Innovation, Diversity, and Entrepreneurship: Comparative Analysis

This essay examines the concepts of innovation and diversity within the context of entrepreneurship, focusing on case studies of Walt Disney, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey. It discusses their backgrounds, educational experiences, journeys, struggles, and ultimate successes, evaluating them through various entrepreneurial theories and frameworks. The analysis covers Disney's transformational leadership and innovation theory, Gates' participative leadership and psychological theory, and Winfrey's transformational leadership and social change theory. The essay also references an entrepreneurship model highlighting product/service, management tools, garage team, and culture/environment as key factors. It concludes that entrepreneurs drive societal progress through innovation, job creation, and improved living standards, emphasizing the strategic approaches employed by Disney, Gates, and Winfrey to achieve peak success in their respective industries.

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Entrepreneurial and innovation diversity

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Walt Disney.............................................................................................................................................3
Bill Gates.................................................................................................................................................5
Oprah Winfrey.........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9
References.................................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Entrepreneurship is the term that refers to the aspect of production which carries out the
functions of Company. There are major five factors such as capital, land, enterprise, labour, and
land which are involved in the process of an entrepreneur. In the broader sense, an entrepreneur
can be referred to as the process of action which is undertaken by the person to establish his
enterprise. It represents an innovative and creative response to the environment (Audretsch &
Keilbach, 2010). This kind of rejoinders can take place in any countryside of social try might be
agriculture, education and social work. It is vital to have efficient knowledge regarding political
and economic environment, more specifically regarding the economic policies of the financial
and economic along with commercial institutions (Shah and Mulla, 2013). There are various
kinds of risks have to face by entrepreneur. Initially, in introducing a small business, the
entrepreneur has to face a number of business risk in the level of the failure rate of small
companies is quite high. On the other hand, entrepreneurs have to handle upper level of financial
risk merely due to they invest most in their personal finance.
This assignment highlights three entrepreneurs with their background, education,
progress, struggle and success. An evaluation will be made regarding the same by taking
consideration of different theories, concepts and framework. The discussion will be made on
Walt Disney, Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey. These are well-known personalities in the world
that contribute to the development of the economy of the specific country.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias Disney was a famous entrepreneur in America. He was born in Chicago in
1901, the first interest of Disney was in drawing for which he took art classes and got a job for

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the profile of commercial illustrator at the age of 18. With the help of his brother Joy, He had
started Disney Brother Studio and then Walt made the character of Mickey Mouse in 1928,
which was his high popular success. Moreover, Walt Disney put a lot of efforts in bringing
change within the business and the results seen in characteristics such as Pinocchio, Fantasia,
Bambi, Snow White and seven dwarfs and Dumbo (Mannheim, 2016).
In the context of his history and family background, it has been found that Walt Disney
started off as a farm boy who had significance in depiction cartoon pictures of his neighbor’s
horses for fun (Sutcliffe, 2009). It has been analyzed that the first original character of Disney
was Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, but Universal Pictures owned this character because Disney was
working under contract at the time. At the time of walking out on Universal Pictures by Walt
Disney, he required to develop a substitute, which is how Mickey Mouse came into being. At
that time, Disney was hugely successful with his animation company, but with this approach, he
was not satisfied. The main aim of his is to make the biggest and huge theme park (Krasniewicz,
2010).
The current management style of Walt Disney is effective as he adopted transformational
leadership style and involved all employees in decision-making approach; he connected with
each employee personally so that they could not make effort to reach high authority. He drew
people in with his charismatic charm and provides family-like environment (Watts, 2013). Same
kind of attitude is being adopted by the latest leader of Walt Disney.
Theory of entrepreneurship
In the context of Walt Disney, it has been found that the work of Walt Disney is based on
entrepreneurship innovation theory because he was known for its creative foresight. According

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to this theory, innovation happens when entrepreneur put efforts in developing a new product,
develops a new manufacture method, search out the new source of raw material supply and
develop the new organization in the industry. The main aim of this theory is to highlight the
innovation, avoiding risk and taking abilities of an entrepreneur.
Bill Gates
Bill gates are an American business investor, author, humanitarian and philanthropist. He
is well known as the principle founder of Microsoft Corporation. At the time of his career at
Microsoft, he held the positions of Chairman and Chief software; on the other hand, he was
being the well known individual shareholder in 2014 (Boje & Smith, 2010). William H. Gates
and Mary Maxwell Gates are parents of Bill Gates. The profession of Bill Gate’s father was a
lawyer as he belonged from settled family. Early on in his life, he had been observed by Gates
that his parents wanted him to become a lawyer but the interest of Gates was on another way.
The main motive of Bill Gates is to continue to devote his time and energy to the work. The
organization handles national and international domestic issues, like health and education and
helps those needy students for their study in the US. Bill and Melinda Gates made the William
H. Gates Foundation, which was devoted to handling education and investment in low-income
communities. It had been realized by him that he had a responsibility to provide more of his
prosperity to charity. In 2000, the couple united several family foundations and developed a $28
billion contribution in the foundation of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Østergaard,
Timmermans & Kristinsson, 2011).
The current management style of Bill Gates is a participative leadership style. Gates
believes in the worth of contribution from his employees for entire success of the company. The
major reason behind the success of the company is the hardworking and motivating attitude. The

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business attitude of the bill gates was to adapt changes in order to succeed. With this business
attitude, Gates has developed a company that has been able to endure the tempest and still appear
on top as a shining star. Bill Gates was able to expand a company that uses the skills of his team
members to accomplishment.
Theory of entrepreneurship
With respect to Bill Gates, psychological theory can be applied because it is the theory
that depicts when society has enough supply of individuals with required psychological features,
this motivates entrepreneur to work hard. Along with the psychological characteristics involve
need for high attainment, an ability to face opposition.
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is the biggest personality of the modern rags-to-riches stories of all time.
Oprah is the richest entrepreneur of African American of the 21st century, that have net worth of
over $3 billion, she is remarkable personality and inspirable women all over the world. Her
implausible growth is more imposing referring to her rough upbringing (Drucker, 2014). She was
born in Mississippi, on 29 January 1954. The family background of Oprah is in extreme poverty
as Oprah was taunted at school due to her school dress which was made up of potato sacks.
Along with that she was victim of sexual abuse from family members, which was described by
her in one of her show in front of viewers (Carrillo-Hermosilla, Del Río & Könnölä, 2010).
According to her statement, it has been found that she was molested at the time of her childhood
and became pregnant at the age of 14. She faced a lot of challenges in her life. She got her first

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break at gig at the local black radio station from which stations managers got impressed with her
passion and she got the opportunity to work her way up the levels to bigger radio stations.
The current management style of transformational as she has the charisma and confidence
to motivate other people. It has been analyzed that she strategically chooses members of her team
and she values excellent mentorship (Garson, 2011). She values her customers and put them on
top priority. She identified this and provides her approval to her viewers by providing them
outstanding gifts and the studio audience at the time of holidays or when there is no specific
occasion. More than the gifs, the main motive of her is to show her presentable in front of them
and listen to their queries and ideas appropriately so that her employees connect with her for a
long time (Peck, 2015).
Theory of entrepreneurship
Theory of social change has been adopted by Oprah Winfrey as this theory reveals a
common model of the society which focuses on the interrelationship among culture and physical
environment. The main focus of this theory is to highlight historic shift as a factor of initiating
change. She struggled a lot and become a role leader it the view of many people. The positive
attitude has been adopted by her to bring change in the societies.

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Entrepreneurship model
Source: http://www.1st10yards.com/introducing%20the%205%20dynamics%20model-2.html
The above-mentioned model depicts that there are four major factors such as
Product/service, Garage Team, Management tools and Culture/ environment. The above model
depicts that all above-mentioned entrepreneurs follow this model. The discussion of this model is
described below:
Product/Service
It is the section which elaborates the product or service will be successful if it is reduced
an existing pain or increases significant tangible advantages. Walt Disney and Bill Gates put a lot
of effort in bringing attention of people towards its products or services.
Management tools

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Even though the capability to sell it’s certainly the most vital tool for an entrepreneur,
there is number of management schools that tend to limit this from their classes. There are most
corporate executives that hate selling which motivates the idea those sales is a low priority. It is
necessary to remember that the sales are the missing toolkit. All the major stakeholders such as
customer, staff, suppliers and investors are a major part of any kind of business which is taken
into consideration by all above-mentioned entrepreneur to get succeeded in their industry.
Garage Team
It is the aspect of the model that depicts during starting year of a start-up, it is required by
entrepreneur to focus on multi-tasking garage team. Well managed team reduces the cost of
working and doe work efficiently by focusing on delivering the major scheme. Startup has not
potential to expense a lot on the employees to motivate them for which will need self-encouraged
team members. Microsoft and Disney drew their attention to such thing and with the support of
self-motivated employees, company was able to reach a peak level of the success in a short span
of time.
Culture/Environment
It is necessary for the start-ups to stay fast and lean to survive in a vague and often hostile
environment. All the above mentioned entrepreneurs believe in providing a healthy environment
to the employees so that they can perform in a well-efficient manner without getting frustrated
from the work.

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Conclusion
It can be concluded from above discussion that the entrepreneurs can modify the
technique we live and work. If flourishing, their innovations may perhaps get better our
benchmark of living, and in accumulation to produce prosperity with their consumerist ventures,
they also generate jobs and the circumstances for a prosperous society. The discussion has been
made on entrepreneurship such as Walt Disney, Oprah Winfrey and Bill gates that made their
strategy in well appropriate manner so that their business can reach peak level. it has been found
from above discussion that Walt Disney put lots of effort in making a different image in the view
of people for which the design of Mickey Mouse has been developed by him in many years ago
which is still in the existence. In the context of Bill Gates, it has been found that he took step
towards in his interest and become the famous entrepreneur by giving right guidance to those
people who are working under his shadow. With respect to Winfrey, it can be said that the role of
her in becoming famous entrepreneur is significant as she struggled a lot but she applies latest
and adaptable entrepreneurship theory through which all employees of her can work in well
efficient manner without getting burdened.

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References
Audretsch, D. B., & Keilbach, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship and growth. In Knowledge Intensive
Entrepreneurship and Innovation Systems (pp. 309-320). Routledge.
Boje, D., & Smith, R. (2010). Re‐storying and visualizing the changing entrepreneurial identities
of Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Culture and Organization, 16(4), 307-331.
Carrillo-Hermosilla, J., Del Río, P., & Könnölä, T. (2010). Diversity of eco-innovations:
Reflections from selected case studies. Journal of Cleaner Production, 18(10-11), 1073-
1083.
Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Garson, H. S. (2011). Oprah Winfrey: A Biography: A Biography. ABC-CLIO.
Krasniewicz, L. (2010). Walt Disney: a biography. ABC-CLIO.
Mannheim, S. (2016). Walt Disney and the quest for community. Routledge.
Østergaard, C. R., Timmermans, B., & Kristinsson, K. (2011). Does a different view create
something new? The effect of employee diversity on innovation. Research Policy, 40(3),
500-509.
Peck, J. (2015). Age of Oprah: Cultural icon for the neoliberal era. Routledge.
Shah, T. and Mulla, Z.R., 2013. Leader motives, impression management, and charisma: A
comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. Management and Labour Studies, 38(3),
pp.155-184.

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Sutcliffe, J., 2009. Walt Disney. Lerner Publications.
Watts, S. (2013). The magic kingdom: Walt Disney and the American way of life. University of
Missouri Press.