Entrepreneurship: Journey of Australian Entrepreneur Katie Page

Entrepreneurship is a procedure whereby a business oriented individual formulates a new idea and converts it into a living dream. The report presents the concept of entrepreneurship and discusses the various aspects associated with it by taking an example of an Australian entrepreneur named Katie Page of the company Harvey Norman.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
Entrepreneurship is a procedure whereby a business oriented individual formulates a new idea
and converts it into a living dream. Entrepreneurs are considered to be a crucial aspect of the
society whose involvement can greatly contribute to the welfare of the firm. The report presents
the concept of entrepreneurship and discusses the various aspects associated with it by taking an
example of an Australian entrepreneur named Katie Page of the company Harvey Norman. The
brief personal approach of the entrepreneur has been discussed followed by the entrepreneurial
skills. Moreover, the process of entrepreneurship as adopted and their importance to the society
has also been stated. However the entrepreneurs face various barriers and those have been
analyzed as well.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
About the entrepreneur....................................................................................................................3
Personality and personal approach of the selected entrepreneur.....................................................5
Business products and markets of the selected entrepreneur...........................................................5
Process of entrepreneurship.............................................................................................................6
Importance of the entrepreneurs to the society................................................................................7
Challenges faced by entrepreneurs..................................................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
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 engage 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.
Discussion
About the entrepreneur
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

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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
(Vogue.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.

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Personality and personal approach of the selected entrepreneur
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, (2018).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.
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.
Business products and markets of the selected entrepreneur
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.

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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:
Croatia- 2 stores
Ireland -12 stores
Malaysia-14 stores
New Zealand-36 stores
Northern Ireland: 2 stores
Singapore: 17 stores
Slovenia: 5 stores
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.
Process of entrepreneurship
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:

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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).
Importance of the entrepreneurs to the society
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

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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 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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Challenges faced by entrepreneurs
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.
External risk exposure

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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.

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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 herself. 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

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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