Successful Entrepreneurs From Islamic Perspective - Katie Page

Discuss about the Successful Entrepreneurs From Islamic Perspective.

Katie Page was born in the year 1956 and is a businesswoman in Australia and also the CEO of Harvey Norman. She was named fourth among the fifty most powerful women in business. She supports various professional sports and actively supports the participation of women in sports. Katie Page was born in Australia in Mareeba, Queensland in the year 1956. She had completed her graduation from Brisbane State High School in the year 1973 after which she wanted to pursue her career as a surveyor. However, she was discouraged from the profession by seeing the less amount of money that was being paid to the women. She competed in an intelligence test for autistic children at the age of 19, where she met Garry Harvey who was one of the panel judges. Harvey offered her a job at the new store of Harvey Norman as an assistant, six years after the meeting. She later married Harvey in the year 1988. This report contains the different characteristics of Katie Page as an entrepreneur and strives to learn of her contribution and determination to the company.

Katie Page started as a store assistant and rose the ladder within Harvey Norman to become one of the longest running CEO in Australia by being associated with Harvey Norman since the year 1999. Together with her husband, Garry Harvey, she has been able to bring a lot of growth and development to the company. Even though Katie Page did not start the company she has given several years of her life to make the company start where it is in current times. Her efforts towards the success of the company have let her to be categorised as an entrepreneur. This is because she possesses several qualities that are present in an entrepreneur. As stated by ?ledzik (2013) an entrepreneur is a person who is in charge and acts a leader to push the other people forwards and to achieve a goal that is set for the organization. They are the ones who motivates the other team members to strive forward and develop themselves to become a contributor to the success of the company. The entrepreneur has the ability to make changes within the organization through the act of the team. The entrepreneur is also responsible for all the positive and negative effects that the actions of the team has on the success of the organization (Fathi, 2014). Due to the possession of these characteristics Katie Page has been categorised as an entrepreneur. Even though Katie Page was not the one who had started the company, she has given the maximum years of life for the success of the company by taking charge on almost all operations of Harvey Norman.

Characteristics of the entrepreneur

Even though there are various types of entrepreneur and different criteria are used to determine the type of entrepreneur that a person is, here mentioned are four types of entrepreneur on the basis of innovation towards a new idea and the willingness to implement it for the betterment of the organization. Firstly, innovative entrepreneurs are the people who initiate new and innovative ideas which have never been though by anyone and shows a new path to the other people in the business world. They are not afraid to take on risks at any situation if it means for the success of the organization (Baltar & de Coulon, 2014). Secondly, imitating entrepreneurs are the ones who cope the new ideas and innovations of other people. These entrepreneurs exists in areas where there is no availability of proper resources or technology because of which they were not able to create something new (De Beer, Sowa & Holman, 2014). Thirdly, Fabian entrepreneurs are the ones who are always in doubt about any new change that might be brought about in the organization. They do not develop any new ideas and only follows the ideas of others when there is huge success rate of the innovation (Poschke, 2013). Lastly, drone entrepreneurs are the ones who are conservative in their idea about any change that needs to be made in the organization. These entrepreneurs mostly stay contented with the present condition of the business (Barreto, 2013). Katie Page is an innovative entrepreneur, who in her tenure has made several changes and brought innovation in the company and is still striving to do so. She states that innovation is the key to success and that change needs to be made according to the condition of the market and the capability of the organization to cope with any hurdles that the company might face.

Katie Page is an entirely calm and composed personality who have held the whole operational reigns of the enterprise for numerous years. She has contributed a great deal fir the success of the company with her thoughtfulness and sharp mind which she has used to initiate several functions and determine their success.

Katie Page has always been one of the most hardworking and dedicated person to the organization along with her husband Garry Harvey who was the one who started the company (Storr & John, 2015). Even without being the one who started the organization, she has given most if her years to the betterment of the organization. She has always stated that since Harvey Norman is a lifestyle brand, they would have to always focus on new and better ways through which their can make the customers’ lives better (Abdullah, 2013). She was a game changer who brought about several changes in the company for meeting the growing demands of their customers and to keep up with the different trends that emerged in the market.

Different Types of Entrepreneurs

Just like every other entrepreneur in the market, Katie Page has also suffered various failures (Sarasvathy, Menon & Kuechle, 2013). Even the best of entrepreneurs had shortcomings and so did Katie Page. She was a person who was not afraid to take risks at any point and this ked to may dire situations which affected the company to a great deal. Moreover, the ideas that she initiated did not always match the conditions of the market and even though these instances were very few but they did manage to create a huge impact on the company (Simmons, Wiklund & Levie, 2014). Moreover, there were also several clashes of viewpoints between Katie Page and her husband Garry Harvey on the professional front.

The concept of entrepreneurial orientation suggests the different practices that are prevalent within an organization in terms to forming strategies, philosophies and the behaviour of the organization which suggests that the firm is entrepreneurial in their nature (Wales, Gupta & Mousa, 2013). This orientation is defined in an entrepreneur as being possessed with the characteristics of risk taking, innovativeness and proactiveness. The strong orientation of a person in the organization leads to the company giving strong performances in the long run. Even though there are several debates that exists with the success of a strong entrepreneurial orientation, it still possesses several advantages of its own. Katie Page is an individual with strong entrepreneurial orientation (Wales, Parida & Patel, 2013). This can be said from her performance throughout the years where she has shown extreme courage in taking risks which she feels will be beneficial for the company. She has continuously evolved according to the different changes that have erupted in the market and tried to keep up with it and succeeded as well. She also has an attraction towards the application of innovative ideas in those areas which no other entrepreneur has explored before. This makes it a possibility for the company to compete with the other big payers in the market and strive to be number one.

Katie Page initially wanted to be a surveyor, having being graduated from the Brisbane State High School in the year 1973. However, she was soon discouraged from the idea and her career goal when she found out that the pay for women in those times were really low. She met Garry Harvey in a competition of an intelligence test which was conducted to raise funds for several autistic children. Garry Harvey was one of the judges in the panel for the competition. Garry Harvey hired her as an assistant to a new store of Harvey Norman six years after the competition and this is how she was introduced to the business world. She was motivated by the several opportunities that the world held and the success that could be found in the company if there was an individual who would shake the still unexplored areas of the company. The most surprising part of the her behaviour was the fact that even though she did not have any prior experience of leading a huge enterprise, she had the natural instinct to do the right thing and take the right decisions which led Harvey Norman to grow in the market. From the initial stage itself, Katie Page has always helped and supported Harvey Norman, even when she was just an assistant in the store.

Talents and shortcomings of the entrepreneur

Entrepreneurship is the way that a new business is run in the market from its inception based on the way it is designed and launched. Entrepreneurs are the people who initiate this business (Drucker, 2014). The concept of entrepreneurship comes with several risks that is associated with being a new company among the other huge companies in the market. The main aim of an entrepreneur is to ensure that their company services all the hurdles that are strewn in their way. The most common risk that is associated with a new venture is its failure due to several reasons such as bad decision regarding the business, lack of funds, lack of demand in the market of the products or services that the company delivers, economic crisis in the market and others (Mantere, Aula, Schildt & Vaara, 2013). However, after overcoming all these factors there are several other characteristics of entrepreneurship. There should be continuous innovation in the company to develop themselves and also to explore and expand various new areas which will be able to start new trends and keep satisfying the ever growing demand of the consumers. The entrepreneur should have the ability to understand the market and determine the potential that it holds and make decisions in the operational activities of the company according to that (Naudé, 2014).

Based on the study that has been done on the entrepreneurship of Katie Page, it can be said that her reign has confirmed all the theories that have been studied regarding the concept of entrepreneurship. She was an innovator who brought about several changes in the company for its betterment. She has been a part of the company for several ears and with her strong views and new ideas she has been able to make the company go to places which most people desire (Thom, 2016). Just like a true entrepreneur she has also taken several risks which has sometime taken its toll on the company, however, she has always managed to get the company back on its feet with her prompt though process and excellent ideas. However, there have been several new insights regarding the concept of entrepreneurship based on her leadership. It has always been said that an entrepreneur is the person who has started a new business, however, Katie Page did not start Harvey Norman. It was done by her husband Garry Harvey and his friend Ian Norman. However, determine the fact that the success of Harvey Norman can be mostly given to Katie Page, it can be said that an individual does not need not start a business on their own to become an entrepreneur but can be the person who has contributed majorly to the success of the business solely on their merit and hard work (Bunten, Weiler, Thompson & Zahran, 2015).

Motivation and behavior of the entrepreneur

Katie Page is an entrepreneur who believes that teamwork is the reason behind the success of any company. She feels that if there are not proper teams in a company who can depend on each other and also complement each other on their work then the company would not be able to succeed (Shi & Liao, 2013). She also believes that it is important to fail together as a team as well and only then would the importance of success be understood by the people. She always ensures that she hires people who are extremely talented and are nice in their behaviour as well. This is because if a person is talented but do not behave nicely with the other members of the team then he will distance himself from the others and will not be able to perform well for a long time. She has also faced failures at different times but it has not led her to lose hope as she feels that failure and the ability to test things that would be considered risks by other people will lead the company to reach their desired position (Story, 2016). Without testing the market and not taking risks, the company will remain in the same position, whereas others will succeed more. However, people should not focus on the failures only and should try and develop themselves so that the same mistake is not repeated twice.

Katie Page also believes that the executive teams of a company should not be changed often as most companies do. This is because in the fast changing business a team which has worked in the company for a long time will be able to determine the changes that needs to be done in the company and the steps that needs to be taken for it. Moreover, it the team keep on changing then it will be difficult to work with them and also develop long term strategies as the team might no longer work after a certain time period (Nederveen Pieterse, Van Knippenberg & Van Dierendonck, 2013). This affects the company to a great deal. This is the reason that the executive team of Harvey Norman has worked for several years and is like a family for the organization.         

Conclusion

Hence, it can be deduced from the above study that Katie Page is an extremely successful entrepreneur which can be determined from her current position in the business world. She has a huge contribution to the success of Harvey Norman because of her brilliant ideas and strong personality which has enabled her to take calculative risks which has been beneficial for the organization. Under her guidance the business have been able to grow and expand in several countries and have been a success in each one of those countries. She possess all the characteristics of being a successful entrepreneur even though she was not the one who had started the company, Harvey Norman. Along with her husband, Garry Harvey she was able to build the company as one of the strongest competitors in the retail and lifestyle business. Even though she had faced many hurdles and failures in her lifetime, she was able to overcome all those failures and emerge with new and innovative ideas to develop the company more than it already is. This study has determined all the qualities that should be present in a successful entrepreneur and analysed them with the entrepreneurship of Katie Page to show that even though a person has not started a company, she is the major contributor and the reason behind its success.

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