MKTG2301: Analysis of a Small Business Interview Report

This report presents an analysis of an interview conducted with Andrew Barnes, the owner-manager of Go1, a successful Australian startup providing corporate training. The interview explores various aspects of the business, including its details and dynamics, Barnes' background and motivations, human resource management practices, products and services offered, and future ambitions. Barnes highlights the importance of autonomy, employee empowerment, and a focus on professional development. The analysis also discusses the company's innovative approaches and the challenges faced by small businesses. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of flexibility, collaboration, and innovation in small business management. The report also references academic literature to support the analysis.

Running head: INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................2
Discussion....................................................................................................................................................2
Analysis and Discussion...............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9

2INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
Introduction
The respective interview has been taken by me as a student of management for the purpose of
analyzing a particular business firm, preferably a small business firm based in Australia where I
had taken the interview of the manager of the firm and talked with him in details about the
human resource policies as well as the morale and motivational issues of the respective business.
the business taken into consideration for the interview is a successful start up business of
Australia, named Go1, which is a learning company that provides corporate training to different
companies and budding as well as established enterprises. I have taken the respective business
Go1 since it is a small start up company with innovative approaches/ perspectives that rule the
management and operations of the company. By selecting the respective company for the
interview, i would be able to go in depth of the issues/challenges small companies face and the
opportunites they get due to its innovative approaches towards business. It would provide me
with a different perspective altogether. The interview was taken by me and the interviewee was
the owner- manager of the company named Andrew Barnes.
Discussion
Outcomes of the interview
Business: Its details and dynamics
As the interview was taken by me, I began with the very basic question that is often asked, which
were the details about the business which Barnes owned. Barnes stated that the enterprise Go1 is
a start up enterprise that has been built exclusively for providing corporate training to different
institutions, organizations and companies. It is an education and learning company that provides
the aspiring learners and students, online learning portals and study materials as a part of

3INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
corporate training for the upcoming, budding as well as already existing businesses
(Go1.com.2019). I have selected Barnes as the interviewee of the interview because he possess
most of the skills a quintessential start up entrepreneur of today’s generation possess. He is a
talent pool and interviewing him would provide me with the concepts of emerging business
dynamics with special reference to small business in Australia. The idea from where the
company was derived was that Barnes, who had been a prolific as he had an in depth knowledge
in the field of education, technology and business relationships thought as well as rethought of
bringing something new to the ever evolving and cosmopolitan Australian population. Therefore,
he decided to bring up an online learning portal where there are numerous courses on business,
management, soft skills and skill enhancement which has been found to be utterly beneficial for
the youth of Australia who are seeking for employment in corporate sectors as well as in the
other sectors of the country. Barnes ensured that the courses are not only adhered to corporate or
management orientation and multidimensional courses in various fields such as arts, humanities
and science is also offered by the company. The annual revenue of the company as stated by
Barnes, is $5.5 million (estimated) and the top competitors of the company are LinkedIn,
Degreed and Mindflash. The total funding of the company is estimated to be $44M which comes
from different sources such as Seek from ASX, M12 and Black Sheep Capital, according to
Barnes (Smartcompany.com.au.2019).
Introduction to the founder
Barnes was asked to introduce himself by me while the interview continued to proceed further.
Barnes seemed to be a polite and amicable man who was well synchronized with the interview
and was comfortable with whatever question asked to him by me on which he have the answers
diligently and dedicatedly. When I asked Barnes to introduce himself, he said that he had been

4INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
the alumni of the most prestigious universities of the world, Oxford. As an alumni of Oxford, he
had plans to do certain path breaking work in his future. Barnes, who has always been a creative
man with new and innovative ideas popping up into his mind all the time decided to start an
enterprise and become an entrepreneur. Barnes needed to do something different and
unconventional to keep himself away from the rest of the crowds. Therefore , he decided to begin
with a company which would focus on learning and development through online portals and the
company was unique because it has brought in front of the students, a plethora of interesting and
innovative as well as authenticated courses in order to make them compatible and competitive in
order to survive and thrive in not only corporate sectors but also in other sectors of employment.
When I asked him about the idea from where the company was derived, Barnes, who had been a
prolific as he had an in depth knowledge in the field of education, technology and business
relationships thought as well as rethought of bringing something new to the ever evolving and
cosmopolitan Australian population. Barnes has also said that getting into a business did not
mean to end the pursuit of higher studies. Barnes had also simultaneously studied and completed
his degree from the university of Oxford while continuing with the business Go1 and he declared
that the juggling of work and studies is a must needed skill for every millennial in today’s
generation. Barnes has also been a scholar in Rhodes and a P.hd holder in Business Strategy
from the University of Queensland. As an innovative thinker and a scholar, Barnes is also
famous for his brainstorming in his respective business as he is also in charge of enhancing the
diversity and competence of business with latest ideas and approaches. Andrew Barnes declared
that he has also authored certain website articles and journals related to management, leadership
and business dynamics which has been read all across the globe and also has been appreciated by
many readers and business enthusiasts (Entrepreneur.com.2019).

5INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
Human Resource Issues
While taking the interview of Barnes, I had asked him questions about how does he manage the
employees in the company or whether there are any special human resource management
strategy that Barnes follows in order to extract the maximum potential and capabilities from the
employees who are recruited or hired by him. To this question, Barnes replied that the employees
whom he chooses are well qualified and capable at the same time. First of all, according to
Barnes, the employees in the company are given freedom and independence to have the
autonomy of their own jobs. Having a clear and lucid sense of how time at work is arranged is
completely given in the hands of the employees themselves. The company provides the
employees to work independently. The employees are given the freedom to focus on their tasks
and projects without much interruption from the supervisors or the managers thereupon. As the
company does not interfere or interrupt much in the work and task of the employees, the
employees tend to give their full potential in order to prove themselves in front of their seniors or
supervisors. Therefore, the productivity of the employees somewhat increases. According to
Barnes, the human resource of the company follows one rule, which is “Respect of own time as
well as respect of the time of the others- setting boundaries with mutual respect for each other”.
Barnes believes that autonomy creates a sense of empowerment among the employees which
also caters to the need of self realization and self actualization among them (Saragih 2015). With
a clear sense of autonomy, as stated by Barnes, the employees enjoy an in depth sense of
inspiration, encouragement and motivation which leads them to fully engage themselves in their
work and give their best performance to the company. Barnes also declared that they have hired
one of the most efficient human resource management officer, Ms. Sandra Klien, who is a
recruitment officer of the company who believes that it is not just the monetary motivation that

6INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
brings the employees every morning from their home to the office. Rather, the employees are
motivated to come to the office to deliver high performance which acts as an agent of employee
satisfaction as it caters to the needs of employee self development and self actualization
holistically. Therefore, according to Barnes, the company is indebted to Ms. Klien, who has
given considerable effort to produce one of the best human resources practice in the company
with the help of a remarkably unique way of leadership, which is “autonomy” that has
immensely helped the company in its growth and development. Staff turnover of Go1, as stated
by Barnes, is negligible and the employees are managed well in the company with a positive
feedback in terms of job satisfaction (Go1.com.2019).
Products and services offered
Barnes, when questioned what the company offers, declared that the company Go1 offers
thousands of online educational courses for the enhancement of skills and qualifications of the
aspiring students and employees who have the desire to survive and thrive in the corporate world
as well as the competitive society. Professional development skills are also provided to the
employees who are working in different organizations to build their skills and accomplish their
goals. Soft skills, such as time management, communication and negotiation are also provided by
the company. The other skills such as cloud computing and information technology (such as data
analysis and database management) are provided by the company to the learners, students and
professionals alike. It is concluded that with thousands of unconventional and important courses
the company offers, the enterprise might as well acquire a special competitive edge in the global
market.
Future ambitions for the business

7INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
As Barnes was asked about the futuristic plans and goals that the company has set forth to look
forward to, Barnes replied that the most important aspect which the company would look forth in
future is “expansion”. While answering the questions of the interview, Barnes said that the
company has fortunately received a huge amount of funds, almost around $10 milion led by the
ASX listed businesses and has managed to open its another office in London (Afr.com.2019).
The company also has the intentions to open its next office in South Africa, prompting for a
global and pan- continental approach of expansion. The most important futuristic strategy,
according to the owner Barnes as he stated was that to grow the business efficiently and
effectively. Acquisition of the potential to run a large, successful and an independent business is
what the actual future plan is for the company, though it might sound clichéd, as Barnes stated.
Leveraging the reach of Microsoft and making a platform of multifaceted and multidimensional
learning across the globe are long term future plans for the company which would be an
outstanding decision for the rational and step-by-step growth of the company.
Analysis and Discussion
Throughout the interview, it has been observed that Barnes, the owner of Go1, seemed to be
flexible, collaborative and innovative at the same time. From the interview, it has to be
understood that the owners of small business have certain quintessential behaviors, such as their
unconventional flexibility, accessibility and innovative attitude. Small business owners have
patience and perseverance since they have to deal with obstacles and handle different issues in
the business. They are innovative and proactive because they find every possible and innovative
ways to solve the issues and grow their business (Storey 2016). Go1, as a small business, has
appeared in the business world as the best practiced business as the success of the organization is
visible. The organization has executed premium brainstorming by appointing the best faculties of

8INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
education regarding its operational strategies which have intrigued the mind of the students and
professionals. The company provides an unconventional means of education that has made it
stand apart from all other small businesses in the field of online education. With thousands of
innovative courses, the company has proved its mettle as one of the best small companies in
Australia with best practice in innovation and entreprenueal creativity. The small business
owners differ from the owners of larger organization as the small business owners look for
innovation, zeal and energy to expand their business, while the owners of the large organizations
remain temporarily content with what situation they are in (Kerr, Kerr and Xu 2018). The small
business owners (the budding entrepreneurs, such as Barnes) carry out their business with the
areas of their passion and core competency while the owners of large corporations somewhat
become profit oriented (Goffee and Scase 2015). According to Australian census, the Australian
start ups have become a major source of income and revenue of the country which has also
helped the country to revive and increase its GDP and provide the country with a myriad of
employment opportunities (Haines 2016). The young Australian entrepreneurs are prolific with
diversified and innovative views, ideas and perspectives. The Australian startup entrepreneurs
have proved their mettle in the competition, therefore, I believe that the Australian government
should start encouraging and developing new portals and platforms for the upliftment and
development of the start ups in the country.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be stated that being a completely new and latest startup, the company Go1
has proved itself to be a prolific and powerful startup company with innovative human resource
management practices and products/ services offered. Therefore, it can be concluded that there is

9INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
a bright future awaiting for the Australian startups and for the passionate, diligent entrepreneurs
who are in a constant battle to change the world dynamically.

10INTERVIEW ANALYSIS
References:
Afr.com.2019. Available at: https://www.afr.com/technology/microsofts-m12-vc-fund-leads-
30m-go1-funding-round-as-global-expansion-plans-take-shape-20190313-h1ccin
Entrepreneur.com.2019. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/andrew-barnes
Go1.com.2019. Available at: https://www.go1.com/about
Goffee, R. and Scase, R., 2015. Corporate Realities (Routledge Revivals): The Dynamics of
Large and Small Organisations. Routledge.
Haines, T., 2016. Developing a startup and innovation ecosystem in regional Australia.
Technology Innovation Management Review, 6(6), pp.24-32.
Kerr, S.P., Kerr, W.R. and Xu, T., 2018. Personality traits of entrepreneurs: a review of recent
literature. Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship, 14(3), pp.279-356.
Saragih, S., 2015. The effects of job autonomy on work outcomes: Self efficacy as an
intervening variable. International Research Journal of Business Studies, 4(3).
Smartcompany.com.au.2019. Available at:
https://www.smartcompany.com.au/startupsmart/news/go1-30-million-seek-microsoft-m12/
Storey, D.J., 2016. Understanding the small business sector. Routledge.