Management Style: Bill Gates - Essay Example

MANAGEMENT STYLE: BILL GATES The success of a firm is largely dependent on its top management and the management strategy used. In fact, according to Chiesa and Manzini (195-214), the competency of a company is largely dependent on the ability of the managers to come up with new strategies to create market value. The leader chosen by me for research and analysis of management styles is Bill Gates. Gates is the founder and Chairman of Microsoft. He was my preference because of the fact that he, as a leader, has played a pivotal role in bring Microsoft to heights of success.

Gates has based his management on close control and supervision. He is a leader who concerns himself with all the details of the company. The extent to which he monitors his staff and transactions can be illustrated by the fact that he took it upon himself even to sign any expenses incurred by Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft. The objective of Microsoft is to meet customer demands in the most efficient way and to increase productivity. Gates believes in streamlining and modernizing all the functions to take maximum advantage of the advanced technology.

Bill Gates is an advocate of a flexible working environment and constant change. All the processes at Microsoft are customer-oriented. The focus is on ‘core competencies’ and all the other functions are outsourced. This not only reduces costs but also gives the firm the advantage of specialization and the opportunity to select from a pool of global talent. Gates’ management is team-based, and he fervently believes in the concept of information and knowledge sharing. Gates encourages his employees to participate in knowledge-sharing and work as teams by giving them awards and recognition.

This helps motivate his employees. A remarkably distinct feature of Gates’ management style is the recruitment of staff. According to Randall E. Stross, business professor and author of The Microsoft Way, this is the biggest factor of Microsoft’s success. He believes that the performance of employees depends, not on their experience but, on their hiring. This means that only the best and smartest people are employed by him. Long discussions lasting up to even 8 hours are held and opinions of employees are welcomed.

Although he is a supporter of a flexible learning organization, Gates is also considered by many of his employees as “distant”. He is said to have a combative attitude during meetings and expects the best from every employee. This indicates that Gates is, in a way, a follower of Theory Z which is a combination of the American and Japanese styles of management. He is an advocate of team-work, adapting to change and knowledge sharing. But, at the same time he has maintained control over all the core processes and since the beginning has taken up the primary responsibility of managing his company.

Bill Gates has created a voracious learning environment in Microsoft (Jager et al, 59). He believes that workers in a smart organization learn from their mistakes. Therefore, by capitalizing on the mistakes of its competitors, Microsoft has prospered. The research conducted can be used to conclude that the management style of Bill Gates is not based on any theory but has developed according to the corporate needs. A true leader shapes a vision, which gives others the direction to work (Handy, 134).

Gates has been able to carry on this role as a leader with considerable success, in his own unique way. Works Cited: Chiesa, V., Manzini, R., Competence levels within organizations: a static and dynamic analysis. Competence-based strategic management. ED Heene A. Sanchez R. Chichester, Wiley, 1997:195–214. Handy,Charles. The Age of Unreason. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1989:134. Stross, Randall. E., The Microsoft Way, Addison-Wesley, New York, 1996. Jager, Rama D. and Ortiz, Rafael, In the Company of Giants, McGraw-Hill, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1997:59.