Oprah Gail Winfrey: Accomplishments of a Media Mogul

Oprah Gail Winfrey was born in the rural town of Kosciusko, Mississippi, on January 29, 1954. In 1976, Winfrey moved to Baltimore, where she hosted a hit television chat show, People Are Talking. Afterward, she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show. She later became the host of her own, wildly popular program, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired for 25 seasons, from 1986 to 2011. That same year, Winfrey launched her own TV network, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). After a troubled adolescence in a small farming community, where she was sexually abused by a number of male relatives and friends of her mother, Vernita, Oprah Winfrey moved to Nashville to live with her father, Vernon, a barber and businessman. She entered Tennessee State University in 1971 and began working in radio and television broadcasting in Nashville.In 1976, Oprah Winfrey moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she hosted the TV chat show People Are Talking. The show became a hit and Winfrey stayed with it for eight years, after which she was recruited by a Chicago TV station to host her own morning show, A.M. Chicago. Her major competitor in the time slot was Phil Donahue.

Within several months, Winfrey's open, warm-hearted personal style had won her 100,000 more viewers than Donahue and had taken her show from last place to first in the ratings. Her success led to nationwide fame and a role in Steven Spielberg's 1985 film The Color Purple, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Oprah Winfrey’s Business Ventures: Oprah Winfrey had one of the extraordinary triumphs in present day TV with the long-running 'The Oprah Winfrey Show.' The syndicated talk program was a social marvel and evaluations juggernaut that changed how American customers shopped and thought and secured a progression of prospering organizations. Winfrey finished the show in 2011 following 25 years reporting in real time. What's more, her business reputation from that point forward has been increasingly blended. Winfrey's greatest swing has been with OWN, the digital TV arrange she propelled seven years prior in 80 million homes as a 50-50 joint endeavor between her Harpo, Inc. furthermore, Discovery.

An evaluations haul in its initial years — quite a bit of its self improvement situated programming did not arrive, obstructed by the way that Winfrey did not show up in it — and a progression of cutbacks pursued. 'Ruler Sugar' was a sensation its first season and started its second season solid, with 2.3 million same-day watchers — the second-most noteworthy ever of arrangement. Yet, this achievement is quieted: it had dwindled to some degree, to a little more than 1 million same-day watchers, before the finish of the period. A comparable destiny occured for 'Greenleaf,' which commenced its first season with in excess of 3 million same-day watchers and had seen those numbers drop to simply over 1.4 million in the second-season finale in September. In December, Winfrey flagged a retreat from the endeavor, offering 24.5 percent of OWN to Discovery for $70 million, leaving her with simply 25.5 percent. (She did re-up her agreement with it for eight additional years.) Winfrey's domain is no uncertainty rewarding — Forbes put her value at $3 billion of every 2017, making her the world's most extravagant African American. (Unexpectedly, that degree of business achievement, while solidifying her case for the nation's top official position, could likewise incomprehensibly be a hindrance to it.

The Ethics Reform Act of 1989 precludes numerous administration authorities from enabling their names to be utilized by an outfit that 'gives proficient administrations including a trustee relationship.' Like the man she would apparently challenge, Winfrey would appear to be a prime possibility for this rule, since quite a bit of her prosperity is attached to her image.) In any case, quite a bit of her riches originates from 'The Oprah Winfrey Show,' which she possessed out and out. Else she has downsized her business possessions since she finished her evening installation. Inside the previous five years, Winfrey has either sold or covered Harpo Films, Harpo Radio and Harpo Studios, the rambling Chicago complex from which she long ran her tasks. Just the distributing and creation units remain. (The link system rents four stories of room at chic West Hollywood office complex The Lot.) Harpo Radio, for example, was propelled to some exhibition in 2006, a Sirius channel that highlighted Winfrey stalwarts, for example, Mehmet Oz and Nate Berkus. Be that as it may, the station was rejected toward the finish of 2014. Winfrey purchased a 10 percent stake in Weight Watchers in 2015, paying $43 million for the offers. The stock shut 2015 at $22.80. Starting today? It's value about $56 per share.

Characteristic Trait of Entrepreneur - Entrepreneurial Traits of Oprah Winfrey

Creativity and Innovation: Winfrey's first media job was at a radio station for the African American Community in Nashville, making her the first black female news anchor. During her time in media she was harassed and was fired after 7 months. This didn’t stop her, she felt that she was supposed to be in the media and continued her career. After Struggles and later she got a chance in Chicago where she revamped a morning show that was struggling, in September 1985 the program was renamed though her innovative ideas as “The Oprah Winfrey Show” which continued to last for decades as a successful show. Leadership and Team Building: A true leader acknowledges the fact that success need not be a solo endeavor. When forming a team, however, Oprah Winfrey only hires and supports talented people that she believes in. Dr. Oz, Suze Orman and Liz Dolan are just some of the people that she surrounds herself with. The benefits work two ways – they boost her brand and they get wide exposure in return.

Opportunity Seeker and Initiative

Oprah had excellent media knowledge and could influence people and build network. Her talk show were a hit and got fans throughout the world for her motivational and bold personality. She found potential in her and started a production of her, and seeked the opportunity. In 1988, Oprah launched her own production company, Harpo Production company, Harpo Productions. Risk taking and decision making ability: Oprah is known for taking risk and starting things she likes the most. She is the one who stood for the black empowerment and women empowerment. Throughout her life she was bullied, assaulted, molested, harrased but that didn’t keep her from moving on in her life. She saw opportunities in various places, she risked and made better decisions that made what she is now. Such as starting her own talk show named OWN, and her own production company, starting her own television network, wherein she found success in all her ventures though risk decisions. Even at her high financial status and success level, 'Oprah still possessed a willingness to risk her most precious asset (her name and legacy) on new and bolder projects.

Motivation to excel: What started out as a brand in television, branched out into radio, magazines, movies, subsidiary TV shows, and then an entire network. She made all these happen by extending her brand strategically. Because of this strategy, Oprah Winfrey is not only a celebrity, but also a tycoon. She is one of the most inspirational and motivational people of our time. Regarding her Presidential Medal of Freedom, President Obama called Oprah’s greatest strength her ability to see the best in ourselves. But there is one important leadership trait that transformational leaders share, they are focused on the one thing they have mastery and expertise over and motivation to excel. While she may seem to be everywhere, she is focused on one area – media, with the exception of charity works. Media is where she excels at, which is why she concentrated on it and worked to have dominance over it. Self efficacy and adaptability: She not only dreams up a vision, but also communicates it with her team with clarity and then inspires them to help her see it through. Motivating her staff comes naturally for her, and this is one ability that is often considered the best in her list of best leadership practices.

Oprah recognizes this and shows her appreciation to her viewers by giving them generous gifts, and studio audience get so lucky, especially during the holidays or even when there is no particular occasion. She can be very extravagant too. More than the gifts, however, she also listens to them and even integrates them in her shows. Gifts and an ear who listens would make anyone wish they can be one of Oprah’s studio audience. Enable networking and exchange. Being a Media Person, Oprah is known for networking and influencing people. She is known among all age and makes friends throughout her journey of her career. She is best known for her talk shows, for which there are millions of fans. Oprah uses one formula to build her network which is “love and care is all human needs”. Oprah is known for her tight circle of really close friends — many of whom were friends before she hit the big time. Her advice is to surround yourself only with people who will be supportive and uplifting. People who want your dreams to come true as badly as you do. Keep negative people at bay. They’re not your friends. Her success is no accident. These attributes have shaped her, propelled her to the forefront of modern culture and made her one of the richest, most influential women.

Type of Entrepreneur that Oprah Winfrey falls Under: Innovative Entrepreneur

Oprah is lot like Entrepreneur, in the initial stages of her life she had seen a lot of difficulties in her life. She moved from shows to shows to find a show of her own. Later, in the life she was given a chance in Chicago and she revamped and innovated things there and named the show as The Oprah Winfrey show, which went to be on of the most successful shows of the decade. In 1984, Oprah relocated to Chicago to host AM Chicago. Within just one month, it had surpassed Donahue as the number one local talk show, and within a year it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. A year later, it entered national syndication and became the highest-rated talk show in TV history. It aired for 25 seasons before going off the air in 2011 and remains the highest-rated talk show on American television. It won dozens of Emmys, was seen by an estimated 30 million viewers a week in the United States and was broadcast internationally in 111 countries. To being more innovative and not restrict her own ideas that she had. She started her own production house. Not content to work for someone else, Oprah founded her own production facility in 1988, Harpo Studios.

Since then, it has grown into Harpo, Inc. which employed about 250 full-time staff at its peak in television and film production, magazine publishing and online media, though that number dropped sharply to just 20 employees in 2015. She is also co-founder of Oxygen Media which operates the Oxygen Network, a cable network for women reaching more than 54 million viewers. In 2000, Oprah launched O, The Oprah Magazine in partnership with Hearst Magazines, a monthly magazine that has become one of today's top women's lifestyle publications. It now has a circulation of more than two million monthly readers and Fortune called it 'the most successful start-up ever in the industry.' In 2004 she launched O at Home, a seasonal home design magazine.With thirteen million users per month generating 75 million page views, Oprah.com is one of the top women's lifestyle websites.

Nature of Entrepreneurship: Involves Creation Process>/h2>

Oprah being a successful Entrepreneur involves a great process and the process was not easy. Her interest of passion was in media, after several failures and obstacles she had own talk show and went on to become a billionaire and had started so so many business ventures such as her own production show which produced many films and her chain of magazines which were a hit in that period. At age 19, Winfrey became the youngest and first female anchor for WTVF-TV, Nashville. In 1990, Winfrey became the first African-American woman to be named one of the most influential people in entertainment by Entertainment Weekly. Her words of inspiration explaining her process of creation. 'I made every single choice of my career based on my gut. I would literally ask myself, 'Does this feel right?' So when I got my show in Chicago, I built it around myself and the producers,' she said. 'We were young women in our 30s who were trying to figure it out and find our own way.' Requires devotion of time and effort: Winfrey was born to a single teenage mother in rural Mississippi, and spent the first six years of her life living there with her grandmother before first moving to Milwaukee to live with her mother, and then Nashville to live with her father.

The media mogul overcame a tough childhood, but ended up winning an oratory contest that earned her a scholarship to Tennessee State University. She also won the Miss Black Tennessee Beauty Pageant at 17, and attracted the attention of the local black radio station, WVOL, where she worked her senior year of high school, and her first two years of college. She then got jobs as a news anchor, first in Nashville, then in Baltimore, before moving to Chicago to host a morning talk show. The program was wildly successful, and she landed a syndication deal, quickly becoming the most popular talk show host in America. Running from 1986 to 2011, it made Oprah one of the most influential people in the country, as well as the richest African American. In 2000, she launched O Magazine with the Hearst Corporation, and in 2011, she created the Oprah Winfrey Network.