Rory Vassallo's Way of Entrepreneurship - Essay Example

Entrepreneurship: Rory Vassallo Name Institution Instructor Date It has been seen said that this is the age of the entrepreneur. Globally, men like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Larry Page and Bill Gates are not only renowned entrepreneurs but billionaires. In common, they have developed unique business ideas and exploited the opportunity in an excellent manner that offers important learning lessons. Closer home, Rory Vassallo is arguably one of the most famous Australian entrepreneurs. The man is the founder and head of the Rory Vassallo Corporation. The corporation provides high quality day care and after school childcare services in the Western Australia region. Having started in 2004 with just one centre, the company currently operates 23 centres with 12 of them owned by the firm and employs over 250 people. The firm has expanded to be the largest and privately owned and operated childcare organization in Western Australia. Something that also captures the entrepreneurial spirit of Vassallo as a man is the fact that he founded the organization at a relatively early age of twenty in 2004 which serves as a good example for today’s young people. Over the years, the firm has diversified to other fields such as property management and maintenance services. His success in the entrepreneurial field has been recognized through a number of awards such as the 2011 EY Entrepreneur of The Year award in the emerging industry category. The man is also the president of the Childcare Association WA, and represents Western Australia on the Australian Childcare Alliance board. This paper discusses the entrepreneurial success of Rory Vassallo as indicated by the success of his firm Rory Vassallo Corporation. There is often an overlap between a small business owner and entrepreneur. Many people tend to confuse the two based on the fact that they both share similarities in the sense that both are outcome driven and are their own bosses. However, the major difference is that an entrepreneur is dependent on the social and economic factors (Awe, 1). The other major difference is that the small business owner runs a business to make profits and not to explore a new idea or opportunity (Gellespie-Brown, 10). Does this mean that an entrepreneur and an inventor are one and the same thing? No, “an inventor creates something new….while an entrepreneur assembles and then integrates all the resources needed-the money, the people, the business model, the strategy and the risk-bearing ability to transform the invention into a viable business.” (ibid). For any entrepreneurship to start off, an entrepreneur must be business minded. A business minded person is able to identify a business opportunity where it exists, identify risks and also have the nerve for business. Rory Vassallo was a young man and relatively inexperienced when he founded the Vassallo Corporation in 2004. He differs from many in his pursuit of independence and career. In most cases, college students’ desire to develop a career out of employment where they wish to be employed and earn a huge salary, rise up the corporate ladder and enjoy more responsibilities and even better company benefits. This is not a concern for an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur is more concerned about his independence that will allow him to nurture his business idea and grow with it. This is not something that can be trained in class or in workshops. Gillespie-Brown says that a “business mind” is innate. In this case, the life journey and entrepreneurial spirit of Vassallo is there for everyone to see, spinning businesses out of every day opportunities and running them well. However, the author contradicts herself by saying that an entrepreneur does not need a set of inherent traits but rather a “set of skills that can be acquire” through training (Gillespie-Brown, 11). Awe (1) on the other hand cites a number of inherent skills needed in an entrepreneur such as curiosity, passion and creativity. The debate on whether entrepreneurship is innate or acquired is yet to be resolved. The ability to identify existing opportunities in the market must be present. In the case of Vassallo, he noted that there existed a gap in the provision of childcare and afterschool child services in Western Australia. Childcare services in Australia and other developed countries are largely organized by individual family members to hire a nanny and are rarely institutionalized. In such situations where one hires a part time nanny privately, the quality of care cannot be guaranteed. For this reason, Vassallo identified the chance to provide standardized premium childcare services and after school child services. The demand for such services is growing rapidly as the economy grows and people’s lifestyle changing. Nowadays, there are very few stay-at-home parents to care for children. Furthermore, there are many working single parents who spend most time of the day away from their children hence the need for childcare services. ABS reports that out of the 28 million Australians, there are 7.8 million households with 45% of them having children from year 2006 data. Another 16% of them are single parent families with mothers (83%) being the majority. Data from 2000 shows that 7.6% of all households constituted one parent with dependent children (ABS, 2013). Another opportunity that Vassallo identified in the Western Australia market pertains to property management. Although this area is entirely different from the childcare service industry, he was able to see an opportunity and invest in it. This is the type of versatility that must be present in entrepreneurs. A number of globally recognized entrepreneurs have diversified in different fields in pursuit of opportunities. Entrepreneurs are noted to be ruthless at times where they dump investments that do not make money and move into other markets. Baron (2011) notes that versatility is a key component of the entrepreneurial culture. He writes that entrepreneurs are expected to be passionate about their business but their emotional connection to their businesses should not blind them to realities of the environment. In this case, he says that entrepreneurs must be ready to be branded as opportunist and follow where opportunities and money are. A study across four European nations, England, France, Scotland and Spain by Tortell and Quiroga (35) shows that young entrepreneurs are more versatile than the older ones. As young entrepreneurs age, they became less versatile. Therefore, it is understandable and expected that Rory Vassallo is versatile and he has shown it. How Vassallo came up with the idea to venture to in that direction is unknown. Harper (2006) tries to explain this and says that for entrepreneurs, conception of ideas is a spontaneous process that can take place anytime and anywhere. Entrepreneurs must be persons willing to take a risk. The risk can be viewed in a number of dimensions. One of them is risking one’s money and investing in an unproven sector. Another type of risk can be based on knowledge. Entrepreneurs are willing to explore new fields with no prior knowledge of the field. In the case of Vassallo, it is noted that himself personally did not have the experience of childcare services. However, his wife had the experience but still not in institutionalized childcare services. Vassallo also took a financial risk in seeking to start the business. After identifying that there existed an opportunity in the market, he took a financial risk and using equity from his house acquired the first centre at Applecross and Vassallo Corporation was born. Choice of business model and strategy in business. In Australia, majority of parents are concerned about the well-being of their children both in school and away from school. It has been note that the government has popularized early childcare services by providing benefits and tax refunds on the said services. For this reason, the demand for childcare services is bound to increase and so is the market for Vassallo Corporation. The business model adopted by Vassallo and his corporation is to strategically position itself in the market as the premium service provider of childcare services. This enables the firm to target high income earning parents who are willing to spend premium amounts on their children. However, the firm has been in the media for a negative reason after a child had been led to wander out of a centre unattended. Stokes and Wilson (p 357) note that during the early days of operations, entrepreneurs are faced with the difficulties of marketing their products and services to the potential market in case the product is new or there are existing players already in the market or the entrepreneur has little or no proven performance. In the case of Rory Vassallo, there seems not to be a definite marketing strategy used in the early days. This is the kind of information that the project will seek by interviewing the subject. From the discussion of Rory Vassallo and his Vasssallo Corporation, it is obvious that entrepreneurs go through different situations before the world and communities celebrate their success. However, there are a number of common events such as the challenge of funding, and uncertainty that should be expected in all entrepreneurial ventures. However, belief and proper execution of ideas develop the right enterprise that promises return on investment and guarantees to fill the gap in the market. In the case of Vassallo, it is clear that he made a business opportunity out of a field that was previously viewed sceptically. He was able to identify the opportunity and execute it using a proper business model. This highlights the fact that not all entrepreneurial ventures are a success story. Many fail due to poor execution and poor strategies. With such a strong business performance over the years, Rorry Vassallo is an excellent example for all budding entrepreneurs for study purposes and inspiration too. To understand the intricate details of the entrepreneurial journey will be through interviewing the gentleman. Works cited ABS. Australian households: the future. 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