Essay: Entrepreneurship In Australian Football League - Andrew Demetrio.

Background of Andrew Demetriou

Discuss about the Entrepreneurship for Australian Football League.

Entrepreneurship is the ability and the desire to develop and organize a business, and manage it along with the associated risks with the aim of making profits. The typical example of entrepreneurship is starting a business. In the field of economics, entrepreneurship is characterized by innovation and risk-taking and is an essential element in the ability of the nation to succeed in an ever-changing and rising competitive global market. Many business people have endured the challenges and risks in the process of starting their businesses and establishing them to become multi-billion investments. Such prominent entrepreneurs are in most cases driven by the will and urge to start their investment, and they usually have higher dreams that make them work towards achieving their goals. This paper is meant to focus on Andrew Demetrio, an Australian business person whose business has been a successful one in the history of Australia.

Andrew Demetriou, born in 1961, is an Australian investor and a sports administrator who held the office of the CEO of the Australian Football league (AFL) in ended in 2014. After retirement from the football career, the businessman chaired many companies leading to his appointment to the office of the CEO of the AFL players association under the responsibilities for the negotiation new collecting bargaining contracts between the league and the player. Demetriou in his roles as the head of the AFL Commission was obligated to make changes that included the expansion of the league from 16 teams to 18 and also brokering two new TV rights deal. Andrew is the youngest son of Greek Cypriot immigrants (O'Reily & O'Reily, 2014). His elder brother played senior football for Essendon in the mid-1970s. Andrew Demetriou graduated from the La Trobe University with Bachelor of Arts in 1993 and diploma in education in 1984. He was then awarded the distinguished alumni awards of the university in 2009 and a doctor of letters in 2005 recognizing his contributions towards sports management and the Australian society through his leadership. He is also known for the support he had towards the important social issues; his managerial career has the best of his histories where he is widely recognized for his position as the CEO of the AFL elected by the board of directors in 203. In 2008, Andrew Demetrio was acknowledged as the highest paid administrator through his generous salary package (Ho & Jakubowicz, 2014). In 2005, Demetrio was an instrumental individual in securing a record-breaking AUD780 million TV rights contract that included a live coverage of the AFL matches in all countries of Australia through a free-to-air subscription. His powerful character was first seen when he was the CEO AFL in the boards desire to get a team to operational and based on the gold coast.

Characteristics of Andrew Demetriou

Andrew Demetrio has been well recognized and appreciated for his excellent skills in administrative and management positions. He has portrayed many qualities in his leadership journey especially during his time as the CEO at AFL. Some of his qualities are as below;

When Demetrio became the CEO, he replaced some members of the AFL management with a team of smart and intelligent individuals who displayed excellent traits. The team worked together for many years and has been in a relationship described as loyalty and respect relationship (Casson, 2008). Andrew developed the team which he was sure would strengthen his weakness, and he once said: “the people in my team are smarter than me.”

The quality of problem-solving and negotiator matches Andrew Demetrio considering negotiation was one of his responsibilities as the CEO AFL where he exercised the best of it juggling with different deals simultaneously. Andrew believed that believed that a competent leader can focus on many, negotiations that are equally important at the same time. He also implied that negotiations and managing conflicts start early in his day considering family if young children that needed his best negotiation skills. He mentions that the latter is always his warm up for the big game (Coyle-Demetriou & Demetriou, 2007).

In leadership, making tough decisions is never easy; however, Andrew believed that people would respect the fact that one has done a change decision even if they don’t like it rather than being stagnant. He made tough decisions in 2004 at the time he called for any women humiliated in any way by any AFL player. Even though there were opponents, it was a decision that Demetrio made and was respected by the AFL fraternity.

Andrew considers integrity to be the most important leadership qualities along with respect and maintenance of good values. He is a different and determined leader who believes that young people can be taught how to embrace and adopt the values of respect and leadership. The businessman believes that acts associated with integrity are a trait that he would love to see adopted across organizations including the AFL during the time he was the CEO (Guthrie, 2010).

Discuss the processes of opportunity recognition and idea development

Entrepreneurship is currently one of the rapidly developing and expanding sectors in the existing economic arrangements. In every industry today, and in both the corporate and the small business levels, business people have considered the tools are driving the improvement initiatives in the market. Following these recognitions, one can argue that there are different and insufficient proved connections between the acknowledged current business theories and the place of business in the economy and the strategies of a company. The below stages are the creative steps towards opportunity recognition and idea development;

• Preparation- is the foundation of experience and knowledge that comes from the creative journey.
• Incubation- It is a step where the person is thinking about an individual issue and considers it an idea.
• Insight- Insight is the moment of recognition of the opportunity. It is regarded as an illumination and a point where the core solution originates and become awareness spontaneously.
• Evaluation- is a step where the insights are analyzed for their validity. It can be termed as the verification phase of the process of opportunity recognition and idea development.
• Elaboration- is where the creative insight is actualized and is made ready for presentation.

Discuss the processes of opportunity recognition and idea development

Andrew Demetriou founded a global sports media and entertainment consulting, marketing and technology services company in Singapore. Beyond boundaries, the company was established along with the former Football Federation Australia boss Ben Buckley and is a boutique consultancy that has a small team of twelve executives (Carsrud & Bra?nnback, 2007). The company services cover strategy development, execution of projects, broadcasting and media valuations and negotiations amongst other businesses. The firm has a competitive advantage in the market considering it is a business founded and run by well-known and reputable individuals who have been known for their success in various sectors in the sports business. The business is also advantageous in the market as it has been launched and has been recognized by many people in the sports and media market because of its founders who are considered to be intelligent individuals in the business (Cuervo, Ribeiro & Roig, 2007). 

Andrew Demetrio has been well known for his excellent leadership qualities and values. His success as the CEO of the ALF is a credit to his business since his clients believe in his success in administration, negotiations, and management. However, it is recommended that Demetrio develop a smarter team of executives that will be strategizing the business, to share ideas with him and make joint decisions for the better of the business success and growth. Even though Demetrio has a well recognized and appreciated business, he still needs to incorporate marketing strategies for entry into the global market and make his business operational in many countries in the world as possible. With wings in the global marketplace, the business will with no doubt be the leading sports and media company in the world considering it is the only firm recognized and appreciated for these services, along with the many other services it is offering the market (Stokes, Wilson & Mador, 2010).

Conclusion

From the discussion, it is evident that entrepreneurship is the art of starting a business and managing it to its best, through growth and development until it becomes profitable. Andrew Demetrio is an Australian businessman in the context who have been spotted as a quality and competent business leader. He has shown excellent leadership qualities in business since the time he was the CEO ALF. On retirement, he launched a company dealing with matters regarding sports, media, and negotiations that has also been doing well in the market. Demetrio has displayed competency in many ways and has been the focus of many sports agencies and businesses. His core values and characters are the best leadership qualities that any business leader would be advised to adopt in their leadership tenure. Demetrio has displayed the fact that business needs the passion and urge for success to be able to make the best in the field.

References

Stokes, D., Wilson, N., & Mador, M. (2010). Entrepreneurship. Hampshire, UK: South-Western/Cengage Learning EMEA. 

Cuervo, G. A., Ribeiro, D., & Roig, S. (2007). Entrepreneurship: Concepts, theory and perspective. Berlin: Springer. 

Casson, M. (2008). The Oxford handbook of entrepreneurship. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Carsrud, A. L., & Bra?nnback, M. E. (2007). Entrepreneurship. Westport, Conn. [u.a.: Greenwood Press. 

Henry, C. (2007). Entrepreneurship in the creative industries: An international perspective. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar. 

Coyle-Demetriou, M., & Demetriou, A. J. (2007). Integrating complementary and conventional medicine. Oxford: Radcliffe. 

O'Reily, T., & O'Reily, T. (2014). Titus O'Reily's 2014 AFL season almanac. Melbourne: Titus O'Reily. 

Ho, C., & Jakubowicz, A. (2014). 'For those who've come across the seas ... ': Australian multicultural theory, policy and practice. 

Guthrie, B. (2010). Man bites Murdoch: Four decades in print, six days in court. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.