Personal Approach and Traits of Katie Page

Discuss About The Entrepreneurship And Small Business Palgrave.

Entrepreneurship can be described as a procedure whereby an entrepreneur tends to take a journey whereby he endeavors to convert a problem in hand to an opportunity. The person who undertakes this endeavor is known as an entrepreneur and can thereby be described as a being who aims to management in various effective practices in order to solve a gap which is present in the different organizational procedures and aims to convert these gaps into an opportunity or a business idea.

In the given report, the journey of one such entrepreneur will be examined. The entrepreneur chosen for the given report is Katie Page. She is one of the best female entrepreneurs in the globe and presently is the CEO of Harvey Norman (Cew.org.au, 2018).  The entrepreneur changed the way in which the consumers deal with online shopping with respect to the electronic products. The report will be following a structured format whereby the journey of Katie Page will be analyzed followed by the identification of her personality traits and personal perspective. This will be then followed by the identification of the process as adopted by the company and the contribution of entrepreneurs to the society at large.

Katie Page is the Chief executive officer of the company Harvey Norman which is a large departmental store and was established jointly by her husband Gerry Harvey and Katie herself. The company was established in the area 1982 and currently as of 2017, there are over 250 Harvey Norman stores across the globe in various countries like Ireland, Singapore and others. The company is listed under the Australian Stock Exchange and is taken to be one of the top 200 companies present in the stock exchange. The entrepreneur has a net worth of 50$ million approximately, which makes her the richest female executive present in the country of Australia.

The different attributes of Katie Page as an entrepreneur have been discussed as follows:

She can be stated to be an entrepreneur who has been blessed with various skills which contributed to the success of her organization (Dees, 2017).  As the entrepreneur is required to be a leader of the organization and should be able to foresee any problem which exists in the environment, having adequate traits is very crucial.

• Innovative- The female entrepreneur is very innovative. This can be supported by the fact that Katie had the capability to engage in the opportunity and invest the amount to make Harvey a successful international firm which is able to perform considerably well (com.au, 2018).
• Hardworking- Hard work is a crucial ingredient or personality aspect of any entrepreneur and hence, Katie Page can also be described as a hard worker who gave in her 100% for the success of the organization.
• Confidence- Katie Page portrayed immense confidence into the different aspects of the business. This can be easily witnessed by her behavior in the different interviews and her extracurricular activities as undertaken by her for the betterment of the organization (Baum, Frese & Baron, 2014).
• Risk taking- Katie Page undertook the entrepreneurial risk and her risks turned out to be profitable for the firm.

Originally from Queensland, Australia, Katie Page belongs to a humble background and is the daughter of a bank manager. As her father was relocated every four years, Katie along with her siblings grew up in different locations and aspired to become a surveyor (Harveynorman.com.au,  Accounting.Years later, luck was in her favor and she was appointed as an employee in one of the stores of the Harvey Norman store and as extensively involved in the marketing and buying procedure. She built the empire and under her guidance the company expanded into various countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Slovenia.

Business Model of Harvey Norman

Her personal approach towards the business was very systematic in nature and she had a sound vision from the very beginning which assisted her to achieve her long term goals. Various external factors like travel, tests, exposure to the business at an early age guided her to become successful (Kuratko, 2016). Additionally, skills like experience, hard work and intelligence made her successful and achieve the goals of the organization.

The business products and the markets which the company deals in is electronic products which ranges from home products, consumer goods, furniture’s and other regular items. The business began to develop in the year 1982, although a physical store was present in the year 1961.  The company increased its online expansion in the year 1990s and this was the beginning of the expansion of the business (Domain.com.au, 2018). Although deemed to be quite a risky affair at that point of time, Katie Page decided to go ahead with the idea and took the risk of expanding the business online. She had examined the online market and decided that, this was in the best interests of the firm. At that point of time, Amazon had been performing considerably well and due to this, the company believed that even their organization could perform efficiently.

The primary competitive advantage of the chosen enterprise was that it was developed and designed at a point of time when the online retailing was not yet that dominant and it was a considerably new concept (Burns, 2016).  Hence, this proved to be a great opportunity for the firm and assisted it to become successful in all its domains. The company has various international stores in various countries like the following:

The 86 stores which are owned by the stores globally contribute to approximately 10% or AU$36.5 million to the company (Harveynorman.com.au, 2018).   Recently, there has been a profit decline in the stores of Slovenia and Croatia with a considerable number of stores having reported losses.

The procedure of entrepreneurship is not an easy one and there are various stages through which an entrepreneur is required to pass before they can be successful in the long run (Drucker, 2014). The different steps of starting a venture based on a successful idea have been given as follows:

1. Recognition of Opportunity: When the e-commerce industry was performing considerably well in the year 1990s, it was at that time when Katie began to realize that the stated opportunity can be easily captured by the firm Harvey Norman.  Hence, the risk was undertaken in this stage and the company under the guidance of Katie Page invested in the online domain.
2. Strengthening of present resources- The second step which is generally adopted by the company needs to be an assessment of the different resources which an organization possesses (Parker, 2018).  Katie only moved with the given idea, after the analysis of the external environment was made.  
3. Development of the idea- When the various ideas were analyzed adequately, a dummy test based on the idea was run and this helped in the analysis of the one chosen idea which would be implemented or not.
4. Discussion- Discussion tends to play a key role in the domain of business and any organization looking out to implement an idea into something more permanent, the idea needs to be discussed in front of all the stakeholders and their views need to be respect adequately.
5. Implementation- The idea of the Online portal was an instant hit with the company and it was able to engage the different users to use online shopping to make the brand trustworthy and provide the users with a completely new experience (Schaper et al., 2014).

Entrepreneurs are considered to be the national assets of an organization and it is very essential that they are continuously motivated and remunerated to a high extent. If the innovation of an entrepreneur is successful, then it assists an economy to benefit extensively. It assists in creation of wealth and jobs. Some of the reasons why the entrepreneurs are considered to be a useful assets for the organization has been given as follows:

1. Add to the National Income

The Procedure of Entrepreneurship

The entrepreneurial activities and ventures contribute to generating new wealth in the country and they manufacture and produce new products which thereby contributes to the earning capacity of the organization (Gani, 2014). Hence, the revenue earned by the business contributes extensively to the economy of the globe or a country.

1. Brings about a social change

The entrepreneurs also contribute towards creation of a global change by offering a unique offering of various goods as well as services. The entrepreneurs assist in breaking away from traditions and support the independence of the technologies and income earning capacity. This has a positive impact on the morale of an individual, quality of life and the high economic freedom.

1. Community Development

Entrepreneurs like to expand their business and engage in long term nurturing relationships with other likeminded individuals (Storey, 2016).  They tend to invest in community projects and even provide support financially to different charities as well. Hence, this works well for the society at large and makes the government support these ventures as well.

Hence, after considering these points, it can be stated that entrepreneurs are crucial for the society and economy at large.

As stated earlier, the journey of an entrepreneur is not any easy one and they are generally faced by a wide number of challenges (Brenkert, 2017). Some of the challenges which were faced by Katie Page in the given domain have been given as follows:

Cash flow management

The management of cash flow can be considered to be a difficult aspect of the business which is required to be looked after well if the firm wants to ensure that it attains success in the long run (Deluxe.com, 2018). 

Hiring of correct employees

The employees are considered to be a crucial aspect of an organization and any organization which does not have an adequate human resource strategy often faces difficulties by not being able to comprise of the different capabilities which an organization needs to have while expansion or while the implementation of the new idea.

Management of time

Time management as well has a crucial role to play and taking the right decisions at the right time becomes considerably crucial or the business enterprise (Baum, Frese & Baron, 2014).

Marketing Strategy

Designing the right kind of marketing strategy is also very crucial for the organization and any company which wants to ensure success needs to see to it that they make the right kind of marketing strategies.

Importance of Entrepreneurs in the Society

External risk exposure

Very often there are various political, social and economic factors which exist in the foreign countries where the firm aims to expand.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that entrepreneurs are one of the most crucial members as present in our society. An entrepreneurs views the business problems that are present with respect to a business as a primary source of innovation and therefore, for this reason, they are the ultimate problem solvers as present in the economy. They possess a certain set of skills and traits which will then assist a firm in achieving success in the long run. The report discussed the journey of an entrepreneur based in Australia named Katie Page. The entrepreneur is the CEO of Harvey Norman.

The report has followed a structured format whereby the different aspects of the entrepreneur`s journey has been critically analyzed. The report began with a brief introduction about the entrepreneur which was then followed by the analysis of personal approach of the manager, the different traits, and the business of the entrepreneur and the procedure of entrepreneurship. The latter half of the report largely concentrates on the barriers faced by the entrepreneur in executing the idea and contribution of the entrepreneur towards the society.

References

Baum, J.R., Frese, M. & Baron, R.A. (2014). Born to be an entrepreneur? Revisiting the personality approach to entrepreneurship. (pp. 73-98). Psychology Press.

Baum, J.R., Frese, M. & Baron, R.A. eds. (2014). The psychology of entrepreneurship. Psychology Press.

Brenkert, G.G. (2017). Entrepreneurship, ethics, and the good society. In Entrepreneurship (pp. 85-128). Routledge.

Burns, P. (2016). Entrepreneurship and small business. Palgrave Macmillan Limited.

Cew.org.au (2018). Katie Page – Chief Executive Women. [online] Available at: https://cew.org.au/members/katie-page/ [Accessed 31 July. 2018].

Dees, J.G. (2017). 1 The Meaning of Social Entrepreneurship. In Case Studies in Social Entrepreneurship and Sustainability(pp. 34-42). Routledge.

Deluxe.com (2018).  The top 10 challenges faced by entrepreneurs today: solved. Retrieved from https://www.deluxe.com/sbrc/financial/top-10-challenges-faced-entrepreneurs-today-solved

Domain.com.au (2018). When Katie Page wanted the best apartments on the Gold Coast, she built them Economics. Retrieved from https://www.domain.com.au/news/why-harvey-norman-ceo-katie-page-built-her-own-apartments-on-the-gold-coast-20170518-gvy6xu/

Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Gani, A. (2014). Understand Entrereneurship. Routledge

Harveynorman.com.au (2018).  Harvey Norman | Shop Online for Computers, Electrical, Furniture, Bedding, Bathrooms & Flooring. Retrieved from https://www.harveynorman.com.au/

Kuratko, D.F. (2016). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.

Parker, S.C. (2018). The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.

Schaper, M.T., Volery, T., Weber, P.C. & Gibson, B. (2014). Entrepreneurship and small business.

Storey, D.J. ed. (2016). Entrepreneurship and new firm. Routledge.

Vogue.com.au (2018). Katie Page, CEO of Harvey Norman and women in sport advocate. Retrieved from https://www.vogue.com.au/gamechangers/beauty-and-health/katie-page-ceo-of-harvey-norman-and-women-in-sport-advocate/news-story/203e2089ac20d98ab0a5655aa3f4c63f