Executive Summary

Entrepreneurship is the process of discovery of new product, service or production which

possesses new opportunities and exploitation of those opportunities with all the risks that
comes along to generate profit. Entrepreneurs discover new ways of combining resources for
to generate more economic gain and successful entrepreneurs helps in the growth of associated
business. Rabi Chandra Malla is the founder of Kolpa and his venture works with people from
various ruler regions of Nepal and helps them grow and become financially capable.
Qualitative research is a method that focuses on obtaining data through participant observation
and interviews. A qualitative research was done through questionnaire and interview to collect
primary data for the purpose of this report. Theory of Innovation as purposed by Joseph A.
Schumpeter explains that entrepreneurs introduce new innovations and utilizes them to
increase economic gain. In case of Mr. Malla he introduced various natural raw materials and
skills from different ruler regions of Nepal and commercialized the. The artisans who possessed
amazing skills but weren’t valued for it got market exposer and financial gain. Theory of Need
for Achievement by David McClelland explains that people don’t just work for social prestige
or recognition but for the feeling of personal accomplishment. People have different goals in
life and Mr. Malla’s goal is to find satisfaction and inner peace in his work. He always wanted
to serve people and give back to community and for that reason he worked with unvalued and
unappreciated artisans from ruler regions of Nepal and utilized precious raw materials that
weren’t valued as per their quality and gave those artisans and producers of such raw materials
a market to flourish and utilize to gain financially. Every Venture life cycle has five stages as
New Venture Development, Start-Up Activities, Venture Growth, Business Stabilization and
Innovation or Decline. The ideas develop, a business is started, the business grows with
changes in business strategies and products, new competitors enter the market affecting sales
growth and if the entrepreneur can innovate the venture will survive else it collapses. Mr.
Malla’s venture is now at business stabilization stage as lots of competitors have now entered
market offering similar product which and affected his sales growth. Also he is planning for
domestic as well as international expansion of Kolpa. Though Kolpa is doing quite well, Mr.
Malla should now focus on introducing new products and making his products exclusive and
give customers a reason to choose his product over other brand, also should do online
expansion and online marketing and collaborations with stores to let customers know about the
existence of his brand.

Introduction
Entrepreneurship is the process of discovery of new product, service or production which
possesses new opportunities and exploitation of those opportunities with all the risks that
comes along to generate a profit. Entrepreneurs are those who take those opportunities to create
new business along with all the risks to generate more profit. Entrepreneurs discover new ways
of combining resource to generate more economic gain. For example, an entrepreneur takes all
the resources required to produce regular noodles that can be sold at Rs. 20 and produces
Ramen noodles that can be sold at Rs. 120, he gains more profit by increasing the value created
by the same resource. Entrepreneurs play an important role in any economy as they create new
ideas, products and business in the market which helps in the growth of associated business.
Also, successful entrepreneurs expand the size of economic pie for everyone. For example, Bill
Gates made software that increased human productivity which then improved peoples’
earnings and uplifted their living standard. Entrepreneurship is now not limited to just
discovery of new ideas but also related to transforming world by innovation, creation, social
change and life changing solutions.

Rabi Chandra Malla, founder of Kolpa holds an undergraduate degree from City University of
New York, and a Masters from Touro College, Graduate School of Technology, both in IT.
Kolpa was first registered by Malla in 2005 for the purpose of export of Nepali handicrafts.
But the company wasn’t in well operation until 2014 when Mr. Malla returned to Nepal. He
wanted to do something in Nepal, give back to the community and work on a local level. He
revived the company to promote the handmade goods produced by Nepalis from various ruler
regions of the country. He also spent years on the research of raw materials found in various
parts of the country, what products are made from these materials and how are those products
being used. Kolpa now focuses on production and promotion of products made using raw
materials from different regions of Nepal and made by various communities of ruler regions of
Nepal. Mr. Malla has given these producers and their skills a market and made a positive impact
on lives of people of those communities he is working with. These people are now financially
capable and the women are gaining confidence in themselves as they have now become the
primary support for their family. Mr. Malla plans to expand his venture internationally through
collaborations or store establishment. He is also planning to develop an application to bring all
the producers in one network for the convenience of communication.
In this report, we’ll analyze the interview done with Mr. Malla and how his entrepreneurship
relates with various entrepreneurial theories.

Methodology
Qualitative research is a research method that focuses on obtaining data through participant
observation and interviews. Qualitative research method originated in social and behavioral
science is used to gain an in-depth knowledge of people’s belief, experience, attitude and
behavior. The data collection method varies using structured or unstructured techniques and
one-on-one interview, focus group, ethnographic researches are some of the common methods
of data collection. To meet the purpose of this report, qualitative research was conducted
through questionnaires and interview and primary data was collected.

Findings
Analysis One
Innovation Theory
As commented by renowned author Peter F. Drucker, “Innovation is the specific function of
entrepreneurship. It is the means by which the entrepreneur either creates new wealth-
producing resources or endows existing resources with enhanced potential for creating wealth”.
According to the innovation theory by Joseph A. Schumpeter, innovation is the process of
conversion of opportunities to profit generation by an entrepreneur i.e. an entrepreneur applies
new ideas and techniques to reduce the production cost and to increase the demand for his
product for increased economic gain. Entrepreneurs introduce new innovation and takes the
economy to a new level of development. Schumpeter’s innovation theory refers to the launch
of of new product or a new species of existing product, new production process or sales
strategies, opening up of a new market, new source of supply of raw material and innovation
in organizational management for the creation or destruction of monopoly position. New
source of supply of raw materials refers to a source of raw materials that existed but wasn’t
utilized commercially before.
Mr. Malla researched about raw materials found in different parts of Nepal and how those raw
materials were being used in production of various products. Raw materials like Himalayan
Wild Nettle(Allo), Corn Husk, Typha(Pater), Hemp, Alaichi, Ningalo, etc. which are eco-
friendly, sustainable and bio degradable were not given much importance in Nepal at the time.
Also, these raw materials were being used by the communities of ruler regions of Nepal to
make products that they have been using in extremities which have been serving them perfectly
for years. This proves how durable and reliable these raw materials are. But despite being
durable and ecofriendly, these products weren’t getting much attention and so weren’t the
people producing them. Mr. Malla gave such raw materials and their producers an amazing
market which made them financially capable. Not only the raw materials, but Mr. Malla also
explored different skills possessed by people of various communities and gave them an
opportunity to utilize their skills to improve their quality of life.

Analysis Two

Theory of Need for Achievement

David McClelland’s motivation theory revolves around three aspects i.e. achievement, power
and affiliation and explains that the need for these aspects drives us, influences and shapes our
personality. The need for achievement refers to the urge for achievement and accomplishment
of something in what you do. Everyone has different goals which drives them to work and
struggle for the attainment of their objective. For example, goal for a writer might be to write
the best selling book, for a mountain climber to climb Everest. Everyone has their own goal
which influences the work they do. People don’t work just for social recognition or prestige
but work for the feeling of personal accomplishment. Such people avoid low-risk and high-risk
situations as for them, low-risk situations fail to give genuine achievement and high-risk
situations are more about luck and less about one’s efforts. (MindTools, 2018; Kukreja, 2018;
Mulder, 2019)

Mr. Malla is more of a service oriented person than a profit oriented person. He was influenced
by Albert Schweitzer towards service since childhood. He was never into profit oriented
business but wanted to share through his business. Being an IT graduate, he had many business
or working options which could give him huge financial security but what he really wanted
was inner peace and satisfaction from his work. His goal was to do service oriented business
where he could serve and give back to the community and what could be better than helping
people of ruler regions to become financially capable utilizing the resources and skills they
have. Kolpa works with a motive to give market to the skills that the people of ruler
communities or the women and the elderlies posses so they can utilize their skills and become
self sufficient. Some people have the goal to earn lots of money, some want a big family and
some people like Mr. Malla has a goal to have inner peace and satisfaction. To attain this goal
of his, he came back to Nepal, researched about the resources and skills that the people of ruler
regions have and gave them a market which has now made them financially capable and
improved their living standards.

Analysis Three

Venture Life Cycle

Every business goes through different stages of venture life cycle and encounters various
challenges that require different solutions. Venture life cycle basically has five stages as New-
Venture Development, Start-Up Activities, Venture Growth, Business Stabilization and
Innovation or Decline.

New-Venture Development This is the first stage of venture life cycle, a stage which exists
before the startup of a business. This is a stage where the ideas come in and are required to be
tested and developed. The development of ideas includes research about the business or
product, its market demand and need and the industry as a whole and also getting feedback
from people around or some industry specialist. This stage is the foundation of the venture

Start-Up Activities. This is a stage where you are sure and satisfied about the idea or business
you are establishing and start the business. In this stage the product or the service to be provided
from the venture is finalized and marketing and selling that product is done. The business plan,
capital and building a team is also included in this stage. The actual operation of the business
takes place in this stage

Venture Growth As the business starts, challenges come along. In this stage, feedbacks from
the customers are sought and changes happen in the product or service as per the costumer
feedback and market requirement. Process of manufacturing, quantity of production, raw
materials sourcing, distribution are to be handled suitably.

Business Stabilization This stage depends upon the market conditions like customer’s
requirement, product demand and competitors as well as on entrepreneur’s efforts. The
competitors enter the market offering similar product and the costumers are now not much into
the product being sold by you and the sales growth is minimal. This stage requires the
management team to be more focused to continue the growth.

Innovation or Decline This is a stage where if there is no innovation in either product/service

or in business strategies, the company will die. This stage requires introduction of new
product/service or acquisition of new technology to improve efficiency or acquisition of
innovative firm to ensure the growth.

In case of Mr. Malla’s venture Kolpa, he spent years in the research and learning of his products
and raw materials and the artisans he works with now. He learnt about different raw materials
and met with artisans from various regions and learned about their product specialization. In
the start up stage, he initially started with cotton tote bags with his own investment and learned
about what the market requirement is and what the customers are looking for but not finding.
Later, he introduced products made by people from various regions and also sourced raw
materials and designed and developed aesthetically pleasing products as suitable for market
demand Now, his venture is in business stabilization stage where now there are many
enterprises offering similar product and are gaining attention of the customers which has surely
affected his sales growth. Mr. Malla is now planning for international expansion of his business
as well as domestic expansion.

Conclusion

Kolpa is a business started by Rabi Chandra Malla with a motive of doing

something in Nepal and giving back to the community and works with people
from ruler regions of Nepal who posse amazing skills in handicrafts but didn’t
have an opportunity to monetize them. Being an IT graduate he surely had
opportunities to work in a big firm or to start his own that could give him much
better financial security but he always wanted to work in service sector. He
always had this thought at back of his mind that what even after earning enough
money or having a well-off life, he wont have that satisfaction and inner peace.
So, for the purpose of achieving that satisfaction he started Kolpa, working with
people from ruler regions and trying to help the become financially capable and
confident. He has given such people an opportunity to utilize those skills to make
them economically capable. He is a social entrepreneur who recognized and
worked with such resources and skills that weren’t identified, valued and utilized
commercially and gave them an amazing market exposure. He researched about
the raw materials, products and artisans and developed his business, started it
with the basic product, marketed them online and in different fairs, and then
expanded his product variations. His venture is now in business stabilization stage
and there are competitors offering similar products in the market which has surely
affected his sales growth.

Recommendations

• As there are now lots of enterprises in the market offering similar products,
 he now needs to move to Innovation stage and introduce new product or
new process of production or new product design to make his product
more exclusive so as to let customers know why they should choose Kolpa
and not some other brand.
• As his plans for international expansion, he should also focus on online
expansion as people now are preferring online shopping because of the
convenience it comes with.
• He should also be engaging in marketing through trending social media
sites and let customers know the existence of his brand. He can collaborate
with different stored that sells products from various vendors like Timro
Concept Store, The Local Project and can also reach to influencers,
bloggers and public figure to help his reach his targeted customers.