Ross Perot: Marketing and Entrepreneurship - Coursework Example

Marketing and entrepreneurship By Date TASK: MARKETING AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP The Entrepreneur: Ross Perot Ross Perot was born in Texas by Lula Perot and Gabriel Perot. Ross Perot’s parents were brokers who specialized in cotton contracts. He joined the navy after attending school but left the career as he had passion in becoming a salesman. With the passion that he had, he quickly became a top employee in International Business Machines and after a period of one year he was able to meet his annual sales in just two weeks. He incorporated bigger companies in his work. Before he could get a contract, he failed several times. His first contract was given to computerize Medicare records. After the contract, his share stock rose from 16 dollars to 160 dollars in just few days. In 1974, Perot came to the attention of the press when he was said to have been the biggest loser in New York stock exchange when his shares drastically dropped. He however did not lose hope in his activities. He organized and sponsored the rescue of those that were involved in the revolution in Iran. The loss of power by Steve Jobs in Apple market affected Perot much as he was a main investor in the Apple Company. He continued with inspiration of achieving his goals with consideration of the financial status in which his family was. In the life of Ross Perot, he attained many honors due to his hard work and determination. He had the belief in integrity and honesty as being important in success. These are the cores that drove his business in achieving the set objectives. Additionally, he considered history when formulating the strategies; this made his business lead to success. According to the study on the life of Ross Perot, startup influences entrepreneur are born and others are made. With influences that occur in the childhood times, people develop traits which encourage them to be entrepreneurs later in their lives. The traits are shaped up through the experiences that they have history and the environment that one lives. In Ross Perot situation, he was influenced to develop an entrepreneurship due to the fact that his parents were just involved as brokers in Cotton contracts and the recession situation the country was during revolution. Perot involvement in entrepreneurship was due to personal character traits. He was also influenced to entrepreneurship due to need for independence, situational factors brought about by sudden unemployment and economic downturn that occurred in Iran. He was also influenced by antecedent influences with teachers in his family liniage and previous employment managerial experiences. There is a link that occurs between the character traits of an individual and the success that the entrepreneurs obtain in their businesses. In the case of Ross Perot he was innovative, opportunistic, and self-confident and his willingness to take greater risk led him to success (Casson, 2010). Though he had challenges due to lack of knowledge on the steps to follow, he managed to register his company and grow it. Ross Perot studied abroad and the experience he had in the country led him to the decision to live independently. The decision led him to achieve new experiences and building of self-confidence. With determination to achieve the dreams he had, he reached the higher achievements by attaining a bachelor and master degree. He being opportunistic can also be observed through his achievements of gaining recognition in his line of work (Carsrud and Brännback, 2007). He gained experience due to him being in an investment management sector and he developed traits such as forecasting as he was able to look on the future prices. He also gained innovative thinking and linking the knowledge he got to the economy during the recession that occurred in Iran. He then took the risk of building his own company in the economic recession with the uncertainty of capital has he had no salary. Antecedent influences also influences development of entrepreneurship. Factors that guided Ross Perot in his achievements are together with faith, honesty, tolerance and sincerity. His mother educated him on personality making him credible. In his involvement in Sandiaga, he breaks the beliefs that people have that entrepreneurship is a talent that someone is born and cannot be developed. One that grows in a family that is entrepreneurial based develops ideas and learns about business earlier and the learning is faster. There was learning that entrepreneurship entails being focused and not being greedy in activities that one is involved in. For an entrepreneur to get involved in activities, there are push factors besides ones own wills. This made him to develop his business to meet the requirements. In the case of Ross Perot, he quickly became a top employee in International Business Machines and after a period of one year he was able to meet his annual sales in just two weeks. The ability of him to get the first client enabled him believe that he could make it in entrepreneurship (Duhigg, 2012). Innovation to growth through turning of opportunities into business is an important factor that is considered in entrepreneurship (Keister, 2005). Burns brings out the fact that there are several challenges that are faced in the first times of entrepreneurship but determination is what makes one overcome the challenges. Ross Perot had several fails in his start up but due to growth in his business, he has abled to have more than 20000 employees in his company. When he started his company, Perot got a client whom he charges less the cost of service that was offered to him. This was to increase the satisfaction of the client and also attract more clients in his company. He gains more clients after the company picks up (Björkstén and Hägglund, 2010). The innovation considered the idea that the entrepreneurs develop, the resources that are put to the idea, knowledge of the customers, marketing strategies, knowledge of competitors and personal attributes that one has in attaining the set goals in the entrepreneurship. According to Burns, the ingredients that are needed in the success of an entrepreneurship include entrepreneurial characters that involve hard work, passion, knowledge, positive thinking and innovation (Bygrave and Zacharakis, 2008). Other ingredients in success include business culture, company strengths and decisions that are made in a business. Factors for Ross Perot Success Ross Perot was passionate in everything that he wanted to achieve; this made him to spend time in nurturing innovations that came his way. Passion enables those that joined the company to be focused in achieving the goals (Drucker, 2005). Maintenance of focus is an important aspect in entrepreneurship that leads to success. Focus enabled Ross Perot to identify opportunities and also eliminates distractions and wasted efforts that are likely to occur during implementation of ideas. Ross Perot maintained focus in the mission that he had (Duesenberry, 2008). Ross Perot was also hard working, this made him to achieve success in his operations. There is no way one is able to achieve success when there is no hard work. Hard work is the key to success (Bassi, 2011). Through hard work, Ross Perot focused on things that he can control and also on the efforts letting the result be the way he thought they should be. The journey of achieving success in entrepreneurship is long and an entrepreneur should feel to be part of the journey (Bassi, 2011). In achieving success there are strengths and weaknesses that occur. An entrepreneur in the journey should face all the challenges that occur and address them appropriately (Burch, 2006). Trust in the decisions that an entrepreneurs make also leads to success. Ones instinct is not wrong and when there is trust in the gut instinct, the entrepreneurs will carry out activities without deviation to other activities hence achieving the set goals (McCreadie and Hill, 2008). Flexibility is an important element in achieving success in entrepreneurship. Flexibility allowed Ross Perot as an entrepreneur to continuously learn and implement new ideas in the business (Lambing and Kuehl, 2007). His flexibility was persistent, that is why he remained focused on the original goal. Relying on ones team also leads to success (Bassi, 2011). Ross Perot considered those that are around him as they also had sets of skills that can contribute to success. Ross Perot used his skills and strengths to set goals that he could achieve. Execution is important as the idea that an entrepreneur have may also be in another person. Success comes from flawless execution (Meyer, 2000). Development of strategy is not the only factor that leads to success but there is need to learn on others that are in the same market with the factors that they use (Bassi, 2011). Integrity and honesty is important in success. These are the cores that will drive Ross Perot to achieve the set objectives. Consideration of history when formulating the strategies was also a contributing factor to Ross Perot’s success. References Backman, M. and Butler, C. (2003). Big in Asia. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Bassi, L. (2011). Good company. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Baumol, W. (2009). Business behavior. 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