An Information Technology Entrepreneur - Essay Example

An Information Technology Entrepreneur Introduction Entrepreneurship today is defined as ‘The process of creating something new with value by devoting necessary time and effort assuming the accompanying financial, psychic and social risks and receiving the resulting rewards of monetary and personal satisfaction’(Hisrich, Peters and Shepherd, 8) In short entrepreneurship is about creating something new and assuming the risks and rewards. It has high desirability today. This is because many people want to be independent in whatever they do and this helps them take charge of their life. Entrepreneurship is beneficial for the society in which it flourishes. It results in job creation, a forward looking and self sufficient society as well as increased foreign trade. It leads to the development of certain areas especially rural areas where certain factories are setup to achieve lower costs. Entrepreneurship results in competition between businesses thereby leading to better quality and more choice for the consumer. Another advantage of entrepreneurship is its ability to promote modern technology in small scale manufacturing to enhance productivity. Thereby entrepreneurship and innovation must be encouraged. (Langlois, 2) Entrepreneurship is not limited to a certain field, nation or profession. It transcends all such boundaries to become a major force in the development of a society. Information technology is a field in which exemplary entrepreneurial talents have emerged. It is also an area which requires constant innovation and entrepreneurship. This is because technology keeps getting upgraded and the world keeps moving forward in this field. The information technology explosion has taken the world by storm and has lead to an entrepreneurial culture which has given way to many scientific advances, the likes of internet, portable networking and email included. (Brown and Ulijn, 83) Many entrepreneurs in the information technology arena came and went. Many were successful others not so. However, none have left a mark on the information technology industry like Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft Corporation has. The Story of Bill Gates Microsoft Corporation is the largest software company in the world. It is the company that made Bill Gates the second richest man in the world being its largest stockholder and the youngest self-made billionaire. He is worth a whopping $6.1 billion. In 1994 his company made $953 million last year on sales of $3.75 billion. Microsoft's $25 billion market value tops that of Ford, General Motors, 3M, Boeing, RJR Nabisco, General Mills, Anheuser-Busch or Eastman Kodak. This is what makes Bill Gates a huge phenomenon. Microsoft has been the king of operating systems. It lead the MS-DOS and revolution and later brought Windows to the world. In addition to this it supplies the world’s 50% application programs such as Excel, Word etc. These are programs that have become an inherent requirement of life today and few can think for functioning without these user-friendly and efficient applications. We can say that Gates identified an opportunity in the marketplace and that coupled with his expertise in software development lead to the creation of a successful venture called Microsoft. It satisfied a latent need which Gates was able to recognize and fulfill. Today the company is reaping the fruits of its harvest. Ever since his childhood Gates had been different and unruly. He informed us that to discipline him and overcome his rebellious spirit; his parents admitted him to a school called Lakeside which was known for its rigorous treatment of students. This is where he met Paul Allen who became his friend due to the common interest in computers. He started programming and earning money when he was in eighth grade. Gates founded the business in 1975 with the help of his friend Paul Allen. However, the beginnings of the business had begun to emerge as early as 1973. This was when Gates had just enrolled in Harvard only to drop out two years later. This was when he along with his friend and Business partner Allen wrote a version of the BASIC language which could run on the new Altair computer. Allen was interested in manufacturing both hardware and software. However Gates believed that software was the way forward. ‘When you have the microprocessor doubling in power every two years, in a sense you can think of computer power as almost free. So you ask, why be in the business of making something that's almost free? What is the scarce resource? What is it that limits being able to get value out of that infinite computing power? Software. Another way to look at it is that I just understood a lot more about software than I did about hardware, so I was sticking to what I knew well and that turned out to be something important.’ They moved to Albuquerque, where the Altair was built, and started Micro-soft. In 1979, the company was moved to Seattle and a year later when IBM turned to Microsoft to meet its operating system needs, the modern PC era began with a bang! Gates pointed out that initially he was involved in everything of the business from top to bottom. He was an entrepreneur who was managing sales, human resource, accounting and administration all at one time. In the early times he had a four member staff and he took it upon himself to calculate the number of soft wares that they would be selling each week. Targets were set, and performance was measures up against the objectives. Despite the fact that Gates is a successful businessman as well as a prominent scientist, he is fascinated more by the scientific element of his and others achievements than anything else. It is surprising to know that the world’s second richest man has little interest in business. As mentioned earlier the company has come a long way. Ever since Allen and Gates wrote the BASIC language for the Altair system, things have change drastically. It resulted in a PC revolution that has brought personal computers to everyone’s homes and offices. The vision was to have an operating system that could run on all kinds of different vendor machines and not just one. Gates brought to light the strategy at Microsoft: ‘We always knew that we didn't want to have a single product that was a dominant product. We wanted to hire in more software people and have a full product line. In a sense, one of the earliest things we decided to do was to make available on the microprocessor everything that had been available on the mini computer. And that is why we did the languages, COBOL, Assembler, all the normal tools that you would expect to be able to do with native software development. But, it was clear that as an individual machine there were some things that you would use that you didn't need on a mini computer or mainframe.’(Piekkari and Welch, 3) There was no sense of being limited in the company. The culture was that of constantly challenging oneself to transcend boundaries and reach for one’s maximum potential. There would always be tough deadlines to meet which would make the tasks more interesting and fun. Inferences and Learning Through hard work, determination and unwavering interest, Bill Gates was able to begin a new chapter in the history of information technology by creating the Microsoft Corporation. The company can be judged successful by its yearly revenues and profits which have been steadily rising. The reason for existence of a company is to fulfill a need in the society. Microsoft has been able to do just that. With its constantly evolving culture and dynamics; the company has been able to lead the technological advancements and thereby fulfilling needs emerging in the society. Its employees are well satisfied with the company’s culture and work environment and it considers its employees as its biggest assets The interview with Bill Gates has opened my eyes to a lot of what is happening around me. It has made me realize that opening your eye to what is happening around you results in identifying opportunity and exploiting it for huge gains. Secondly, I learnt that success does not come easy. It requires you to persevere and work hard towards your aim. Thirdly, an expertise in the field that one is planning to start a business in is required for the success of the business. Fourthly, the rule of ‘No risk, no gain’ is very potent. Only when you take risks are you able to get the best for yourself and create history. Lastly, one should always have an eye to the future. Therefore, in order to be successful the future is the key. In addition to this I have learnt that it is important to start early, have the right team of people around because it counts and success does not come early. Based on what I have learnt and inferred about Bill Gates I believe that I do possess entrepreneurial talent. I am a talented person who is interested in learning new ways to do things. Like Bill Gates I do not like to waste time and I want everything to be a learning experience for me. I have great desire to create something new, which would be my brainchild. However, there are certain areas in which I need improvement. These areas are that of risk taking and patience. Much as I would want to do something innovative I am not much of a risk-taker and in general tend to avoid risky situations. I like to play it safe. This is one aspect of my personality which dims the entrepreneurial potential I have. Secondly I lack patience. I lose interest in things quickly and it may happen that if my venture is not profitable initially I abandon the whole concept. Therefore I will have to improve on these aspects to tap fully into my entrepreneurial potential and become a successful innovator. (Sathe,1) In order to improve in the above mentioned areas, I would consistently work towards optimizing my strengths and playing down on my weaknesses. Therefore I would undertake constant exercises to improve my risk taking ability. In the first week I would take a risk in terms of the food I eat. I would order new dishes when eating out and try new recipes so that risk taking starts coming naturally to me. In the second week I will act as a non-conformist and would wear the most wildest clothes which are unique and different from what people usually wear. In the third week I will extend my training to induce risk-taking behaviour in myself through all acts. I would talk to all the different people I have not talked to before, I would invest in mutual funds and I would deliberately take the short cut I know little about. All this will prepare me for risk-taking and instill this spirit in me. Secondly; to improve patience I would make myself wait for things. I would practice patience for things I would have usually wanted urgently in normal circumstances. I would collect my money in a piggy bank, in order that I may reap the benefits of collecting money little by little. Conclusion Entrepreneurship is equivalent to innovation and risk-taking and earning the rewards for the same. Entrepreneurship has many benefits for the society ranging from creation of jobs to and an air of optimism in the society. The information technology entrepreneur that I interviewed was Bill Gates; the founder of Microsoft Corporation. It is the largest software company in the world. Despite being the second richest person in the world Bill Gates comes across as very simple and a genuinely talented person. His humble beginnings were from writing BASIC language for Altair in 1975. Since then he has never looked back and is still very future oriented. The interview made me learn that success does not come easy. To be successful in something one must be good at it and one must persevere to achieve his objectives. Priorities must be set right in order for a person to reach his desired goal. I realized that in order to be successful I must develop patience in me and learn to take risks. Works Cited 1. Brown, E.Terrence and J.M.Ulijn Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Culture: The interaction between Technology. Edward Elgar Publishing. 2004 2. Hisrich, Robert, Michael.P.Peters and Dean.A.Shepherd.Entrepreneurship. Newyork:McGraw-Hill, 2001 3. Langlois,R.N. The Entrepreneurial Theory of the Firm and the Theory of the Entrepreneurial Firm. Journal of Economic Literature Classification. 27R: 1-36 4. Sathe, Vijay. Corporate Entrepreneurship: Top Managers and New Business Creation. Cambridge University Press. 2003 5. Welch, Catherine and Rebecca Marschan –Piekkari. Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods for International Business. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2004 Read More