Abstract

Earth-Kind, headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota, in the USA, was founded in 1993 by Kari Warberg Block (Kari). Kari’s entrepreneurial journey started when she began selling potpourris and organic produce on her farm. She then went into manufacturing, selling a totally agriculture-based rodent repellant – Fresh Cab – that provided a non-messy, environmentally friendly solution to the rodent menace that plagues farms and homes the world over. In the process she also invested in the community by employing handicapped people and supporting family farms. Kari began in a small way, working out of her home and involving her children and neighbors. But, by 2013, the business had grown tremendously and had a cumulative sale of US$40 million and annual revenue of US$ 5 million. In recognition of her achievement in running an environmentally and socially responsible business, Kari received awards and recognitions from several reputed organizations. Kari proved that a woman could be soft, caring, kind, and capable of helping humanity and still be a strong person. Her journey from a farm wife to a successful entrepreneur and a role model for women who dreamed of helping humanity through business was incredibly hard, and she had to contend with many obstacles that would have unnerved any other entrepreneur. In addition to creating a product that was agriculture-based, Kari ensured that her organization was run in a sustainable manner. The operations involving manufacturing, packing, and selling the product left only a 2 per cent carbon footprint. In recognition of Earth-Kind’s environmentally friendly practices, the company was certified as an environmentally and socially responsible business by Green America’s Green Business Network in the year 2011. It was also named one of the top 10 people’s choice finalists by Green America. In 2013, Kari was recognized as a runner-up for the National Small Business Person of the year by the US Small Business Administration from among 54 entrepreneurs. She had earlier been named North Dakota’s Small Business Person of the Year. In the next stage of the growth of the company, Kari was looking at expanding the market globally and at ways to expand to countries like India. The company was looking at new products, new customers, and new channels of sale to achieve the target of US$ 100 million revenue by 2017 and more than 100 per cent growth per year.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• How entrepreneurs go through an evolutionary process in their journey
• Why one model does not describe the framework of development of all entrepreneurial ventures
• the uniqueness of each venture
• The capabilities entrepreneurs require at different phases of their journey
• How entrepreneurs build organizations using environmentally friendly solutions to common problems

Keywords

Rodent, Repellant, Agriculture-based, Sustainable, Lean, Green, Environmental–friendly, Community, E&Y Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program, Earth-Kind, Fresh Cab, Dayton Hudson, Environment Protection Agency, John Deere, Green America