Janine Allis, Founder of Boost Juice - Case Study Example

Case study of Janine Allis, Founder of Boost Juice Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission Words: 1,525 Leader background Janine Allis 49-year-old mother is the pioneer of Boost Juice, which has recorded great success in the retail industry. She is a mother of four and married to Jeff. She engaged in business at an early of 17years which played a major role in shaping her leadership and entrepreneurial skills. Her husband has played a greater role in the success of her business since they work together. The boost juice came into existence in 2000 as a result of his trip to US where she came across juice and smoothie vending growing steadily (Boost Australia, n.d.). On arrival home, she studied the environment and realized that the market lacked healthy fast food. The market niche pushed her enthusiasm to develop a different business concept that will enable her to gain customer loyalty by providing unique services. She developed her business model basing on ‘love life’ thinking. Her adventurous character has earned great business success stories first from discovering gap in fast food line to creation of internationally recognized boost juice. Janine has a healthy lifestyle which enables her to balance between family and business without getting stressed. She does yoga five days a week and plays surfer and tennis. The lifestyle shows that love of healthy living did not begin with Boost Juice but prior which helped her to notice the gap through observation of US retail market (Boost Australia, n.d.). Janine has won various awards due to her exemplary management and leadership skills. The awards received are associated with her achievement through boost juice leadership. The boost juice gained market popularity of 95% in the first five years, and the trend is expected to grow at the rate of 20% yearly. The annual sales of boost juice are estimated at 250 million dollars and have 400 stores in 12 countries (Allis, n.d). She has acquired several stores which make boost juice accessible to several markets. She has been a director of Hawthorn Football Club thus moulding her leadership skills (Church and Waclawski, 1998). The awards are summarized below; Year Awards 2015 Franchise Hall of Fame Inductee, Australian Established Franchisor of the Year, Excellence in International Franchising, Excellence in Women’s Leadership: Victoria, Business Award and Honorary Member (Allis, n.d) 2012 Australian Export Heroes Award 2011 Finalist-Fast 100 2010 International Franchise Award 2007 Franchise Award from National Retailers Association Awards. 2005 The Woman of the Year in Franchising and Franchisor of the Year Award – Victoria from PwC (Allis, n.d). 2005 International Women’s Award – Finalist, Women in Franchising-Finalist, and Franchisor of the year-Finalist (Allis, n.d). Janine Allis Leadership approach Janine possesses several leadership skills demonstrated in her journey towards Boost Juice success. First, the ability to spot the need for healthy fast food retail shops acts as a proof of situational leadership characteristics. According to Hersey (1985), situational leaders developed by Kenneth Blanchard and Paul Hersey are those individuals who try to influence others by adjusting the leadership approach to meet the needs of his/her followers. Janine ability to spot the need for healthy fast food retail in Australia has shifted the attention of most food outlets approach. The prior inception of boost juice, the retail food outlets concentrated on junk food which posed a health problem to consumers and failed to meet customer satisfaction. The act of spotting the need and stepping up to meet the need shows Janine situational leadership prowess (Dunn and Dunn, 1983). Secondly, Janine exemplifies transformational leadership skills. According to Carmeli, Atwater, and Levi (2010), transformational leader draws her/his leadership skills through passion and energy in everything they do. These kinds of leaders care about stakeholders and have a great appetite to succeed. Janine had great passion in having a healthy lifestyle thus propelling her interest in opening retail stores dealing with healthy fast food. Also, her ability to work with more than 7,000 employees across 12 countries shows great leadership skills which are echoed by Hawkins (2011), since the book assumes that transformational leaders get other inspired, develop clear vision and mission, and inject individuals with enthusiasm and energy. The examinations of Janine transformative leadership can be broken into four stages explained in Hawkins (2011) book include; Vision development The transformational leadership approach note that leaders develop a vision and look at it in a view that will excite his/her (Hawkins, 2011). Janine was able to notice the niche in the market and decided to develop a vision of healthy fast food basing on the philosophy of ‘love life’. Selling the vision The vision selling stage elaborates transformational leader as that person who makes people follow what he/she does by using any way possible (Hawkins, 2011). The characteristics are evident in Janine leadership since didn’t find it a great deal in getting dirty. During the inception of the idea, she did everything in the store starting from cleaning, preparing juice and serving customers. The commitment portrayed great enthusiasm that was translated to those who worked with her thus selling her vision to them. Finding way forward According to (Hawkins, 2011) a transformational leader always creates ways and wants others to follow. They don’t have defined the route by clear vision directs them towards their destination. The major aim of these leaders depends on the progress made. Janine only noticed the lack of healthy fast food retail in Australia and used it to develop a vision. She didn’t have a clear path to follow but with her vision, she was able to focus on the result which has given her great recognition as a leader and entrepreneur in creation in retail and franchising (Sadler, 2003). The quote of Janine Allis in her website explains more on her ability to find ways. She is quoted at saying that “I really learned the business from the ground up. It meant I was continually developing and growing it, and that was incredibly valuable when we started thinking about the next one.”(Boost Australia, n.d.) Leading the charge Lastly, a transformational leader is always active both in up-front and central where the action takes place (Hawkins, 2011). The transformational leaders are always visible in the organisation since they are present in every stage of the management. They act as role model and show his/her followers how things need to be done. Janine Allis demonstrated these qualities during early stages of his venture in Adelaide where she did everything in the store to act as an example and get firsthand customer experience. The adherence to transformational and situational leadership approach played a crucial role in registering success of Boost Juice in Australia and international market (Hersey, 1985). Thus, Janine Allis provides a wide range of lessons required for one to have exemplary performance in leadership. Janine Allis Leadership Challenges The success of Janine Allis leadership did not only take an easy path but has faced various challenges that act as motivation to keep walking her way up to becoming an icon in business leadership. The challenges experienced by Janine includes reduced following from those who supported her vision and enough finance. She was forced to work as a waiter, cleaner and prepares juice in her first store. Always the energy portrayed by transformational leader wears out the followers making the leader desperate and stressed up since they are required to do a lot of work within the organisation (Hersey, 1985). Also, Janine Allis enthusiasm and energy as a leader makes her busy in pursuing her vision and being a mother; it poses a great challenge in balancing between business and social life (Srivastava, 2003). Raising four children and leading 400 stores in more than 12 countries is hectic thus proving a challenge to her. Consequently, transformational leaders look at the bigger picture and ignore small challenges along the way. Also, transformational leaders do not follow the truth and reality instead builds their ideas around passion and confidence. Janine Allis overcame these challenges by involving her husband and her followers during the journey of Boost Juice. The failure to acknowledge the contribution of followers results in business failure since all details are important in achieving business success (Srivastava, 2003). Important lessons from Janine Allis Leadership approaches In conclusion, we learn that Transformational leadership approach is deemed appropriate for any given organisation since it transforms the firm and followers (managers and employees). Also, reduces employees stress level since the leader participates in the action which creates enthusiasm and energy in accomplishing day to day activities (Srivastava, 2003). Consequently, situational leadership style employs the same tactic of conforming to the needs that represent the views of the majority of the followers. The commitment and taking charge as a leader is crucial in achieving great success in leadership. The followers expect a leader to set the pace and show direction since the leader has the enthusiasm and energy as an owner of a given idea (Srivastava, 2003). Janine Allis demonstrates great leadership by participating in up-front and middle in the organisation leading to its success. Lastly, we can note that great business success depends on passion, commitment, confidence and team work. Therefore, Janine Allis exemplary leadership skills act a lesson for the growing leaders to emulate. Reference list Allis, J 2016, About Me | Janine Allis. Available at: http://www.janineallis.com.au/about-me [Accessed 30 Apr. 2016]. Bass, B 1998, Transformational leadership. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Boost Australia n.d, Boost Australia. [online] Boostjuice.com.au. Available at: http://www.boostjuice.com.au/about [Accessed 30 Apr. 2016]. Carmeli, A., Atwater, L. and Levi, A 2010, ‘How leadership enhances employees’ knowledge sharing: the intervening roles of relational and organizational identification’ J Technology Transfer, 36(3), pp.257-274. Church, A. and Waclawski, J 1998, ‘The relationship between individual personality orientation and executive leadership behaviour’. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 71(2), pp.99-125. Dunn, K. and Dunn, R 1983, Situational leadership for principals. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. Hawkins, P 2011, Leadership team coaching. London: Kogan Page. Hersey, P 1985, The situational leader. New York, NY: Warner Books. Sadler, P 2003, Leadership. London: Kogan Page Ltd. Srivastava, M 2003, Transformational leadership. New Delhi: Macmillan India. Read More