The document discusses the bankruptcy filing of Seven Dreamers Laboratories Inc., a Tokyo-based startup that had developed a prototype laundry-folding robot called Laundroid. The startup had received over 10 billion yen in funding but struggled to commercialize the robot, missing two sales targets. It accumulated 2.2 billion yen in debt from heavy R&D investments. Unable to secure more funds for further development to improve the robot, the startup filed for bankruptcy, ending development of the Laundroid robot for now. The concept of a laundry-folding robot had generated interest, but technical and financial challenges prevented Seven Dreamers from successfully bringing their prototype to market.

1. Business Growth
Growth rationale
Select the likely reason why the following companies would need to grow
1. An architecture company involved in large projects
a. Experience curve
b. Winner takes all
c. Hall of fame
d. Other
2. A startup with a food manufacturing technology
a. Experience curve
b. Winner takes all
c. Hall of fame
e. Other
3. An advice company involved in AI (Artificial Intelligence)
a. Experience curve
b. Winner takes all
c. Hall of fame
f. Other
4. A company developing IT services for the legal sector
a. Experience curve
b. Winner takes all
c. Hall of fame
g. Other
5. A company created to manage the IT business sector in Rennes
a. Experience curve
b. Winner takes all
c. Hall of fame
d. Other

2. Business Growth
Blitzscaling
In a company engaged in blitzscaling, discuss how you would deal with:
Group 1 - Managing people
Group 2 - Recruiting people
Group 3 - Funding
Group 4 - Product development
Group 5 - Mistakes

3. Business Growth
Product life cycle
1. You are a mature company manufacturing composites for tires, and you have developed a new
process that could be used for other products (unrelated to tires)
❖ Should you invest in it?
2. Your product is an app for evaluating the performance of a business project, and it is getting
outdated
❖ Should you invest in it?
3. Your startup has developed a highly successful blockchain technology and you are starting to
make a lot of money
❖ Should you give a dividend to your shareholders?
4. One of the products of your mature company, a tobacco additive, is losing profitability
❖ Should you invest in it?
5. You have been selling your traditional cookie worldwide for years and it is quite profitable
❖ Should you invest in it?

4. Business Growth
Stakeholder matrix
Lego has announced that they want to develop parts made out of biomass-based plastics (vs. oil-based
ones). How would you place these stakeholders in the matrix?
1. Media
a. Meet their needs
b. Key players
c. Least important
d. Show consideration
2. Children
a. Meet their needs
b. Key players
c. Least important
d. Show consideration
3. Competitors
a. Meet their needs
b. Key players
c. Least important
d. Show consideration
4. Investors
a. Meet their needs
b. Key players
c. Least important
d. Show consideration
5. Large retailers
a. Meet their needs
b. Key players
c. Least important
d. Show consideration

5. Business Growth
Business clusters
Based on your experience, knowledge of your country or of particular sectors, identify, research and
discuss a business cluster. Topics can be for instance:
❖ What is the history of the cluster (dynamics, major steps, ecosystem…)?
❖ What are the relationships between the cluster players?
❖ What is the international standing of the cluster?
❖ How is the cluster organized?
❖ What are the prospects (short-term, long-term)?
❖ How does it measure compared to other clusters?
❖ Strengths and weaknesses (or SWOT)?
❖ PESTEL?

6. Business Growth
Situational leadership - Intercultural perspective
As they grow, companies are likely to be involved in various intercultural situations (hiring, partnerships,
international expansions, customers, sourcing, competition…).
Using the attached document, discuss the questions below:
Group 1 - In which situations could the synergic management described be suitable / unsuitable?
Group 2 - In which situations could the ethnocentric management described be suitable / unsuitable?
Group 3 - In which situations could the polycentrism management described be suitable / unsuitable?
Group 4 - What are the key aspects that differentiate the management styles described from a business
standpoint (or what criteria would you use to select one rather than another in a business situation)
Group 5 - What parallel could you draw between these management styles and the management styles
identified by Hersey & Blanchard

7. Business Growth
Investor relationships
Discuss how board relationships could be difficult between:
Group 1 - The founders and funds
Group 2 - A bank and a private investor
Group 3 - The founders and a corporation
Group 4 - An accelerator and crowdfunders
Group 5 - A founder and a founder

8. Business Growth
Pitching
Using the 10 topics below (or not, or others), prepare the contents of a pitch for a project of your choice
(existing or fictional). Don’t prepare the pitch itself, just broadly what you would put into it and how you
would structure it (including the storytelling).

9. Business Growth
Storytelling
What storytelling would you use to pitch for:
Group 1 - Triballat
Group 2 - Coriolis
Group 3 - Olnica
Group 4 - The Lego biomass-based plastic parts
Group 5 - Hemarina

10. Business Growth
Risk assessment
Read the case below and, putting yourself in the shoes of the founders at the beginning of the company,
use the Ishikawa and risk assessment method to evaluate the risks for this startup.

11. Business Growth
Laundry-phobics' dreams crushed as Tokyo-based developer of
Laundroid robot files for bankruptcy
by Kazuaki Nagata
Apr 24, 2019
When Seven Dreamers Laboratories Inc. unveiled its prototype laundry-folding robot in 2015, it
generated a buzz, with people saying they couldn’t wait to buy one if it ever went to market.
But the AI-based tidying device dubbed Laundroid is apparently coming to an end before its commercial
debut, as the Tokyo-based developer filed for bankruptcy Tuesday with the Tokyo District Court, citing
insufficient funds to continue operations.
A spokesperson for Seven Dreamers, a contest-winning startup that had received over ¥10 billion in
funding, said development of robot is over for now.
According to Teikoku Databank Ltd., a credit research company, Seven Dreamers Laboratories had
accumulated ¥2.2 billion in debt as it struggled to ship the robot and invested heavily in research and
development.
After postponing its initial sales goal in fiscal 2017, it had to push back its goal for fiscal 2018, too.
“We were unable to secure funds necessary for the development,” the spokesman said, adding it was
difficult to improve the robot to a satisfactory level.
The startup had planned to sell Laundroid for ¥1.85 million.
Seven Dreamers had said that, because people have to spend so much time folding laundry in their
lifetimes, it wanted to set them free from that chore with Laundroid, which looked like a big closet but
was apparently packed with robotics and image recognition technologies that would allow it to fold
clothes.
The concept of the laundry-folding robot has attracted much attention and interest from investors in
Japan and abroad. The startup was partnering with Panasonic Corp. and Daiwa House Industries Co.
Seven Dreamers Laboratories, which was founded in 2014, won the Japan round of the 2018 Startup
World Cup, an international competition for startups, to advance to the final.

12. Business Growth
The Kotter change model
Explain how you would implement the Kotter model to implement a change in a large corporation
(change, or project, and company of your choice).

13. This training is part of the FogGuru project that has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant
agreement No 765452. The information and views set out in this material are
those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European
Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person acting on
their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information
contained therein.