Katy Barfield - Entrepreneur Who Has Dedicated Her Career to Reducing Food Wastage - Case Study Example

Entrepreneur Analysis Name Name of Institution Entrepreneur Analysis Introduction Entrepreneurs are individuals who recognise opportunities and take risks associated with running a business to take advantage if the identified idea. Therefore, entrepreneurship is a term that defines the process of recognising opportunities that can be exploited to serve a market need and coming up with the organisation that can satisfy the market needs (Hatten 2012, p. 24). Entrepreneurship is a concept that is linked to small business management where the established business is owned and operated. This essay seeks to identify an Australian who has undertaken entrepreneurship and successfully transitioned to managing the challenges of growing the business. The essay begins by describing the entrepreneur’s background, characteristics, and the process that was used to recognise and develop the opportunity. The essay also examines the business that was developed and concludes by offering suggestions on the path that the entrepreneur should take. Background of the Entrepreneur Katy Barfield is an influential serial entrepreneur who has dedicated her career to reducing food wastage (Waters 2017). She founded Yume Food, a business that sources, sells and donates food that would have gone to landfills. The venture targets food producers, manufacturers, and distributors who list surplus products on the Yume platform. Cafés and restaurants can then buy the products thereby reducing food waste (Waters 2017). Family has been a key contributor to her decision to focus on issues related to food. Barfield came from an extremely poor background where her grandmother had to take care of eight children. The large family’s only source of food was a small plot at the back of their run-down apartment in London. The food scarcity meant that the family had to make the most out of the food that was available while ensuring that there was no waste (Waters 2017). Despite the effort, her grandmother still had to seek assistance from a charity that accepted to host three of her children, including Barfield’s mother, for a year (Ham 2016). Barfield recognised the large gap that existed between the rich and poor and she developed the opinion that access to food should be a basic human right. Her upbringing allowed her to note that the planet is capable of producing enough food for everyone, but few people control how food is distributed (Waters 2017). Barfield is married with young sons who understand that she works on the issue of food wastage. Her husband also works in a related field through the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre, an organisation that sells food to asylum seekers (Smart Company 2017). A second key area of Barfield’s background comes from her ownership of a bar. In the course of managing the business, Barfield witnessed a chef disposing vast amounts of food straight from the freezer to the bin (Ham 2016). The reason given by the chef was that the hospitality industry’s procedures do not follow a scientific approach where chefs make exact orders. At other times, there are slight differences between what is ordered and what is received which forces the chefs to dispose of perfectly edible products. The wastage at the bar reminded Barfield of her family’s poor background and the way they struggled to get food. She responded to the food wastage at the bar by deciding to work with the founders of SecondBite. The non-profit accepts food donations and distributes it to Australians that are in need (SecondBite 2017). Barfield worked as a director at SecondBite from 2006 to 2016. She was also a founder and director at Spade & Barrow between 2012 and 2015 where she advocated for an equitable and fair food system (LinkedIn 2017). It is evident that her decade-long career has been a major factor that has contributed to the successful launch and growth of Yume Food. Characteristics of the Entrepreneur According to Hatten (2012, p. 32), research on the traits of entrepreneurs has concluded that there is no single predictor of successful entrepreneurship. However, certain characteristics that are common in successful people. An evaluation of Barfield shows her to be a determined risk taker who has worked for over ten years to accumulate the knowledge needed to identify an opportunity and the courage to execute a business idea. The poor family background also leads to the conclusion that Barfield is passionate about eliminating food wastage. Hatten (2012, p. 33) lists a need to achieve and a strong locus of control as characteristics that are inherent in entrepreneurs. Additionally, Barfield is creative and innovative as evidenced by the creation of an app that allows registered businesses and individuals to buy and sell the food items that would have gone to landfills. The app also acts as a tool for sourcing food that goes to the needy in Australia’s society. Opportunity Recognition and Idea Development As stated, the initial opportunity recognition came when Barfield opened a bar and recognised that there was a considerable amount of food wastage. She joined SecondBite charity where she accumulated knowledge on the strategies that could be used to battle food waste. Her first entrepreneurial venture in the area was the founding of Spade and Barrow, a business that assisted farmers to sell products that did not meet the excessive demands of supermarket chains. The venture was successful enough that it was purchased by Aussie Farmers Direct (Ham 2016). After selling the business, Barfield recognised that there was an opportunity to serve the wholesale segment of the food industry. This segment includes food distributors, producers, and manufacturers who are encouraged to list their excess products on Yume Wholesale (Ham 2016). It is worth mentioning that Yume initially started as a consumer-focused platform where cafes and restaurants could sell leftover meals to the public. But Barfield recognised that such a platform would not move the amount of food necessary to reduce overall wastage in the country. As such, Barfield’s idea of a business to consumer platform changed to a platform that serves businesses, thus allowing single transactions that involve tonnes of food (Ham 2016). Business Description Yume Food was established in 2014 with a $650,000 investment from Barfield (2016). The firm expanded from three employees to eleven, and it has sold food worth more than $400,000 since 2016 (Dias 2017). The platform has diverted 50,223 kilogrammes of food from landfills and also donated more than 35,000 meals to the less fortunate in society (Yume Food 2017). The viability of the business can be seen from its recent acquisition of a $2.6 million investment from strategic investors (Dias 2017). The investment was sought to allow the growing company to hire experienced people that can allow the firm to meet its goal of saving much of the 3.9 million tonnes of food that goes to waste in Australia on an annual basis. A key strategic advantage of the platform is its focus on the wholesale segment in which tonnes of foods can be transacted. The only other participants in the industry are charities which face limitations on the amount of food that they can accept. Another key advantage is the fact that Yume can sell tonnes of product without having to invest in a single truck. The firm does not have any direct competitors in Australia, with the only similar businesses being Cerplus and Spoiler Alert which are based in the US (Ham 2016). Therefore, the business can take the time to develop the workforce needed to handle more buyers and sellers across the whole country. Recommendations The acquisition of the $2.6 million investment shows that Barfield is willing to expand the business to meet its stated objective of reducing good waste. It also indicates that the business is unlikely to be sold in the same way that she sold Spade and Barrow. It is recommended that the business continues on its expansion path to increase volumes and revenue. It is also recommended that Yume begins exploring a move to other countries. The use of an online platform and an app should allow the firm to scale and serve other countries with relative ease. The international demand for a service like Yume is huge as evidenced by a recent event in Malaysia where the government seized 80 tonnes of chicken wings that was imported illegally. The government buried the product, but news of the disposal spread on social media leading to people digging up the product and selling it on local markets (BBC 2017). Had Yume existed in Malaysia, it would have handled such an amount of food in a safe manner and donated the quantities that could not be sold. Conclusion In conclusion, Katy Barfield’s family history, business ventures, and decade-long career are the factors that have contributed to her entrepreneurial success with Yume. An evaluation of the entrepreneur shows determination, a risk appetite, passion, need to achieve, strong locus of control, creativity, and innovation to be key characteristics. When it comes to opportunity recognition, Barfield has taken a gradual approach that has been based on identifying market failures in the food industry. She has also taken an incremental approach to idea development as evidenced by the shift from business to consumer platform to a business to business orientation. The strategic advantages of the adopted business model include the lack of direct competitors, 3.9 million tonnes of wasted food, and the idea implementation that does not require investments in trucks for transport. It is recommended that the business continue to develop the capacity to serve more buyers and sellers in the country. The business should also take advantage of its business model by expanding into the Asian market which has the potential to have even more food wastage when compared to Australia. References BBC 2017, Malaysians warned over eating dumped chicken wings, BBC News, 6 April 2017, viewed 10 April 2017 Dias, D 2017, Fairfax family and major investors inject $2.6 million into Melbourne-based food waste startup Yume, Smart Company 22 February 2017, viewed 10 April 2017, Ham, L 2016, Melbourne start-up wages war on food waste, Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 2016, viewed 10 April 2017, Hatten, TS 2016, Small business management: Entrepreneurship and beyond, Nelson Education. How Yume founder Katy Barfield is using social entrepreneurship to solve a complex problem 2017, Smart Company, 24 March 2017, viewed 10 April 2017 Katie Barfield 2017, LinkedIn, accessed 10 April 2017, What we do 2017, SecondBite, accessed 10 April 2017, The Yume Story 2017, Yume Food, available from Waters, C 2017, Australia's nine most influential female entrepreneurs 2017, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 March 2017, viewed 10 April 2017, Read More