The Entrepreneur I Most Admire: Peter Jones - Essay Example

1 THE ENTREPRENEUR I MOST ADMIRE: PETER JONES Introduction It isa glaring, indubitable fact that business entrepreneurs make an impact on the lives of most people in the world. Their product creativity and innovation and their conception of sterling ideas whether in the sphere of manufacturing, marketing, human management or a combination of all these aspects make this world a more exciting and colourful world. They are a source of economic progress and higher living standards. They thus make invaluable contribution to humanity, give employment to many people and inspire the youth to follow in their footsteps. They kindle admiration, awe, reverence and to a few idolatry. Most people thus have a ready list of their most admired entrepreneurs. And to find out who are the most admired entrepreneurs, several business entities commission surveys to find out the most admired entrepreneurs list. Oprah Winfrey is perhaps today's most admired woman entrepreneur in the whole world. Forbes Magazine had listed her in 2006 as one of the richest people on earth with fortunes worth more than a billion (Haig 2006,p.155). She had also been touted as 'one of the most powerful celebrities in the United States" (Butler 2006,p.73). And yet, she has remained humble and compassionate, exerting great efforts in philanthropic works and influencing and affecting people all over the world with the inspirational and educational nature of her TV and movie shows. With all these, she had made a difference in the lives of people and this caused all the adulation and admiration heaped on her. She thus topped the list of About.com Readers' Most Admired Entrepreneur in America (Popular Culture Association in the South 2007,p.75). 2 In another recent survey of 1000 teenagers in America, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs edged out Oprah Winfrey and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as the most admired entrepreneur in America. The rationale behind his selection was that Job "made a difference in or improved people's lives or made the world a better place" as well as because Jobs attained "success in multiple fields" (Thomson 2009, v3.co.uk) . In UK, in a poll held by the Scottish Institute of Enterprise and with 700 student entrepreneurs selected from among Scotland's 13 universities as respondents, Cobra Beer founder Karan Bilimoria came out the most admired toppling such heavyweight entrepreneurs as Richard Branson and Bill Gates. The usual reason behind the choice was that Bilimoria had "led by example and triumphed through his tenacity and strong belief in his vision". It was pointed out that Bilimoria "has had enormous success in building a business from scratch". The unexpected choice of Bilimoria had compelled Sharon Bamford, the Institute director to comment: "Vision is clearly an important quality in growing a business and is often linked with the entrepreneurial flair. However, good leaders exhibit a breadth of leadership qualities and Karan Bilimoria is a prime example of this" (Startups.co.uk). However top-notch UK entrepreneurs such as OgilvyMather managing director Guy Lambert professed that to them the most admired entrepreneur remains to be Richard Branson (Campaign News 2007, campaignlive.co.uk). In fact, when "other business people are asked to name the person they most admire", the oftentimes answer is Richard Branson (Bolton & Thompson 2004,p.132). Virgin founder Branson is no doubt an entrepreneurial legend and will leave this world a lasting 3 legacy. According to the Financial Times Branson has been admired because "he is an adventurerhe takes risks a few of us would contemplate". The paper stressed that Branson loves to enter and compete in industries lorded over by leviathan companies such as British Airways and Coca Cola. He is not only intrepid, bold and daring but also "creative, opportunistic and dedicated to those activities he engages" and most importantly he has such "determination to succeed" (Bolton & Thompson 2006,p.132). Others who had been admired are Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Howard Hughes, Donald Trump, Simon Cowell, Henry Ford and Mary Kay Ash to name a few. But to me, it is and will be Peter Jones. Peter Jones- A Biography One of today's most successful, acclaimed and richest tycoon in Great Britain is a tall, handsome entrepreneur named Peter Jones. He has set his mark in British business by founding and heading successful corporations in diverse fields ranging from telecommunications i.e. television and movies, media, leisure and real estate. All of these have been valued at more or less 200 million pounds. He has been particularly visible and prominent on UK and American television as star of both Dragon's Den and the American Inventor. His financial success can be measured by the fact that in 2009, his net worth has been valued at 157 million pounds, according to a well-known online encyclopaedia (The Guardian 2009). In 2002, his entrepreneurial wizardry was acknowledged with an award as Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year bestowed by The Times Newspaper and Ernst & Young (The Rose Bowl 2009, rosebowlwines.com). Acclaim for Jones reached its zenith in 2009 when he was accorded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire award (Squidoo 2009, squidoo.com). Yet all this 4 acclaim and adulation had been worthily laboured and earned for by Jones since his teenage days. His entrepreneurial spirit was something he acquired by osmosis from his father who ran a small business in UK. Born in Berkshire on March 18, 1966, he grew up wanting to emulate his father and at such a tender age of 16, he had already established a business of his own, a tennis coaching academy, "simply because he had a passion for both business and sport" ( Elnaugh 2008,p.151). But he had to first endure the rigors of tennis coaching exams put up by the Lawn Tennis Association, which of course he passed with flying colours. His entrepreneurial journey didn't end here as he kept on dreaming for more and for more challenges to hurdle. He thus diversified into the personal computer manufacturing business, which through a single-minded purpose and relentless drive brought him material rewards which he had always craved for i.e. BMW, Porsche and a house and lot. He then established a cocktail bar but decided on selling it, for which he lost some 200,000 pounds. Fate allowed him to suffer more business reversals when he was forced to let go of his computer business, losing all his material gains and thus compelled to start again from scratch. Instead of moping and wallowing in the collapse of his businesses, he sought employment with computer giant Siemens Nixdorf and became the head of the firm's PC computer business at the age of 28 and thus gained invaluable experience. When he felt he had enough experience and saved enough money (10,000 pounds), he left to establish his own computer business which he called Phones International Group in April 1998. This was a distribution company which packaged and exclusively sold Ericsson mobile phones to major mobile phone retailers and networks (Elnaugh 2008,p.153). Today, it has diversified and now "offers a portfolio of wireless communication services and solutions for businesses that 5 merges mobile logistics, distribution, fulfillment, configuration, content products and delivery" (Plunkett 2007,p.336). Nurturing the growth of the new business entailed lots of sacrifices. For example, he had to sleep in the floors of the company premises and had to personally watch over the firm as it went through the throes of growing-up pangs. His sacrifices and efforts paid off as the firm metamorphosed into as one of UK's largest privately owned firms and as one of Europe's fastest growing businesses. By the end of 1998, the company grossed revenues totaling 14 million pounds and by the end of 1999, revenues of 44 million pounds. For the period 2004 to 2006, group turnover was in excess of 150 million pounds, "generating a net profit of 5 million pounds" (Elnaugh 2008,p.153). Peter Jones was buoyed by this success and went pell-mell in investing in other business segments, creating a diverse portfolio of businesses. This includes establishing the Peter Jones TV; investing in the food business Levi Roots' Reggae, Reggae Sauce, the leisure Wonderland Magazine; Argos' best-selling teddy bear iTeddy; the real estate project Square Mile Marina; the circus company The Generating Company; Mark Champkin's range of Concentrate products; the events company Red Letter Days; the online retailer specializing in the sale of wine and champagne Wine4Business.com; the online recruitment business Celsius.co.uk (journalistdirectory.com). Jones also strives hard to support and help struggling and youthful entrepreneurs. As Chairman of Enterprise Insights, a business-led but government funded organization behind Enterprise Week, he has led in setting up campaign strategies and initiatives to promote business enterprise especially among the youth. His efforts are based on the credo that "The only people who can save the global economy from complete meltdown are 6 entrepreneurs. It ain't going to be singers and footballers. It's going to be entrepreneurs coming out of schoolrooms" (Tyler 2008, The Daily Telegraph). Jones' passion to foster entrepreneurship in UK has led to the founding of the National Enterprise Academy (NEA) in London, a national academy dedicated to teaching aspiring young entrepreneurs aged 16 to 19 how to develop skills to fast-track their entrepreneurship careers. NEA's stated aims are "fostering innovation, by equipping people with the skills and talents to develop new ideas, create new products and services, and see them through" (Great Britain 2008,p. 7.18). In November 2009, NEA, a collaboration between Jones and the UK government was finally launched and 30 teenagers are the first recipients to study entrepreneurship in either Manchester College or Amersham or Wycombe College. Their studies are meant to bag them diplomas in level 2 BTEC which are equivalent to four GCSEs at A to C (Mirror.co.uk 2009). As part of Jones' efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in UK, Jones wrote the business book Tycoon, which was published by Hodder and Stoughton. Even before the launching of NEA, Peter Jones has already become a force to reckon with in UK mainly because of his television and other media exposures. He was first plunged into the limelight and was catapulted from the business world to celebrity status when he was compelled by BBC in 2005 to join its roster of entrepreneurs in Dragons' Den. Jones stayed on in the show's successful five series where he has successfully demonstrated that in order to become successful, one needs to have "guts, determination and ideas" (Jones 2006, p.118). The fame and the show's impact encouraged him to set up the Peter Jones TV, which in collaboration with Simon Cowell's Syco Productions came up with the business reality TV show American Inventor, other business-style TV programmes and the series Tycoon, which in 2007 featured the 7 quest for the next big British tycoon, eventually won by Iain Morgan. Jones also sat as one of the judges in American Inventor, the biggest search ever for America's best new invention where the 12 finalists were each given $50,000 to create their own product, refine it and bring it to the next level. The winner won $1 million (Lycos.com 20090). Reasons For The Choice of Peter Jones The word 'entrepreneur' is rooted from the French word 'entreprendre', which means "to undertake". Thus, an entrepreneur refers to somebody who "undertakes the economic process in the dynamic world of trade, industry and commerce". An entrepreneur is further defined as someone who is involved in the field of "trade, commerce and industry and who unites all means of production and possesses the ability to take risk involved in assembling relevant facilities to translate a profitable idea into economic reality". The British further added that "an entrepreneur is basically a capitalist" (Sharma 1991,p.22). All these definitions put Peter Jones as a true entrepreneur in all sense of the word. But I believe that Peter Jones is not just any entrepreneur but an entrepreneur who is way above the rest and deserves the highest esteem and adulation. First economists tell us that in order to be a successful entrepreneur, one must have "strong entrepreneurial and management skills" and must have the right, relevant experience and must have a "track record of being successful previously as an entrepreneur in the same industry and who can attract a seasoned team". "Without relevant experience, the odds are stacked against the neophyte in any industry" (Bygrave & Zacharakis 2004,p.16). But Jones never had any university academic training in entrepreneurship nor had experience in tennis coaching or computer business management or bar and restaurant business. But he did achieve success in these businesses without the aforesaid qualifications. This means that Jones is a born 8 entrepreneur. He had within himself the business savvy, acumen, the derring-do and the willingness to make sacrifices in order to succeed despite the absence of an MBA or any academic training in business and relevant experience. He did fail in his first computer business but the reason was that he failed to collect accounts receivable due his business. His business did flounder and he was brought back to zero. But instead of being discouraged and rendered hopeless, he rose up from the ashes, started life and business anew and learned from his mistakes and came back stronger and more successful. He thus displayed strength of character and fortitude and these I find very admirable. Jones himself had been quoted as saying, "I don't have a fear of failure because for me I class failure as feedback. I think if you fail, the thing to do is to learn from it. I think my smartest move was not to give up (Elnaugh 2008,p.153). That he loves challenges and is not afraid of failure was so evident when on 12 August 2008, he accepted a challenge from the Sun newspaper to take a 90 minute A-level examination in Business Studies despite absence of any business diploma, which he passed with flying colours with an 'A' grade (Iggulden 2008, The Sun). Entrepreneurship author Iaquinto listed the traits of the ideal and successful entrepreneur and these are: "high levels of energy, intelligence, determination and resourcefulness, a high degree of motivation, diligence, creativity, youthful bravado, and self-confidence; a high need for achievement and the abilities to look at things differently, to persevere, and to make quick decisions". Successful entrepreneurs have also been known to possess these qualities i.e. "self-directed, outgoing, proactive, in control, hardworking, deadline-oriented" (Iaquinto & Spinelli 2006,pp.7-8). All of these qualities abound in Peter Jones. We therefore conclude that Peter 9 Jones is an ideal entrepreneur. All of these qualities contribute to make me decide that it is Peter Jones among other entrepreneurs that I admire to the utmost. It has also been suggested that the ideal entrepreneur is one who possesses a "balanced mix of entrepreneurial capabilities" and a set entrepreneurial goal or a "strategic direction which construct organisational capability (Dana 2006,p.258). That Peter Jones has entrepreneurial capabilities is indubitable. He will be not what he is right now if he possessed no entrepreneurial capabilities. In fact he has this at the maximum level and in diverse areas of business concerns which shows his multiple talents and his versatility. Need I explain why I admire him so much While Peter Jones is passionate in his business interests, he always keeps a positive attitude at things while at the same time being cautious and wary about possible business pitfalls. And he always preaches what he practices. He gives as lessons to make a business successful, the formula which consists of "keeping costs down, keeping your borrowings low, focusing on sales and cash". While almost other businesses are always tempted to make heavy borrowings, Jones has always resisted the itch to borrow and today has almost no bank debt. This discipline to shy away from debts is admirable. Moreover, Jones firmly believes in maxims which become his personal mantra and which rule his life i.e. "act on your dreams, adopt a can-do attitude, substitute feedback for failure". Jones has a vision of the world that "turns difficulties into opportunities and makes everything possible " (Tyler 2008, The daily Telegraph). All these maxims and vision had been put to good use and was proven to be indeed effective when he made the new firm Phones International a phenomenal business success "from nothing to a turnover of 186 million pounds six years later" (Elnaugh 2008,p.153), making him a veritable 10 miracle worker. These attitudes and personal credo inspire me and make him more admirable to my eyes. Peter Jones to me is also a great innovator and has a keen eye for business opportunities. It should be observed that all his businesses started from concepts that were the results of Jones' brainstorming. None of these businesses are franchises and in fact he eschewed franchises. By the way, a franchise is defined as "a right or license granted to an individual to market a company's goods or services (or use their brand name) (Gwartney et al 2008,p.119). The idea for the American Inventor, albeit shared with Simon Cowell as well as that of the Tycoon series and the idea to launch business competitions are great innovative ideas. There had been reality shows but this is the first time I know of that entrepreneurial reality TV shows had been launched. Thus, Jones more than being an innovator is ultra-sensitive and alert to the preexisting opportunities. As what Kirzner had once affirmed that the ideal entrepreneur is not only a source of innovative ideas but also 'alert to the opportunities that exist already and are waiting to be noticed" (Hitt 2002,p.134). Because Jones has proven himself to be good at detecting business opportunities and advantages as shown by his predilection to invest in businesses such as the online wine and champagne retailer, the online recruitment business, the Concentrate products, the leisure magazine and even a circus company, he should also be considered a strategic entrepreneur. Strategic entrepreneurship has been defined as "the integration of entrepreneurial ( i.e. opportunity-seeking actions) and strategic (i.e. advantage-seeking actions) perspectives to design and implement entrepreneurial strategies that create wealth (Hitt 2002,p.2). A strategic entrepreneur par excellence like Peter Jones only deserves respect and admiration. 11 If there's one thing that I truly admire about the entrepreneur Peter Jones, it is the fact that he is a man for others. He doesn't live for his own self but he selflessly gives himself, his talents, his entrepreneurial gifts that God endowed him with, to mankind. He first shared his business secrets to the whole world by publishing 'Tycoon', then he relentlessly pursued and devoted his energies and efforts to foster business enterprise and entrepreneurship in UK, to assist struggling and would-be entrepreneurs how to fast-track their business careers, to teach schoolchildren the rudiments of entrepreneurship and train select and elite business scholars in his conceived NEA or National Enterprise Academy programme to become the best entrepreneurs that can one day ensconce UK at the top of the world powers and in effect save the world because he firmly believed that it is only entrepreneurs that "can save the global economy from complete meltdown". With Jones' business accomplishments and the efforts and sacrifices to promote entrepreneurship in UK and all over the world, Jones deserves the accolade as ultimate "catalyst for economic development". This has been derived from economist Say's pronouncement that the ideal entrepreneur is a "catalyst for economic development" (Lowe & Marriott 2006,p.6). He is passionate about his beliefs and positively acts on such messianic beliefs at such great cost to himself and it is this selfless sacrifice without expectations of reward or payment that really makes Peter Jones a great man, a true man for all seasons, who is worthy of emulation and admiration. It should be noted that most business moguls would prefer to keep their business secrets to themselves and do everything in the books so that their companies can trample the rest of their competitors and stay well ahead in the business rivalry if not expand their business dynasty, but not Peter Jones. The guy is simply different. He is so generous that 12 he has shelled millions of his own money and even pledged to shell out 100,000 pounds from his own pocket for the project Make Your Mark With a Teener (Tyler 2008, The Daily Telegraph). Entrepreneurship author Foreman has contrived the term 'knockout entrepreneur and went on to describe it as someone who "truly wants to succeed in life and is willing to do the hard work necessary to make it happen. He sees an opportunity to grow or prosper and seizes it. He is a person who believes that a new thing needs to be done and can be done.He is a pioneer, an adventurer, a trailblazer. He is a person with a new idea. He is a visionary who can see beyond the barriers. He is a person who wants to explore the possibilities, to improve the status quo" (Foreman 2009,pp. vii,viii). These words aptly fit Peter Jones to a T. These describe the persona of Peter Jones, the entrepreneur, the knockout entrepreneur, the entrepreneur I admire most. Conclusion I admire Peter Jones most because he is truly a great and unique man who started his business empire practically from scratch and nurtured and hewed it to become one of the most phenomenal business empire in UK. He is a self-made man who is a product not of some revered business school such as Oxford and Cambridge but from the school of hard knocks. And yet he doesn't only possess business acumen but the heart of a person who truly wants to share his business secrets to the world in order to make the world a better world to live in. He has the selfless, generous heart of someone who wants to save the global economy from complete meltdown by training the youth, the struggling entrepreneurs to possess the skills to make it as a great entrepreneur like he is. He is truly a man for others, a man for all seasons, a pioneer, a trailblazer, an adventurer, a visionary, a man who wants to explore the possibilities and improve 13 the status quo, a real knockout entrepreneur and a strategic entrepreneur and lastly the entrepreneur I most admire. REFERENCES Bolton, B & Thompson, J 2006, 'Entrepreneurs: talent, temperament, technique', Butterworth-Heinemann. Butler, J 2006, 'Television: Critical methods and applications', Routledge. Bygrave, W & Zacharakis, A 2004, 'The portable MBA in entrepreneurship', John Wiley & Sons. Dana, L.P. 2006, 'Handbook of research on international entrepreneurship', Edward Elgar Publishing. Elnaugh, R 2008, 'Business nightmares: when entrepreneurs hit crisis point', Crimson Publishing. Great Britain: Department For Innovation, Universities and Skills 2008, 'Innovation Nation', The Stationery Office. The Guardian. July 31, 2009. 'The hard sell: moneysupermarket.com'. Guardian.co.uk Gwartney, J & Stroup, R & Sobel, R & MacPherson, D 2008, 'Economics; Private and public choice' , Cengage Learning. Haig, M 2006, 'Brand royalty; How the world's top 100 brands thrive and survive', Kogan Page Publishers. Hitt, M 2002, 'Strategic entrepreneurship: creating a new mindset', Wiley-Blackwell. Iaquinto, A & Spinelli, S 2006, 'Never bet the farm: How entrepreneurs take risks, make decisionsand how', John Wiley & Sons. Iggulden, C 2008, 'Testing time for dragon brain', 12 Aug. 2008, The Sun Newspaper. Jones, P 2006, 'Tycoon', Hodder and Stoughton Journalistdirectory.com 2009, 'Keeping up with the Jones', http://74.125.153.132/searchq=cache:CB7o9XJPfTkJ:www.journalistdirectory.com/ image.php%3Fid=543 Lowe, R & Marriott, S 2006, 'Enterprise: Entrepreneurships and innovation: concepts, contexts and commercialisation', Butterworth-Heinemann. Lycos Retriever 2009, 'Inventor: American Inventor', http://www.lycos.com/info/inventor-american-inventor.html Mirror.co.uk 2009, 'Dragons' Den Per Jones launches National Enterprise Academy', 8 November 2009, http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice/money/2009/11/18/dragon-den- peter-jones-launches-national-enterprise-academy. Plunkett, J 2007, 'Plunkett's wireless, Wi-Fi, RFID and cellular industry almanac', Plunkett Research, Ltd. The Rose Bowl 2009, 'Rose Bowl Wines: Peter Jones', rosebowlwines.com/go/celebrity/peter- jones. Sharma, P.K. 1991, 'Development banks and entrepreneurship promotion in India', Mittal Publications. Squidoo 2009, 'Who is Peter Jones', http://www.squidoo.com/peter-jones. Startups News, January 4, 2004, 'Beer entrepreneur more popular than Branson and Gates', http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842909067904570/beer-entrepreneur-more-popular-than- branson-and-gates Thomson, I 2009, 'Steve Jobs voted most admired entrepreneur', http://www.v3.co.uk/2251166/steve-jobs-voted-admired Tyler, R 2008, 'Dragons'Den star Peter Jones fires up enterprise in worlds' schools', The Daily Telegraph, November 15, 2008). Read More