Growing Pains: Entrepreneurship in a State$-$Controlled Economy

Yuliya V$.$ Ivanova, University of Alaska Southeast Joan Winn, University of Denver

n the fall of $2007,$ the three owners of LorPel discussed the options for the company$$s future development: to seek additional investment to increase output; to slow the company$$s growth in order to remain small, and beneath the eye of the government or potential competitors; or to sell the company and start something new, perhaps in another location. Launched in $2003,$ LorPel had enjoyed four years of successful operations and seemed poised for growth. However, the political situation in Belarus had made it increasingly difficult to realize the partners$$ goals. Aleksey$$s refusal to entertain a move to Russia or Ukraine was understandable, but LorPel had been Aleksey$$s idea from the first and continuing the business without him was troubling and, Victor feared, threatened their personal relationship, not just the future of their business. Who would have foreseen that success would create such a dilemma? Unless either one of them compromised his current position, he feared that this was the beginning of the end of the LorPel partnership.

I

VICTOR AND ALEKSEY

Victor Kruglov remembered the day the business partnership was conceived. In the summer of $2002,$ he and his younger brother Aleksey were sitting on the porch of Victor$$s house looking out at the Kansas landscape, thinking about how different this sparsely populated area was from the place where they were born. As they reminisced about the past and dreamed about the future, the thought of being together again after ten years of separation seemed appealing, yet not entirely realistic. Aleksey had smiled and put his hand on Victor$$s shoulder, $$Let$$s do something together. Do you remember how well we got along?$$ Victor and Aleksey had grown up in Lorusk, a small town in Belarus, which was still part of the Soviet Union when Victor emigrated to the U$.$S$.$ in $1986$ at the age of twentyfour. Victor came with his bride Tatiana, whose family was able to emigrate to the U$.$S$.$