You may know Robert Herjavec as a leading investor on shark tank or dragons den, or maybe as a dancer on Dancing with the stars. Robert Herjavec is a businessman, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, father of 3 children, venture capitalist, best-selling author, runner, golfer, racecar driver, immigrant and an overall successful man. Robert Herjavec has truly lived a “rags to riches” story that is inspirational to anyone that hears it. He has always been a hard-working, dedicated leader that serves as a role model and mentor to his many followers. His background, occupations, accomplishments, and leadership attributes will be considered.
Herjevac’s story began in Varazdin, Croatia as he was born on September 14, 1963. His family decided to leave to escape communism so he arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1970. His family eventually settled in Toronto, Canada. Toronto is where he grew up and currently conducts business. His family always struggled financially and Robert was determined to be successful regardless of his circumstance. Immigrating to North America was challenging for him and his family. Upon arrival in Canada, his family only had 20 dollars in currency. His family struggled as his father was only making 76 dollars a week. At a young age, Herjevac worked for free to gain work experience. He would later work a variety of minimum wage jobs such as waiting tables, delivering newspapers and retail sales to make a living and support his family.
After high school Herjavec attended New College at the University of Toronto. He studied English literature and political science. Herjevac also worked in multiple production roles and worked his way up to becoming a field producer. In between production jobs, Herjevac started working in the technology industry. It wasn’t his field of study, and he began underqualified but agreed to work for free to gain experience in the industry. After years of hard work and dedication, Herjevac became a general manager at Logiquest, but actually left to start his own internet security software company called BRAK systems. BRAK systems was so successful that AT&T Canada bought it off Herjevac in 2000. After the purchase Herjevac decided to retire to raise his three children as a stay at home dad. He was retired for 3 years until he returned to the business world with a new mission.
Herjevac is the founder and CEO of the Herjevac group that began business in January 2003. The Herjevac group is recognized as a global leader in information security, as it specializes in security services, compliance, incident response and remediation efforts for enterprise level organizations. It is also one of the fastest growing technology companies in North America with over 125 million dollars in sales. The Herjevac group is strong and is continuing to make impactful innovations in its field. Herjevac has also built and sold several information technology companies to larger companies.
Herjevac is also a best-selling author. His two majorly successful books are Driven: How to Succeed in Business and Life and The Will to Win: Leading, Competing, Succeeding. These books are about life principles that have brought Herjevac success and life lessons. Herjevac is also an extremely accomplished racecar driver, as he participated in the popular Ferrari Challenge. Herjevac even won Rookie of the Year in 2011. He is also a car collector, motorcyclist, avid golfer, and runner. On his website a quote from Herjevac states, “You have to stay laser-focused when driving a car over 200 miles an hour, and the same approach is required when growing a business in today’s world of rapidly changing technology.” Herjevac’s most well-known accomplishments have been made known on Dragons Den (2006-2012) and Shark Tank (2010- ). Through these shows Herjevac has invested in many successful companies, taught his Canadian and American audience many business, entrepreneurial and investment principles as well as furthering his rags to riches story as he inspires the audience.
On Dragons Den and Shark Tank he has been known as the nice guy investor. He is often referred to as a “simple Croatian boy”. He is always looking to help entrepreneurs regardless of whether he decides to invest with them or not. Herjevac always remembers his lowly beginnings, is sympathetic and displays humility as he deals with associates and entrepreneurs. He also always recognizes hard workers and dedicated entrepreneurs and tries to encourage them to continue to work to expand their business. In regards to Herjevac’s leadership style he is, “more [of a] builder than hands-off investor and enjoys mentoring.” Herjevac also mentioned, “”In the few cases from the show where the investment has worked out, I try to get involved and mentor as much as possible. Grease Monkey (as an example) is experiencing phenomenal growth since airing and we try and have conference calls at least every two weeks. Very tough to make the time but often, these small business (sic) need advice much more than they need the money.” So this shows that Herjevac wants to get into the business and do as much as he can to make it successful by manually putting forth effort as opposed to letting the business run by itself. Herjevac would be considered as a Transformational leader since he looks to inspire the people around him. He enjoys providing advice and mentoring entrepreneurs as he works with them. He is also a motivational speaker. He speaks on his path to success and the impact that hard work and drive can have on a person’s life. Herjevac is extremely skilled at speaking and conveying his motivational message to his audience. These points, among many more illustrate why Robert Herjevac is an exceptional leader and businessman.
Works Cited
“Dynamic Entrepreneur And Business Leader | Robert Herjavec.” Robert Herjavec. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.robertherjavec.com/about/>.
Kopun, Francine. “Robert Herjavec: The Nice Dragon | Toronto Star.” Thestar.com. N.p., 16 Mar. 2010. Web. 13 Apr. 2015. <http://www.thestar.com/business/2010/03/16/robert_herjavec_the_nice_dragon.html>.
This essay was originally written by Andrew Belton for a Supervision class project at Montgomery County Community College on 4/11/15. Thank you for viewing.
Andrew C Belton 