Early Life of Dick Smith
Entrepreneurship is a rare quality that encourages a flourishing strategic capability needed immensely in the contemporary business. The world is full of some entrepreneurs who have helped their organization float across the different barriers with ease (Drucker 2014). Henry Ford, Michael Dell, Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg are the few entrepreneurs who are widely known for their excellence in their genre (Kirkpatrick 2012). Entrepreneurship can be defined as a process through which an entrepreneur exhibits the required willingness and the capabilities in him or her and uses that to cross any barrier and attain the required success (Naudé 2013). The main purpose of this assignment is to analyze the entrepreneurship style of Dick Smith who founded the Dick Smith Electronics.
The entrepreneur was born in 1944 in Australia. One of the first recognition that the person received did happen in the year 1986. Mr. Smith was acknowledged as the Australian of the year. It all started when Mr. Smith was just 17 years old. At that time, Smith had witnessed the failure of his father as a salesman. Additionally, Smith was very weak in academics. After few years, Dick founded the Dick Smith Electronics. Dick started his business in a very small rented place in 1968. Initially, the business was confined only to the installing and servicing of car radios. However, Dick has started to realize that there is a need for a comparatively bigger premise. This is also because Dick had to focus on wholesale business as well. One of the biggest changes has happened when Smith did travel to the different overseas location to understand the modern merchandising methods. Consequently, Dick introduced self-service system over the traditional system of standing at the counter (Australia 2017).
The entrepreneurship in Dick Smith had started to fly off when it entered the 1970s. Smith had its first success when the CB radio boom was a success in the 1970s. The success marked the start of an entrepreneur in Mr. Smith and by the end of the same decade, Dick was successful to have stores in all the mainland states. In between the 1970s and the 1980s, Dick was able to expand its product range. Products such as Healthkit electronic kits, Beeple pagers, stations to receive satellite TV and Wizzard computer game were being added to the product line (Australia 2017).
By 1980, the company had 20 stores. They then sold 60% of the shares to Woolworths Limited. In 1982, the entire shares were sold to Woolworths. It actually helped to accumulate a huge sum, which Mr. Smith used to further its reach by expanding in the form of small stores in the different suburbs and the regional cities across the country. One of the major changes had happened in the year 1996 when the first powerhouse superstore was opened in New South Wales. Another big change took place in the year 2008 when Dick Smith renovated its flagship store to give it an entirely different look that had modern feel incorporated with that. The renovated shop was named Dick Smith Technology (Australia 2017).
Entrepreneurship Style of Dick Smith
These are just a few examples of how Dick Smith changed his strategies and chosen the most appropriate ones. Dick belonged to a family, which was very ordinary. His father was a salesman and his father sometimes had also tried some kind of business. However, all the concepts turned into failures. His mother was a housewife. Dick was himself very poor in academics. The initial life of Dick had looked like a normal life. It was indeed a very big turnaround with respect to what Dick had in his early life (Australia 2017).
According to the Trait Theory of Entrepreneurship, an entrepreneur possesses several traits that are very common with the entire entrepreneurs (Mishra and Zachary 2014). Based on the theory following traits can be found in Mr. Dick Smith:
Dick was able to live through uncertainties, which is evident as he belonged to an average family background and had a poor academic career. However, Dick did not think of living the same life that others do. Dick rather went ahead with a distinguish intention. Dick progressed slowly towards the success. It all started from a very small rented house. Dick was able to have its first superstore in the year 1996 (Ogunleye 2012).
Entrepreneurs have the passion for their products or the services. Dick had the passion for the electronic goods. This is why Dick had always remained connected to the electronic products. The transition of small shops in the main street was transformed into superstores in the year 1996; however, the superstores had the same product line with the addition of few others (Ogunleye 2012).
This is related to the risk-taking capabilities that bring the difference in the entrepreneurs (Aulet and Murray 2013). In his early life being an average student, Dick had always thought of achieving much. Dick started the business form just a small rented shop. At that time also, Dick was aimed at having a big store. Dick was able to turn things into his favor in between the 70s and 80s. This was the period when Dick moved from one single shop to 20 different small stores. A further expansion had required more money and to serve the purpose Dick did not at all hesitate in selling its 60% shares in 1980 and the remaining shares in 1982 to Woolworths Limited. The year 1996 did witness a big turnaround when Dick was able to have its first superstores in New South Wales (Australia 2017).
Traits of Entrepreneurs in Dick Smith
In the year 2008, Dick renovated its flagship store into a newly launched concept “Dick Smith Technology”. When Woolworths decided to close 100 Dick Smith stores they sold that to Anchorage Capital- an Australian investment firm. Dick did not lose its nerve and went up against the tide to form an alliance with David Jones in the year 20013. The alliance had helped Dick to expand its network of stores under the banner “David Jones Electronics Powered by Dick Smith”. This was not the end. Dick rather moved on and purchased MAC1 to expand its presence among the educated customers. Dick was able to open up few stores in the different parts of Australia such as Canberra & Wollongong, New South Wales, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria (Australia 2017).
Entrepreneurs do not lose their nerve in the odes of situations (Ogunleye 2012). Dick has proved its entrepreneur skills on quite a few occasion such as at the time of selling its entire shares to Woolworths, during the alliance with the David Jones and while purchasing the MAC1. Dick had also tried to sell Private label products. Dick had also sponsored Melbourne Stars in the T20 Big Bash League and several tennis tournaments (Australia 2017).
Amabile’s componential theory of creativity has identified three core characteristics that give birth to creative works. Those core characteristics are domain-related skills, intrinsic motivation and cognitive processes relevant to creativity (Amabile 2012). All the three characteristics were there in Dick. Selling the entire shares to Woolworths Limited produced the example of creativity related cognitive process in him. Forming an alliance with David Jones had produced the example of intrinsic motivation in Dick. Opening up superstores in 1996, renovating the flagship store under the banner “Dick Smith Technology” and purchasing MAC1 had all just produced the domain related skills in Dick (Hougaz 2015).
The business style of Dick was different to what many have. Dick had never hesitated in taking risks. One of the first risks was when Dick sold the entire shares of Dick Smith Electronics to Woolworths Limited. The different company of the same genre or relating to others as well could have gone a different way such as encouraging the franchising operation. This would have helped to expand into international markets as well. However, Dick with its innovative strategies was able to have a large sum, which Dick had used to form various small stores in the different parts of mainland streets (Bressler 2012).
When Woolworths had sold 100 Dick Smith stores to Anchorage Capital, the move would have discouraged any other company. However, Dick had enough resilient in him and formed an alliance with David Jones to run the further business under a different banner. It was not only the case, Dick had also purchased MAC1. The selling of Private Label brands in its stores is a very rare possibility with the others of the same genre (Wingwon 2012).
Conclusion & Recommendations-
Dick Smith Electronics had the companionship of entrepreneur Dick from its early age. The entrepreneur was able to cross every single barrier through its entrepreneurship skills. However, it has now fallen to an all-time low. The business is in danger. By the year 2016, Dick Smith Holdings had lost more than 80% of the shares.
It is better to sell the business as Dick had done in past when it sold the entire shares of Dick Smith Electronics to Woolworths and utilized the gained money for further expansion.
Dick could also go for an alliance under which it could operate differently. The company has done the same in past when it formed an alliance with David Jones.
References-
Amabile, T., 2012. Componential theory of creativity (pp. 3-4). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Aulet, W. and Murray, F., 2013. A tale of two entrepreneurs: Understanding differences in the types of entrepreneurship in the economy.
Australia, D. 2017. About Us | Dick Smith. [online] Dicksmith Australia. Available at: https://www.dicksmith.com.au/da/about/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2017].
Bressler, M.S., 2012. How small businesses master the art of competition through superior competitive advantage. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 11, p.1.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Hougaz, L., 2015. Entrepreneurs in family business dynasties: Stories of Italian-Australian family businesses over 100 Years. Springer.
Kirkpatrick, D., 2012. The Facebook effect: The real inside story of Mark Zuckerberg and the world’s fastest growing company. Random House.
Mishra, C.S. and Zachary, R., 2014. The theory of entrepreneurship: Creating and sustaining entrepreneurial value. Springer.
Naudé, W., 2013. Entrepreneurship and economic development: Theory, evidence and policy. Browser Download This Paper.
Ogunleye, A.J., 2012. Self esteem and achievement motivation: Behavioral traits for entrepreneurship, business and economic growth and development. Research Journal in Organizational Psychology and Educational Studies (RJOPES), 1(3), p.145.
Wingwon, B., 2012. Effects of entrepreneurship, organization capability, strategic decision making and innovation toward the competitive advantage of SMEs enterprises. Journal of Management and Sustainability, 2(1), p.137.
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