examples about this emphasis is the creation of the recruiting manual, to reduce the risk of recruiting the wrong people. After all, retention was not the issue, but getting the right people on the job certainly was.

1. Practices to improve and/or suggestions

One of the practices to improve for Weeel is obviously the issue just discussed; the recruiting of competent employees. The recruiting manual reduces this risk and certainly helps, but has not yet proven to be THE solution regarding this matter. Further analysis is necessary to deal with it.

To remain competitive with a big player like Unilever, Weeel might also look into the possibility of expanding their product assortment with other healthy snacks or beverages, and even to target a totally new target group, providing adjusted types of products (e.g. focus on elderly who sometimes enjoy other types of products than the younger generation).