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By Alyssa Chan Gangster Or Entrepreneur? Reggie Kray By Alyssa Chan Gangster or Entrepreneur? Employed Entrepreneurial Behaviour Entrepreneurial Theory Alvarez (2007) suggested that entrepreneurial opportunities can be Reggie Kray’s unquestionable influence helped him to acquire The word entrepreneur is derived from the French entreprendre, exploited in a variety of ways conveying the idea that the most several pubs and clubs across the city, during what was known as which means “to undertake. Someone who undertakes the tasks efficient way to exploit a particular opportunity is by organising an “the swinging sixties”. Reggie’s clever utilisation of his entrepreneurial of organising, managing and assuming the risks of businesses enterprise. Reggie Kray does exactly that and can thus be classified skills and charm allowed this club to thrive with rich and famous (Webster 2020) However, there is no singular definition of the as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the illegal world, clientele joining the twins each week, making them a handsome term entrepreneur . According to Kuratko (2017)) the profit. They were seen socialising with MPs, lords and several characteristics and actions of entrepreneurs, such as seeking conveying tactical entrepreneurial behaviour. opportunities, taking risks and enabling their tenacity to develop celebrities, increasing the Kray’s influence and enriching their their idea combine into a special mindset of entrepreneurs. Reggie planned and plotted to build his criminal empire from a young celebrity status (Lambrianou, 1991.). age. Reggie produced the idea to run protection rackets for local It is impossible to categorise all entrepreneurs due to the broad businesses, using his ruthless and violent reputation to his After the imprisonment and eventual downfall of the Kray’s, their definition. However, it is possible to distinguish some advantage, at a profit. ‘The Firm” were also involved in armed legacy as notorious gangsters remained, inspiring several movies, entrepreneurs as each type tend to choose their own path based robberies, hijackings, arson, murder and several other crimes, all books and documentaries to be created. Reggie Kray himself wrote on their personality, abilities and surroundings. Five categories carefully planned, managed and executed to make a profit at a risk. numerous autobiographies sharing his various experiences and entrepreneurs may fall into include: insights into his life as a gangster, brother and husband. Reggie’s Reggie Kray’s keen eye for opportunity and absence of fear helped books include Our Story” (Kray, 2015) and many more, conveying 5 Categories of Entrepreneurs him to become a deadly yet successful gangster. His clever yet Reggie Kray’s entrepreneurial presents still remains as he continues to make a profit from his life as a gangster in East London year after. Discovers unique ideas and transforms them Reggie Kray careful use of violence and intimidation at the forefront of his success. The Innovator into viable businesses. Works hard and is willing to get their hands The Hustler dirty. Reginald “Reggie” Kray was born only minutes before his twin Takes proven business ideas and improves Ronald “Ronnie” on the 24th October 1933 in Haggerston, East The Imitator My Entrepreneurial Behaviour and develops them. During the Krays’ teenage years, they became infamous for the Continues to gather all relevant information on gang they formed in their area, conveying their violent a vicious The Researcher They were the best years of our lives. Upon being given the task to make a profit from a £20 their idea, even after its success. nature from a young age and narrowly escaping several attempted arrests. The twins were also called to perform their note, myself and my team of four put our heads Identifies and specialises in buying promising They called them the swinging sixties. The Beatles The Innovator together and began brainstorming various ideas. After businesses. national service but were dishonourably discharged soon after. and the Rolling Stones were rulers of pop music, many discussions, we unanimously decided to buy stocks, with the intention of making a profit. I then wrote Some entrepreneurs my fall distinctively into these categories Reggie soon turned to crime alongside his Carnaby Street ruled the fashion world... and me out a little business plan which was crucial to the whereas some may fall into more than one. Reggie Kray can be brother Ronnie. They bought a local and my brother ruled London. We were fucking success of our project. Through this we coordinated categorised by the hustler due to his ruthless efforts as a gangster snooker club where they ran several activities, divided several tasks and settled on times to to make a profit through organised crime and as a nightclub protection rackets and were involved in untouchable... meet. From this we seemed to have established roles owner. Though he was involved in illegal business, Reggie Kray armed robberies, hijacking and arson. did display entrepreneurial behaviour and can therefore be argued within the group as natural leaders emerged and others They built up their own group known as as a hustler entrepreneur on the darker side of the business Ronnie Kray, in his autobiographical book, happy to sit back. This being known as the ‘forming’ "The Firm," which became a dominant world. stage of teamwork. force in the East End. The success of their My Story, 1993. nightclubs such as Esmeralda’s Barn At our next meeting we shared various information we gave the twins a celebrity status on the gathered on stocks within one another. One of my group Swinging London scene (Pearson, 1984). members took on the role of handling the stocks due to Reggie soon married a young woman, a pre-existing Swedish stock account available. Naturally, Frances Shea in 1965. The marriage was conflict then arose upon choosing stocks options. Some toxic and violent, which unfortunately led wanted to play it safe while others wanted to take a risk to Shea committing suicide at the age of for a potentially high reward. After a pleasant debate we 23. The Kray’s criminal activities remained hidden behind their decided to compromise and split the capital between a celebrity status, business and powerful reputation which deterred high dividend fund known as XACT and a pharmaceutical people from making any claims against the brothers. However the company, Redwood Pharma. twins and members of the Firm were arrested with the twins being sentenced to life imprisonment in May 1968 due to various As weeks passed, with the rise of Covid-19 and a weak criminal offences and murders such as Reggie’s public murder of exchange rate, our stocks fell drastically, failing to make of Jack "the Hat" McVitie (Blanco, 2020). a profit. However we received a richer reward from this assignment. We learnt how to work as a team and After serving more than the recommended 30 years in prison, enriched our knowledge of stocks, while having fun. This Reggie was freed in August 2000 on compassionate grounds due process also enabled me to think entrepreneurially, thus to his inoperable bladder cancer. He spent his final weeks with his allowing me to categorise myself as a ‘hustler’ second wife Roberta who he had married while in prison before entrepreneur by my work ethic, linking similarities dying on 1 October 2000. between myself and Reggie Kray. This added a separate dimension to the assignment ad provided me with an interesting perspective on entrepreneurial theory. Entrepreneurial Theory Experience in Entrepreneurial The endeavour of becoming an entrepreneur involves Behaviour “considerable risk, hard work and sacrifice”. P. T. Barnum Some of the main entrepreneurial theories are:- Economic Theory Showman & Entrepreneur Innovation Theory Barnum’s Entrepreneurial Behaviour Entrepreneurial behaviour is a willingness to challenge the norm in order to Psychological Theory promote innovation. Theory of High Achievement Barnum began his entrepreneurial journey when he took a risk and purchased a (Kessler 2014) museum in New York- “Barnum’s American Museum” in 1814. The museum Resource based Theories Failure is a huge part of entrepreneurship. contained biological wonders such as a 25ich tall dwarf who became known as Failure can arise due to many factors including “General Tom Thumb”. The investigation into entrepreneurship began during the externalities. 1940s however entrepreneurial behaviour has been Unfortunately due to an outbreak of disease Barnum later established “P. T. Barnum’s Great Travelling Museum, Menagerie, present in society long before these studies took place. which caused a global pandemic, our Caravan & Hippodrome” or “Barnum and Bailey’s” as it became known. His main entrepreneurship assignment was unable to be attraction was Jumbo, an African Elephant he purchased from London Zoo in 1882. fulfilled and therefore, failed. This could be P. T. Barnum The world had never seen any traveling show like this before. classed as an environmental factor. Phineas Taylor (P. T.) Barnum was born in 1810 in The pandemic is also likely to cause a recession Connecticut, USA and was “the greatest publicity Barnum gained publicity by publishing articles about his own shows which would be classed as an economic factor. exploiter the world has ever known”. He is most famous claiming they were fake. for the establishment of “Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey” circus. He had many other business ventures including “In his day, P. T. Barnum was promotion of Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind in 1850, more popular than Gates, profiting up to $1,000 per night. Musk & Jobs combined” Barnum’s entrepreneurial talents revealed themselves at Oleck 2017 age 12 when he began selling snacks to sailors. Andrews, Evan. “10 Thing You May Not Know About P.T. Barnum.” HISTORY, 23 Aug. 2018, www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-p-t-barnum. Betsy Golden Kellem. “The Greatest Showman: The True Story of P.T. Barnum and Jenny Lind” HWD, Vanity Fait, 22 Dec.
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