The CEO and Chairman of Microsoft Bill Gates - Coursework Example

Bill Gates, CEO and Chairman of Microsoft Table of Contents Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………..3 2. Main Findings……………………………………………………………………...…….4 3. Area of Innovation……………………………………………………………………….7 4. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………...…...………9 5. Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………10 Executive Summary This report is based on the famous entrepreneur, Bill Gates who was the CEO and is now the Chairman of a very innovative and highly successful software company, Microsoft. Through the course of the subject matter, this report aims to analyze how the entrepreneurial style of Bill Gates has shaped the entrepreneurial and other business activities of Microsoft over the years. It will also discuss and examine the plethora of internal and external factors that influenced Bill Gates to set up this company and how those factors have affected his entrepreneurial decisions and tendencies over the life of his association with Microsoft. Furthermore, this report examines specific areas of business innovation Microsoft has best exploited to its advantage under the entrepreneurial leadership and management of Bill Gates. Main Findings i. Critical Analysis of Personality and Identification and Analysis of Other Factors Bill Gates was a keen businessman who realized the immense potential of making technology available for the common man by introducing home computers to the technology market. It was their vision in the beginning and has continued to be their vision through the years, as every innovation by Microsoft and any entrepreneurial decision by Gates reflects. He has created for himself a legacy by displaying enormous amounts of entrepreneurial, leadership and innovative spirit through his years with Microsoft. He led his company efficiently from start up stage to the point where it is a conglomerate worth trillions of dollars. He is the one behind computers becoming such an integral part of an average individual’s everyday life and can thus be credited for ushering in the Age of Information. Through the face of immense success however, Bill Gates has remained down to earth and has not let his success as an entrepreneur and his company’s success get to his head. His management style has remained simplistic and has become his hallmark. Employees work in a no extra frills environment; clock in hours as per their requirements, in small teams following thrifty budgets. Gates says “We cannot think like a big company or we are dead”. His actions have indirectly impacted sectors of education, medicine and poverty etc through his philanthropic efforts outside of the circle of the technological advances he has brought to the market. (Smith, 1999). According to an article by Matthew Toren, in the beginning Gates used to make his employees work long hours and was quite aggressive about driving them hard, however the rapid success of Microsoft can duly be acknowledge to that drive and aggression that Gates displayed. (Toren, 2009). However, while on one side Gates demands absolute dedication and hard work from his employees, on the other hand he offers them the highest paybacks for their efforts. The company offers to do the employees’ laundry, buy their groceries and serves them excellent food. The work environment was structured by Gates to be fun, involving and motivating. (Smith, 2008). Gates has remained a source of inspiration and innovation for his company; when talking about the mid-1990s were had to undertake intensive levels of innovational restructuring to keep ahead of competition, he said “The most fun six-month period I’ve had since the start of Microsoft”. This shows how Gates has not been threatened by possibility of competition but instead has had ‘fun’ in the process of seeking to increase the competitiveness and efficiency of his company by incorporating innovative measures and technology. (Bygrave, 2003). Another commendable quality that Gates has displayed has been his ability to decentralize management and to give people room to give their individual input during important decision making. He has also never been afraid to communicate his vision to people and to gather support for his ideas, either financially or otherwise. He has also always been flexible enough to expect honest feedback, and be open to suggestions from his employees. Even though he is quite the genius in his field, Gates never gave up the drive to learn and the humility that comes with that drive. He has been a very smart business minded opportunist, when the internet was launched he geared his company to take full advantage of this opportunity. Gates has also displayed qualities of persistence and effective execution of his ideas. He has remained true to his long term vision from the beginning and all his products have been launched in line with this vision. If Gates was not satisfied with one version of his product launch, he would work on it till he reached the version that did not lack anything in accordance with his vision. (Warren, 2012). Area of Innovation Peter Drucker says that innovation is a function of entrepreneurship; it helps the entrepreneur create new wealth through new resources or by ones that already exist with the firm. The term entrepreneurship refers to any kind of effort of activity which purposefully restructures a firm’s economic or social potential. Drucker also talks about the sources of innovation. He says the sometimes innovative actions are results of sudden genius inspirations, but most times however, innovation results from conscious purposeful activity. Four such sources of innovation are classified by Drucker as (i) unexpected occurrences, (ii) incongruities, (iii) process needs, (iv) industry and market changes. Some sources can also exist externally in the form of (i) demographic, (ii) perception and (iii) knowledge changes. Effective innovation starts out small and simplistic, much like Microsoft Corp did, it is focused towards a single purpose in line with a specific vision, much like Microsoft has stuck with its vision by keeping its products in line with its basic vision over the years. However, it can’t be known for certain at this point whether this innovation will turn out to be a big success in the longer term. The only thing that will ensure the success of a particular innovation is persistence, hard work and effort. Microsoft, under the leadership of Bill Gates has proved itself to be an exceptional example of persistent hard work and subsequent innovation and success. (Drucker, 1998). Microsoft started out as a software company but has recently expanded into the production of hardware technology. They introduced a tablet computer called Surface and later, introduced to the market an 82 inch collaboration screen. They continue to build the Xbox, and cloud data centers that they use to operate between software like Bing and Hotmail. With the launch of the tablet, they have expanded new grounds for themselves as a company. Furthermore, Microsoft recently launched Windows 8 which is their newest operating system. (Karlgaard, 2012). Gates, as an entrepreneur independent of Microsoft has also invested in numerous other ventures, for example EcoMotors International, an automotive engine maker and a number of environmentally beneficial, ‘green’ companies who work with clean technology including Pacific Ethanol in 2005 and TerraPower in 2010. He also has a huge investment in EcoLab. (Dolan, 2012). The trend in Gates’ entrepreneurial investments shows that he is geared towards innovative measures that drive a paradigm shift towards the use of cleaner, greener technology so that we make life on this earth more sustainable. Gates has also ventured to invest in revolutionizing farming. He thinks that the world need s to move towards another Green Revolution and thus, while his main philanthropic purpose still remains the eradication of polio, he has poured large sums of money to support the agriculture sector to make sure that poverty and hunger the world over can be reduced. (Herper, 2012). At a conference in 2008, Gates announced future objectives for Microsoft. Among these were improvements to Internet Explorer and Silverlight 2. Microsoft would enter into an alliance with IBM to improve application development, a new version of Visual studio 2008 and Velocity, a program that helps develop applications. (Microsoft, 2008). Conclusion After we have duly analyzed Bill Gates’ entrepreneurial personality and other factors that have influenced his personality and other entrepreneurial decisions, we can see that they have had an immense effect on how he as an entrepreneur and his company Microsoft, as an entrepreneurial venture have turned out. It can be seen that had his personality not have been the way it is, Microsoft may not have been as big of a success as it turned out to be over the years and its products wouldn’t have been as appreciated by the market. As a result Bill Gates has been ranked as the richest man in America and one of the top few selected most successful entrepreneurs of the world. According to one article, Gates has been successful in changing the world not once but twice during his lifetime through his entrepreneurial and philanthropic ventures. First, he founded Microsoft and ushered in the Age of Computers and second, he is working as a philanthropic through a charitable organization that he has set up to eradicate world hunger, poverty and medical issues like polio. When talking about the greatest business decision he ever made, Gates said that this was picking the right people. According to Gates, hiring the right people for the job is one of the most important entrepreneurial decisions he has ever made, one that has invariably contributed a lot to the success of Microsoft Corp. (Byrne, 2012). Bibliography 1. Bygrave, W. D., 2003. The Entrepreneurial Process. [online] Available at: < http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/43/04712715/0471271543.pdf> [Accessed: July 25, 2012] 2. Byrne, J. A., 2012. The 12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of Our Time. [online] CNNMoney. Available at: [Accessed on: July 25, 2012]. 3. Dolan, K. A., 2012. Bill Gates Ups His Bet On Auto Engine Maker EcoMotors. [online] Forbes. Available at: < http://www.forbes.com/sites/kerryadolan/2012/07/10/bill-gates-ups-his-bet-on-auto-engine-maker-ecomotors/> [Accessed on: July 25, 2012] 4. Drucker, P., 1998. The Discipline of Innovation. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: [Accessed on: July 25, 2012] 5. Herper, M., 2012. Bill Gates Next Target: Revolutionize Farming. [online] Forbes. Available at: [Accessed on: July 25, 2012] 6. Karlgaard, R., 2012. Microsofts Steve Ballmer Talks About Windows 8, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs -- and Why Microsofts Lost Decade Is A Myth. [online] Forbes. Available at: < http://www.forbes.com/sites/richkarlgaard/2012/07/11/microsofts-steve-ballmer-talks-about-windows-8-bill-gates-and-steve-jobs-and-why-microsofts-lost-decade-is-a-myth/3/> [Accessed: July 25, 2012] 7. Microsoft, 2008. Bill Gates Explores Past, Present and Future of Application Development at Tech•Ed North America 2008 Developers. [online] Available at: [Accessed on: July 25, 2012]. 8. Smith, S. V., 2008. Bill Gate’s Management Style Lives On. [online] Available at: < http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/bill-gates-management-style-lives> [Accessed: July 25, 2012] 9. Smith, S. S., 1999. Entrepreneur of the Millennium: Bill Gates. Entrepreneur Magazine. 10. Toren, M., 2009. What Is Your Vision? –Bill Gates.[online] Available at: < http://www.youngentrepreneur.com/profiles/modeling-masters/what-is-your-vision-bill-gates/> [Accessed: July 25, 2012] 11. Warren, T., 2012. 5 Essential Qualities for Entrepreneurial Leadership. [online] Forbes. Available at: < http://www.forbes.com/sites/startupviews/2012/06/08/5-essential-qualities-for-entrepreneurial-leadership/2/> [Accessed on: July 25, 2012] Read More