Summaries how he or she got started in business and the environmental trend that the business was started to satisfy. Relate your findings to relevant theory on entrepreneurial opportunities and Ideas. (40%) (600 Words) Simon Jewell began his career in the music industry with a Job as a mail room clerk within MME records, a company in which his father, Eric Jewell, was a music industry executive.
Although Jewell started at the very bottom of the music industry he has said that this helped attribute to his success as he recalls, “in many ways, I was glad that I had started my career on the very low rung of the business, It was there that I earned how to deal with people. ” (Evangelical. Com 2001) A very Important characteristic to have later in his life. Penthouse Jewell now has found positives with starting at such a low level he wasn’t always as optimistic. Knowing that he had little chance at moving up the ladder in his current job he decided to leave and look for better opportunities.
As a result Jewell began a Job at an Estate Agents which again he hated and soon left. Through his fathers connections at MME, in 1971 he was offered a job as an assistant to an A ; R (artists and repertoire) man, the start of his A ; R career. Jewell slowly moved up the ranks until he was given the opportunity as a talent scout and from there the title of record producer. Unhappy with his future potential with MME Jewell left and formed E ; S Music, his own Independent music label. They found little success and within a year Jewell returned to MME.
He again In 1985 left MME to form another music label called Fanfare. As Like most entrepreneurs experience it isn’t always an easy road, penthouse Jewell found more success then with his first venture after five years Fanfare went bankrupt and he was forced to move back with his parents. Consequently, that same year Jewell was hired as an A & R consultant for BUM. What followed was huge In his career as he started to sign big artists, Like Westerly, eve and II Doll, who were making hit records and establishing his name within the music industry.
Eventually this lead to Jewell creating Coco Records, his current record company, and identifying the trends and opportunity gaps in combining, music and television, that truly made him successful. Essentially, entrepreneurs recognize an opportunely and turn It Into a successful business (Barring, B. R. & Ireland, R. D. 2012. Peg. 43). But the key to finding an opportunity in Swells case is observing trends. These trends can be broken into four parts, economic forces, social forces, technological advances and political & regulatory changes (Barring, B.
R. & Ireland, R. D. 2012. Peg. 43). As television has a lot to do with people and their needs, social forces was what Jewell was able to identify when recognizing this opportunity. Pop Stars’ and after realizing its success decided to develop his own show, Pop Idols. Pop Idols had one difference, in the final rounds of the show the audience was able to vote for the winner. As Jewell knew, the reason why reality television shows are so popular is due to the audiences desire to be famous and applied this trend to his show (Psychologically. Com 2001 ).
By adding the component of audience Involvement with voting and auditioning enabled the audience to feel as though normal people like themselves have what it takes to become famous. A common mistake with finding an opportunity is choosing a currently available product e. G Pop Stars and making a new business that is slightly different e. G Pop Idols. This is the case with Jewell but as he identified that the need for the general publics desires to be famous was strong enough and met the four essential characteristics of an opportunity it was successful. He four qualities of an opportunity are, attractive, timely, durable and provides value for the end user (Barring, B. R. ; Ireland, R. D. 2012. P. G. 43). As Jewell had already had first hand experience with the success of Pop Stars he already knew that the opportunity was attractive and durable salons as someone else didn’t come in and cause his window of opportunity to shut. Pop Stars was one of the first of its kind and the product was still in the growth stage so timing was not an issue.
With the added feature of audience involvement he was able to meet the needs of the audience and add value to the end users. 12) What are the main entrepreneurial characteristics? Discuss these in relation to relevant theories of characteristics of entrepreneurs. (60%) (900 words) Entrepreneurs have been defined as “a person who habitually creates and innovates to build something of recognized value around perceived opportunities” (Frederick and Curator 2010). Jewell has done Just that throughout his entrepreneurial career Nothing the music industry.
Swell’s company, Coco Productions, was constructed with hose foundations in mind and made successful through Swell’s ability to recognize and implement opportunities. Especially with the competitiveness of the music and television industry this characteristic remains the most imperative. There are a large number of traits that have been cited as entrepreneurial characteristics. Frederick and Karakul (2010) have found the 17 most repeated characteristics that entrepreneurs share.
As we have singled out Swell’s most Important there are many more of these traits that combine and relate to each one of his successes throughout his life. He first major characteristic that Jewell embodies is self confidence. Entrepreneurs face many obstacles and during these times they maintain their confidence and let those around them know it (Frederick and Curator. 2010. Peg. 44). It was this trait that first enabled Jewell to go beyond the music industry and become a household name. Ledges” (Encyclopedia Britannica 1959) is one reason his first show Pop Idols was so popular.
His self-confidence in being able to say what is on his mind is the reason behind his own popularity which lead the way to his other successful ventures such as American Idol and X-Factor. This quote from Jewell embodies why he is so popular ‘If you’ve got a big mouth and you’re controversial, you’re going to get attention. ” Creativity is a process marked by fluency, flexibility, and ability to make unusual associations ( Frederick and Curator. 2010. Peg. 44). Jewell and his ability to take an existing service and create a new category ( Barring, B. R. ; Ireland, R. D. 2012. Peg. 5) enabled him to sign successful artists such as One Direction. After One Direction came third in X Factor Jewell immediately signed them to his label. He recognized that by creating a different take to boy bands and introducing young artists to follow the Justine Bibber trend, he was able to fill a gap in the market and meet consumer needs. Throughout Swell’s career he has had to learn to tolerate failure. The iterative, trial and error nature of becoming a successful entrepreneur makes serious setbacks and disappointment an integral part of the learning process ( Frederick and Curator. 010. Peg. 43). An example of Swell’s failures happened early in his career. His first two attempts at creating an independent music label left him bankrupt, forcing him to move back in with his parents. It was this factor that forced him to stay committed and persevere. His dedication and determination to succeed enabled him to get past these set backs. Jewell was able to learn from his mistakes and after a long string of successes with the label BUM he was able to overcome these obstacles.
Entrepreneurs need to use failing as learning experiences. Adverse times often create alternative opportunities and many entrepreneurs believe they learn more from their early failures than from their early successes (Frederick and Curator. 2010. Peg; 43). Ere final and most important characteristic that Jewell exemplifies is opportunity recognition. Opportunity recognition refers to the process of perceiving the usability of a profitable new business or a new product or service (Barring, B. R. ; Ireland, R. D. 2012. Peg. 55).
For an opportunity to be recognized an entrepreneur must share some specific characteristics in order to identify them. Reese characteristics include prior experience, cognitive factors, social networks and creativity (as was described above). I believe the main traits that show how Jewell is so successful in identifying opportunities is prior experience and social networks. An example of how prior experience enabled Jewell to succeed is when he started as Judge on Pop Stars. Once an entrepreneur starts a new venture opportunities become apparent (Barring, B. R. ; Ireland, R. D. 2012. Peg. 55).
This is known as the ‘corridor principle’ where once an entrepreneur starts to head down a road, along the way he is met with ‘corridors’ which lead to more venture opportunities. Once Jewell had identified the success of Pop Stars he was able to take the business that well over 40 percent of those studied got the idea for their business while Morning as employees in companies of the same industry (Barring, B. R. ; Ireland, R. D. 2012. Peg. 55). Jewell from an early age had already developed a vast social network. Due to his fathers executive position at MME he was exposed to the music industry from a very early age.
An important concept that shows how important social networks are in opportunity recognition is the idea of strong-tie and weak-tie relationships. It is the concept that weak-tie relationships such as infrequent interaction and ties between casual acquaintances are more likely to give new business ideas due to the fact that they may not be as like minded and say something that sparks a new idea. This concept may shed some light on why Swell’s first two ventures weren’t successful. During this time Jewell had mostly strong-tie relationships being involved with MME for so long.