History, Growth, Development of Oprah Winfrey - Essay Example

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History, development, and growth

Born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, Oprah Winfrey is a media entrepreneur, philanthropist, and an actress. She is recognised across the world for her strategic roles in bringing forth a cherished confessional genre of media communication, as well as for transforming and making tabloid talk show genre acceptable and fashionable globally. She is also popular for her re-invention of shows that are centred on literature, self-improvement, and spirituality (Biography.com 1).

Her journey into prominence started in 1971 after joining Tennessee State University when she was invited to work at television and radio broadcasting company in Nashville (Biography.com 1). In 1976, she moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she also hosted a TV chat show called “People Are Talking.” She later hosted “People Are talking” and “A.M. Chicago” in Chicago (Biography.com 1).

However, her entry into entrepreneurship was until 1986, after she started a show called “Oprah Winfrey Show.” The show was an instant success, as it had a huge audience of nearly 10 million people. It also broadcasted in 120 channels. The show grossed in $125 million from where she earned $30 million during the first year (Biography.com 1). Collectively, these provided Oprah with an impetus to venture into entrepreneurship by starting own television programmes production company called Harpo Inc. Oprah’s company produced the topics that she aspired to see produced, such as television drama mini-series rooted in Gloria Naylor's The Women of Brewster Place (American Academy of Achievement 2005).

In 1999, she also started Oxygen Media Company. Her new company produces cable and Internet programs mainly for women. In 2000, she started a monthly magazine called “O: The Oprah Magazine” (Biography.com 1; AceShowbiz 1). Forbes magazine later rated her as the richest African American of the 20th century. She was also recognised as the only Black billionaire globally for three successive years in the 20th century.

In 2008, she started the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which she officially launched it in 2011. The OWN is lifestyle television company that offer unscripted programming, talk shows, as well as content that centre on self-help, inspirational and feature stories. The company also deals in the distribution of digital content on the internet. Essentially, it is joint venture of Harpo Inc and a cable programmer called Discovery Communications (Stelter 2010).

Role of their family and socio-cultural background

Oprah’s childhood was difficult. However, she attributed her successes as a media entrepreneur to her grandmother and father. Oprah’s mother, Vernita Lee, was a housemaid while her father, Vernon Winfrey, was a barber and a miner. Her mother worked in Milwaukee and left her on a secluded farm under the strict guardianship of grandmother called Hattie Mae Lee. Whenever Oprah misbehaved, her grandmother would often show her the right way, often beating her with a stick (AstrumPeople 2016). These helped shape Oprah’s morals, and attitudes towards life. The secluded farm where Oprah grew up compelled her to make up for the loneliness and invent her ways of entertainment. As a result, she found comfort in books and made friends with animals. During this time, she entertained herself when she "playacted" in front of her "audience" of animals in the farm. Her mother was instrumental in shaping her career from an early age. She taught her to read when she was slightly older than 2 years.

Ultimately, her grandmother became her foremost role model. The grandmother took Oprah to church where she learnt to recite the verses in the Bible. During this time, Oprah earned the nickname “The Preacher,” because of her good command of the Bible and oratory skills. Her fourth grade teacher called Mrs. Duncan also provided her with inspiration to become a teacher (Entrepreneur 2008). She also helped Oprah change her attitudes towards life. It is at this stage that Oprah became inspired to teach others, as it is today demonstrated in ‘Oprah Winfrey Show.” In spite of having grown up in horrifying poverty, she continued to offer public performances, participate in poetic competitions at black public clubs, as well as church meetings where she earned another nickname “The Little Speaker.”

When she was six, she went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she stayed with her mother an urban ghetto. Her mother had little time for Oprah, as she (the mother) was preoccupied with her own problems. Lacking parental control, Oprah was left exposed to abuse. Hence, she was abused physically by different men, including her cousin and mother's boyfriend. Because of guilt and confusion, Oprah became a delinquent.

At the age of 12, she went to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee, where she started to make speeches at churches and social gatherings, and earned her first money -- $500 for a speech. It is at this stage that she decided she wanted to be paid to talk (Advameg 2016).

She had been put in a detention centre due to her delinquency. Her father rescued her from the detention centre and took her to live in Nashville. He was a strict disciplinarian, and sought to change her life (Advameg 2016). He also loved books, magazines and learning, which later inspired Oprah to take up a role as an entrepreneur in the publishing industry. Her father helped her to become an honour student and to rediscover her oratory skills, which enabled her to earn scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she majored in drama and speech. In her second year, in 1973, she was given a job as co-news anchor at WTVF-TV in Nashville.

Oprah’s businesses and its competitive advantage

The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is lifestyle television firm that offers unscripted programming, talk shows, as well as content that centre on self-help, inspirational and feature stories. It was officially launched in 2008 by Oprah (Stelter 2010).

The OWN’s competitive advantage is mainly service differentiation. The company's product and services have unique offering for the consumers, which has led to loyalty and service differentiation. One of the critical sources of competitive advantage is the human resources (Stelter 2010). In the case of the company’s Oprah’s unique personality, which is inimitable as a media mogul, is the critical source of competitive advantage in a highly competitive media industry in the United States. The OWN offers channels shaped around Oprah (Entrepreneur 2008). It partly depends on her powerful role and expertise in taste-making for her billions of fans globally. The WON recommends Oprah-branded programs in the same way she has been recommending books on her show, the “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The network is currently recognised as the ‘most-watched experiment’ in the TV industry (Bauder 2010).

Another unique feature is the new channels on lifestyles and unscripted life events. This is unique from the trend in the media, where cable channels are traditionally built around certain interests, such as sports, classic movies, and news. Indeed, a major advantage that Oprah has had is in creating her identity for the OWN television network, something that most of the competitors in the television industry failed to do despite being in the industry longer (Bauder 2010).

The price also offers competitive advantage. Considering that service differentiation is not adequate, the OWN also offers low cost television channels. More than 85 million households, who are fans of Oprah, have subscribed to the channel, and pay 25 cents monthly (Stelter 2010).

Future suggestions for the entrepreneur

The OWN should strived to take advantage of the convergence of media, to create more opportunities for profits by engaging customers. The OWN network is a cable television network and is yet to rise above the use of traditional media content, which is not practicable in the modern-day digital landscapes (Peirce 2012). This is particularly so, as more people are today connected to the internet. As far back as 2009, before the OWN was started for instance, some 85 percent of households in the United States had broadband access to the Internet. Similarly, 81.4 percent of the internet users watched online videos. This would enable OWN to have more subscribers.

The OWN should also consider the current trend of convergence of the media, and begin producing programmes for the mobile phones. They can repackage their current television programme into mobile content, for mobile phone users. This would provide a cost-effective means of reaching a greater audience, than having to come up with new programmes for mobile phone users (Doyle 2010). Additionally, it would ensure that a greater segment of users is targeted, including the mobile phone users who have no access to television sets at their workplace. It would also ensure greater economies of scale, as OWN would distribute content across many platforms, and greater scope since there would be additional consumption of OWN’s content via many platforms (Entrepreneur 2008).

The OWN should also consider going into strategic alliances or joint ventures with other companies outside the United States. This would enable it to expand globally, as Oprah has millions of fans from across the globe. Expanding globally would ensure that the company gets additional revenues because of greater subscription base.

Reference List

AstrumPeople 2016, Oprah Winfrey Biography: Success Story of American Media Mogul, viewed 4 April 2016, <http://astrumpeople.com/oprah-winfrey-biography/>

American Academy of Achievement 2005. "America's Beloved Best Friend," viewed 5 April 2016, <http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0bio-1>

Stelter, B 2010, "Shaping a Network with Oprah’s View," New York Times, viewed 5 April 2016, <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/31/business/media/31oprah.html?_r=0>

Bauder, D 2010, "Oprah's network leads competition to rethink goals," NBC News, 5 April 2016, <http://www.today.com/id/40755620/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/oprahs-network-leads-competition-rethink-goals/#.VwNV6Zx97IU>

Doyle, G 2010, "From Television to Multi-Platform Less from More or More for Less?" The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol 16 no 4, pp.1–19

Peirce, M 2012, "Refashioning Television: Business Opportunities and Challenges of Webisodes," International Journal of Business and Social Science, vol 3 no 13, pp.163-171

Biography.com 2005, "Oprah Winfrey Biography," viewed 4 April 2016, <http://www.biography.com/people/oprah-winfrey-9534419>

AceShowbiz 2015, "Oprah Winfrey Biography," viewed 5 April 2016, <http://www.aceshowbiz.com/celebrity/oprah_winfrey/biography.html>

Advameg 2016, Oprah Winfrey Biography, viewed 5 April 2016, <http://www.notablebiographies.com/We-Z/Winfrey-Oprah.html>

Entrepreneur 2008, Oprah Winfrey, viewed 5 April 2016, <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/197558>

At the age of 12, she went to live with her father in Nashville, Tennessee, where she started to make speeches at churches and social gatherings, and earned her first money -- $500 for a speech. It is at this stage that she decided she wanted to be paid to talk (Advameg 2016).

She had been put in a detention centre due to her delinquency. Her father rescued her from the detention centre and took her to live in Nashville. He was a strict disciplinarian, and sought to change her life (Advameg 2016). He also loved books, magazines and learning, which later inspired Oprah to take up a role as an entrepreneur in the publishing industry. Her father helped her to become an honour student and to rediscover her oratory skills, which enabled her to earn scholarship to Tennessee State University, where she majored in drama and speech. In her second year, in 1973, she was given a job as co-news anchor at WTVF-TV in Nashville.

Oprah’s businesses and its competitive advantage

The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) is lifestyle television firm that offers unscripted programming, talk shows, as well as content that centre on self-help, inspirational and feature stories. It was officially launched in 2008 by Oprah (Stelter 2010).

The OWN’s competitive advantage is mainly service differentiation. The company's product and services have unique offering for the consumers, which has led to loyalty and service differentiation. One of the critical sources of competitive advantage is the human resources (Stelter 2010). In the case of the company’s Oprah’s unique personality, which is inimitable as a media mogul, is the critical source of competitive advantage in a highly competitive media industry in the United States. The OWN offers channels shaped around Oprah (Entrepreneur 2008). It partly depends on her powerful role and expertise in taste-making for her billions of fans globally. The WON recommends Oprah-branded programs in the same way she has been recommending books on her show, the “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The network is currently recognised as the ‘most-watched experiment’ in the TV industry (Bauder 2010).

Another unique feature is the new channels on lifestyles and unscripted life events. This is unique from the trend in the media, where cable channels are traditionally built around certain interests, such as sports, classic movies, and news. Indeed, a major advantage that Oprah has had is in creating her identity for the OWN television network, something that most of the competitors in the television industry failed to do despite being in the industry longer (Bauder 2010).

The price also offers competitive advantage. Considering that service differentiation is not adequate, the OWN also offers low cost television channels. More than 85 million households, who are fans of Oprah, have subscribed to the channel, and pay 25 cents monthly (Stelter 2010).

Future suggestions for the entrepreneur

The OWN should strived to take advantage of the convergence of media, to create more opportunities for profits by engaging customers. The OWN network is a cable television network and is yet to rise above the use of traditional media content, which is not practicable in the modern-day digital landscapes (Peirce 2012). This is particularly so, as more people are today connected to the internet. As far back as 2009, before the OWN was started for instance, some 85 percent of households in the United States had broadband access to the Internet. Similarly, 81.4 percent of the internet users watched online videos. This would enable OWN to have more subscribers.

The OWN should also consider the current trend of convergence of the media, and begin producing programmes for the mobile phones. They can repackage their current television programme into mobile content, for mobile phone users. This would provide a cost-effective means of reaching a greater audience, than having to come up with new programmes for mobile phone users (Doyle 2010). Read More