Bill Gates as a Successful and Innovative Entrepreneur - Case Study Example

Entrepreneurship & Innovation: Bill Gates in the making Introduction: Entrepreneurship means “to begin a new business or renewing an already existing business”. Because of the fact that a large number of new businesses are unsuccessful therefore, entrepreneurship is very hard to accept. The processes involved in starting a new business may vary depending on the type of the business. The businesses may be rated from starting a single task to complex projects with the hiring people. The general idea for entrepreneurship originated in 1700s and its meaning have been altered with due course of time. Some call it starting a new business while others have different meaning for it (Bronstein, 2007). Some economic experts say that entrepreneurship involves investment for a new adventure. Most of the businesses with high rate of investment require high financial resources so as to increase the assets. Financial capitalists try to get a profit up to 20-30%. There is a variety of organizations consisting of special political units, brooders for new business, scientific research areas and non-governmental organizations (Bronstein, 2007). Entrepreneur: As mentioned earlier, entrepreneur is a person who has his ownership a new business adventure. He is answerable for all the profits and the loss. The word ‘entrepreneur’ was first used by Irish economist Richard Cantillon. A female entrepreneur is called entrepreneuse, a French word (Davidson, 2004). The present age history sat that entrepreneur accept the fact of lass in business. But this explanation seems to be established by fake transformation of Cantillon's and Say's thinking. An inquiry showed that in reality entrepreneurs strongly oppose to loss. They are fortunate that their desire for profit allows them to manage usable resources in an effective manner. In other words they use the elements of profit (natural resources, man power, equipment, experimental knowledge and productivity) expeditiously (Davidson, 2004). However, a large number of studies marked with a date explain the behavior of entrepreneurs. Some of them are mentioned here: David McClelland (1961) narrated entrepreneur as the person who is mainly propelled by a strong irresistible desire that result in attainment of ones goal. Collins and Moore (1970) by observing 150 entrepreneurs found that they are practically resistant people who are devoted to achieve their goal. They are rarely inclined towards power. Bird (1992) interpreted them as persons with qualities of shrewdness, swiftness and thievishness. They are clever, take immediate advantage of the chance, constructive and tough-minded. Cooper, Woo, & Dunkelberg (1988) suggest that they are the ones who show utmost temperament while making their decisions. It was shown in a study that 81% entrepreneurs express their likelihood of achievements while 70% especially 33% encounter their achievement 10 out of 10. Busenitz and Barney (1997) affirmed that entrepreneurs have inclination towards Reasoning from detailed facts and self-assurance. Four kinds of entrepreneurs were found by Cole in 1059. These kinds are (1) the innovators-who introduce something new, (2) the calculating inventor- who predict something in advance, (3) the over-optimistic promoter- who advocates best thing, (4) organization builder- who creates a business. All these attributes have not relation with the behavior of an individual but associated with the chances an entrepreneur gets. Bill Gates as a successful and Innovative Entrepreneur: William Henry Gates III, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, was born in 1955 in Seattle, Washington. He was born to a family that had strong political, social and business background. From the very beginning in his life, it was considered that he had hereditary the qualities of aspiration, comprehension and competition. During his primary education he distinguished himself in all the major subjects like math and science. It was this stage when his parents realized his intelligence and decided to register him in a school at Lakeside. This decision of his parents proved to be having long lasting effects on Gates. It was here when he started learning about computers (Klein, 2004). He is also considered as entrepreneur of the millennium. Gates, third richest man of the world, chief software architect in Microsoft, is the only person who possesses more than 9% of the shares in voting share. Bill gates have become one the richest person in the world because of the personal computer programming business. Some people say the he is trying to become a trillionaire. There is no doubt in the fact he is the entrepreneur who started with a small company and lead it to become one of the most successful companies the world. Bill Gates is the unique entrepreneur who has the skills to take a company from start-up to corporate giant (Lockwood, 2007). Entrepreneurship at an early age: It was in spring of 1968, when Lakeside School introduced computers to its students. Bill Gates, Paul Allen and some other students were the only who were indivisible from the computers. They used to stay all the time in computer labs and study computer books, write codes and anything related to computers. They started bunking their classes to spend more and more time in computer lab (Lockwood, 2007). Dedication from the beginning: Computer Center Corporation started its business in Lakeside in 1968. It offered computing times at a reasonable price and a child from Lakeside would be he chief programmer. An agreement was signed by Lakeside and Computer Center Corporation to provide computer time to its students. Gates along with his friends starting discovering everything about this new machine called computer. They started hacking, crashed the system many times and ruined the security system of computers. Computer Center Corporation recognized them and they were banned (Lockwood, 2007). In late 1968 these friends made Lakeside Programmers Group. They were confident of revealing their programming skills to the world. Due to crashing and weak security of the system of Computer Center Corporation, it started undergoing loss. Hence CCC decided to hire them and asked them to find errors and disclose faults in the computers. In return they were offered limitless computing time, they could not reject this offer. Gates revealed the truth that “that was the real time of discovering computers at CCC and I achieved it with full dedication by working day and night” (Lockwood 2007, p. 71). In 1968 CCC faced financial problems and had to be closed. Gates was worried about computer time, but got an opportunity at University of Washington's campus. He was in search of getting a chance to show his programming skills. And he got a chance when Information Sciences Inc. in 1970. hired him along with Allen to program a payroll program (Lockwood, 2007). In 1972 bill gates established his first ever functional business called at Traf-O-Data Lakeside School. His company used to generate data for State Road Departments by installing flexible pipe for conveying a liquid or gas that calculated the number of cars driven there. He achieved all this by utilizing his knowledge of computer programming. The working experience of this small scale company for coding soon became company developing software as he did a project for American Northwest making power grids for them (Lockwood, 2007). Later on he joined Harvard College in 1973. Gates contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) after he read issue of Popular Electronics in January 1975 and supplied them Altair BASIC. This was the beginning of formation of Microsoft. Actually Gates and his friend Allen don’t have any Altair or its code, they just wanted to know MITS interest. After getting the approval from the President of MITS they develop the software and it was a successful attempt. MITS hired Allen and Gates went on a leave from Harvard to accompany him in 1975. They called their collaboration as “Micro-soft” situated in Albuquerque. On November 26, 1976 the dash was removed and Microsoft was certified (Smith, 2004). Unfortunately an illegal copy of the software was leaked, copied and distributed. In 1976, Gates wrote a letter to MITS and requested that MITS could not further develop and distribute good soft wares without payment. Hence Microsoft was isolated from MITS in late 1976. Instead of hiring employees, he used to review every line of code during the first five years (Smith, 2004). IBM contacted Gates in 1980 to develop BASIC for personal computers. They wanted him to develop an operating system but Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI). At DRI both the companies could not reach any agreement. Therefore after some weeks Gates suggested that using QDOS an operating system can be developed. Microsoft deployed DOS operating system to IMB for $80,000 payment. His idea of copyrighting the operating system made Microsoft popular in the market (Smith, 2004). Gates proving himself a successful entrepreneur: Self-confidence: Since entrepreneur has a compelling way of working and an excellent quality if communication. It proved to be fundamental element in making Bill gates an outstanding entrepreneur. At the age of 25 he swayed IBM about the legal rights of DOS operating system that he developed for them. IBM thought that DOS would soon be substituted by some other operating system therefore, instead of buying it instantly they decided to certify it. On the other hand, Gates and Allen were determined that DOS would soon become very precious software (Smith, 2004). Visionary: Bill is man with great vision his aim is to make computers reachable to every person with Microsoft product in it. Extra-ordinary: As mentioned earlier that entrepreneurs are quite different from all other people, same was the case with Gates. He left his university education and started established his business while all his friends were busy in their studies. Risks: At the age of 19 he decided to leave his education and quest for a sight that was quite risky. Risk not always means to take a chance for ones money but in his case it was the risk of his career and the life. But there was no one who could stop self-conscious and sure-footed Gates from achieving his goal. By selecting appropriate and suitable product from market place, providing reasonable funds, building a good team, and proper planning, the real risk of starting a new business can be decreased to large level. In the world of small business, optimism is truly less costly while others taking high risk die an early death. Customer Satisfaction: it is quite difficult for companies to keep their clients and customers satisfied with the cutting edge technology. Microsoft has this unique feature that it has always made its customers satisfied. Employment: Entrepreneurs work for the welfare of society by providing chances of employment. Similarly Gates hired a large number of employees for his company. He started hiring his friends and always hunted for intelligent and capable persons for his company. His enrolling department works hard to fid appropriate people for refinement of Microsoft (Smith, 2004). Dedication: Gates devoted his life for making Microsoft strong and fortifying. His hard work and dedicated made his spare time activity into an internationally recognized company. Workaholic: Bill Gates has the quality of hard work since his early age. He used to work on his computer with is friends till late night. At Harvard College he was often found sleeping on the tables of the computer lab. Bill Gates was never absent from office during the early years of Microsoft. In the beginning he used to sleep for six hours a day. Bill Gates is always knew the importance of his time. His success as a entrepreneur is the reward of the quality of being hard working (Klein, 2004). Challenging: Being an entrepreneur Gates always believed that he could do anything that is going through his mind. He was so confident that he would be a millionaire by the age of thirty. Gates still wants to achieve leadership in every thing he performs. Being ambitious is one of the greatest of Bill Gates Qualities Technologist: Bill is gifted with a highly creative mind since his childhood. At the age of fourteen he learned BASIC. He has successfully learned how to combine technology to make people satisfied according to their needs. He is currently focusing on this art in his present job as the Chief Software Architect and the Chairman of the Microsoft Corporation (Klein, 2004). Managerial Qualities: Bill has made it a point to constantly re-biuld the company according to the changing trends market place and high quality management proficiencies. Microsoft is not considered as one of the most highly rated companies of the world. The concept of stock options owes a part of its popularity to their successful implementation at Microsoft. His company has at the high positions in the stock market showing his good business management. Fore-casting capability: Bill predicted the future of software industry. He also predicted future trends and positioned the products of the company in such a way that they will become successful attainments. Although he has his fare share of failures but even when he fails in his predictions he doesn't give up. Sales man ship: Bill Gates is a genius and an artist in making deals. He is the man with high ranking negotiation skills. He has given a chain of useful products for all kind of customers. He converted DOS into a hot selling product although Microsoft had bought it for just a few thousand dollars. The products developed by Microsoft are infinite. All this achievement is the result of efforts made by Gates. Gates possess all the qualities of a true entrepreneur. The uninterrupted elaboration and growth of Microsoft proved his systematic endeavoring in international market level. This aspect helped him to avail all the opportunities. He has always been serving to grow chain of Microsoft products. Since the establishment of Microsoft, Gates has been responsible for its working and elaboration alone. He has extended the chain of Microsoft products very wisely, and protected his company whenever it gained a prevailing status (Klein, 2004). Books by Bill Gates: Gates has mentioned secrets of his success in his books; Business at the Speed of Thought : Succeeding in the Digital Economy by Bill Gates Bill Gates Speaks : Insight from the World's Greatest Entrepreneur by Janet C. Lowe Conclusion: Gates is a true picture of a successful entrepreneur. He took his start with an imagination and formulated and perceived this imagination fortitude and determination. He had nothing more than his own capabilities and skills that lead him to start Microsoft as a business and finally making it a recognizable company. This is the real trial of an entrepreneur when he starts for the scratch. Gates wrote The Road Ahead in 1995, in which he described the how the society will accept the vivid picture of technology. It ranked number one best seller in the list of New York Times and remained on the list for 18 weeks. The book was published in more than 20 countries; it sold 400,000 copies in China, providing divine guidance for all the entrepreneurs. He accomplished many honors for his work in his business and as an entrepreneur. He was selected to be the one out of 100 people who motivated 20th century and one of the most prestigious person of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Works Cited: Davidson, A. 2004. Smart Luck: The Seven Other Qualities of Great Entrepreneurs. Prentice Hall Business. Klein, M. 2004. The Change Makers: From Carnegie to Gates, How the Great Entrepreneurs Transformed Ideas into Industries. Holt Paperbacks. Smith, R. C. 2004. The Rise of Today's Rich and Super-rich. Beard Books. Lockwood, B. 2007. Bill Gates: Profile of a Digital Entrepreneur. Rosen Publishing Group. Read More