Main Attributes Contributing to Lesley Gillespie’s Success
Discuss about the Entrepreneur of the Bakers Delight.
Entrepreneurship can be said as the most simple and pure adventure taken by the individual for the purpose of getting the profits and success. Entrepreneurship is the process through which an individual design, launches, and run a new business, and generally this new business is the small business. The individual who run and design this business is known as entrepreneurs. No permission or test is required to conduct the entrepreneurship, and in similar manner individual is accountable for every profit and loss occurred from the business.
Entrepreneurs only required the possible crazy notion that someone wants to pay the money for their goods and services, and also the strength to make arrangements for initiating their venture. It can be said that, this way is very different from other paths, as there is no certainty.
Structure of this paper includes the brief discussion about the chosen entrepreneur, main attributes of the entrepreneur which contributes in success, personality and personal approach of the selected entrepreneur, products and services offered by the entrepreneur, and process related to the entrepreneurship and also the challenges faced by the entrepreneur. At the end, brief conclusion is stated for the purpose of list down the key facts of this paper.
As stated, journey of Lesley Gillespie is discussed in this paper, which is responsible to manage the business of the Bakers Delight. This company was established in 1980, and currently it earns the revenue of $595 million in 2016.
Bakers delight is the business which comes far way,, as this venture is initiated by the Gillespie with the help of her husband Roger on Melbourne’s Glenferrie Road in 1980. Now, this bakery owns the global network of more than 700 stores, and these stress are established across Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada.
This bakery is involved in number of initiatives taken for community from last 37 years, and this also includes the 15 years long partnership with Breast Cancer Network Australia. Lesley Gillespie also gets the award for providing the services to the community[1].
Following are the most important attributes which contributes in the success of the Lesley as an entrepreneur:
Vision and execution: The most important trait possessed by the successful entrepreneurs is vision, as successful entrepreneurs hold the capability to get the things done in terms of their vision. Generally, entrepreneurs do not spend too much time in context of making and developing the business ideas. Maximum ideas are changed by the entrepreneurs when they enter into the market and execute by the individuals. In other words, entrepreneurs must be goal oriented by ensuring flexibility, and does not focus much on execution of strategy and results[2].
Products and Services Offered by Lesley Gillespie
Ability to find alternative: Another important trait of the successful entrepreneur is the capability of the individual to resolve the problems and analytical in nature, and they also try to resolve the problems in creative manner. The successful entrepreneurs does not trying to be eccentric and unconventional in nature, they just try to think in different and creative manner.
Dedication level: Entrepreneurs willingly work for the long hours, as idea of the Facebook was created in dorm room and it resulted in the billion dollar company. In other words, success is considers as the thankless and demanding job which required long hours of working. Hours of working are intense in nature, and generally rate of success is low. It takes long time in context of generating the results, and the amount of work involved in the entrepreneurship is deep and immense, especially for those who did not tried yet.
Sell or build: Usually, successful entrepreneurs fall in two buckets that are seller and manufacturer. In other words, one who sell the products, and second who manufactured the product. Some entrepreneur’s conduct both the actions, and this will considered as icing to the cake. Entrepreneurs need to expertise in at least one of these areas for the purpose of getting the success. This can be understood through example, Steve Jobs was the good communicator, but still his capability lies in his product[3].
Products and services provided by the entrepreneur is the only strength of the entrepreneur, because this is the only thing which helps the entrepreneur in capturing the market and ensuring their growth in the market.
Tenacity: Entrepreneurs are now aware much about the market, till the time they started but with the time they gain knowledge in context of the market and also the techniques through which they ensure their survival in the market. At the initial stage, entrepreneurs make number of mistakes and they learn from that and also try to ignore such mistakes in future. Some other things are also there which affects the working of the entrepreneurs such as changes in economy, changes occurred in customer preferences, etc. In such cases, it is necessary for the entrepreneurs to be stubborn in the business and stick to their vision.
Risk Tolerance: it is not possible for the individual to conduct the activities of the business without taking the risk. There are number of people, who do not even handle their credit card balance, and other people take big amount of loans without any hesitation. A successful entrepreneur has high risk tolerance capacity, as they deal with the things in confident manner[4].
Entrepreneurship Process and Its Stages
Risk tolerance is considered as most important attribute of an entrepreneur, as risk lies in each and every single activity of the entrepreneurship and it is necessary for the entrepreneur to understand that risk and manage it effective for the purpose of ensuring the long term survival and profitability in the organization. Entrepreneur not only needs to understand the risk but also needs understand each and every aspect of the risk, because detailed analyses is important for the purpose of understanding the risk and manage it in effective manner.
Entrepreneurs possess different personality characteristics, and these characterise are studied in this field from long period of time. Generally, there are two types of personality approach under the psychology in terms of entrepreneurship that are trait approach and behavioural approach[5].
In case of Lesley Gillespie she adopts, there is adoption of the trait approach. As per this approach, traits are considered as the broader dispositions of the personality which directed towards the particular response. In this approach, individuals are categorized on the basis of their behaviour such as outgoing behaviour, friendly behaviour, etc. Trait personality approach results in the conversion of the individuals either into the entrepreneurs or into the non-entrepreneurs. This personality approach is also known as the supply side explanation of entrepreneurship and it mainly includes the psychological, sociological and anthropological variants.
This theory mainly states that, behaviour of the people is shaped as per their personality, different conditions, and also their interaction with the situation. This theory further states that, changes occurred in the attitudes and also in the personality traits as per the different social attributes. However, this theory fails to consider the dimensions of the situation, and also the measurement of the effects of interaction[6].
Personal approach of the individual play most important role in the success of the individual and following is the attributes of the Lesley Gillespie personal approach:
- Self-awareness is the most important approach of the entrepreneur, and nothing is possible to achieve without developing this attribute.
- Another important attribute is the focus on personal development, as it is considered as the key element for achieving success in this modern world.
- Understanding of the field is necessary for executing the plans and idea developed by individual, because effective execution of ideas can only be done with the help of understanding[7].
Bakers Delight is the bakery franchisee which is owned by the Lesley Gillespie with her husband Rogan Gillespie. This franchisee established almost 700 stores across the globe. It offered variety of bakery products to its customers.
This bakery offers sweet, savoury, crusty, soft, delicious, pastries, and bread. It also offers its customers classic loaves and their famous hot cross buns, crusty artisanal sourdoughs. They ensure that they offer fresh products to its customers, and in this context they baked their breads on daily basis[8].
Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs
Following is the process of the entrepreneurship, which includes five stages that are:
Discovery:
This is the first stage of the entrepreneur process, and this is also considered as most important stage. Process initiates with the idea generation in which entrepreneur identifies and evaluates the opportunities of business. Evaluation of the opportunities is considered as the difficult task. It is necessary for the entrepreneur to consider all the aspects of the opportunities before taking the decision. Once all these aspects have been analysed, then next step is to take decision.
Developing a business plan:
Business plan must be developed in context of opportunity identified by the entrepreneur in first stage. Entrepreneur need to develop the business plan which is comprehensive in nature. Business plan is the most important factor for the success of any venture, and it is necessary for the entrepreneur to prepare this plan with complete focus[9].
Resourcing- this is the third step of the process which includes the arrangement of resources for executing the business plan. In this entrepreneur analysed the different ways through which they can arrange the human and finance resources.
Managing the company- once resources are arranged by entrepreneur, then next step is to focus on the business operations. In other words, entrepreneur focuses on conducting their business operations effectively and also managing their business operations.
Harvesting- last step of the entrepreneur process is harvesting, which means, now individual focus on considering their future aspects of the business[10].
Challenges faced by entrepreneur:
- Abandoning any other career and initiate own start-up is the biggest challenge faced by the entrepreneur.
- Arrangement of resources is the other big challenge faced by the entrepreneur.
- Dealing with the uncertainty is another challenge which is faced by the entrepreneur[11].
Conclusion:
After considering the facts of this case, it is clear that entrepreneurs face number of challenges while developing their business as the start-up venture. However, it is their personal approach and personality through which they deal with the things. Entrepreneurs only required the possible crazy notion that someone wants to pay the money for their goods and services, and also the strength to make arrangements for initiating their venture. It can be said that, this way is very different from other paths, as there is no certainty. Entrepreneur need to develop the business plan which is comprehensive in nature. Business plan is the most important factor for the success of any venture, and it is necessary for the entrepreneur to prepare this plan with complete focus.
There are number of factors which affect the entrepreneur while conducting their business, and there is huge risk involved. Entrepreneurs take this risk in the hope of profit. The most important elements which contribute in the success of entrepreneurs are their courage, understanding, and strength.
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