The Backyard as Boardroom: Reframing Rural Enterprise Through Strategic Value Creation

Abstract

This reflective essay explores how lived rural enterprise can function as an experiential laboratory for entrepreneurship education.  Drawing from a backyard poultry enterprise in Sibalom, Antique, Philippines, the paper demonstrates how everyday agricultural practice can be used to teach core entrepreneurial concepts such as value creation, market segmentation, lean thinking, and digital marketing.  Using the metaphor of the “backyard as boardroom,” the essay illustrates how low-cost commodities can be strategically repositioned into high-value niche products through differentiation, storytelling, and direct-to-customer marketing.  The narrative integrates personal teaching experience with selected literature on entrepreneurship education to challenge the perception that meaningful enterprise must begin at scale or within urban corporate environments.  The paper argues that rural contexts offer powerful opportunities for developing an entrepreneurial mindset, self-efficacy, and opportunity recognition among students.  By reframing backyard enterprise as a site of strategic learning, the essay contributes to discussions on experiential learning and rural entrepreneurship education.  It highlights how educators can bridge theory and practice by transforming lived experiences into pedagogical tools that inspire students to recognize value creation opportunities within their own communities.