Critical Evaluation Of Entrepreneurial Skills Of Bill Gates In An Essay.

1.Critically evaluate the entrepreneurial skills and activities demonstrated by the entrepreneur.

2.How does your evaluation of the entrepreneurial skills of the entrepreneur make you reflect on your own entrepreneurial skills?

3.What effects have the entrepreneurs’ entrepreneurial skills and activities had on business, the economy, society and the environment? How does this influence your views about enterprise and entrepreneurship in general?

Entrepreneurship may be considered to be one of the most crucial aspects of business studies as the same encompasses the lot of success-critical factors of the business and plays a pivotal role in determining the success or failure of the business in the market in the long-run (Agarwal, 2018). Entrepreneurship may be considered to be the process of managing the requisite resources and efficiently utilising the same in order to conduct the business operations towards the achievement of the pre-set corporate goal in most effective and sustainable manner (Malakoff, 2016). The instant paper deals with the analysis of entrepreneurship of Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft, in organisational as well as personal context.

At the outset of the study, the purpose of the research has been well presented. Since the entrepreneurship is necessarily a quality that contributes not only in organisational or business context but also in our personal lives as well, the purpose of the intended research so undertaken has been expressed in the paper. Moreover, the method of data collection along with the type of research undertaken has also been elaborated herein. The subsequent part of the paper focuses on the leadership ability of Bill Gates and his contribution towards Microsoft. The latter part of the study throws light on the personal reflection in order to establish how the researcher has been influenced by the charismatic entrepreneurship ability of Bill Gates. Finally, the skills and experiences of Bill Gates have been evaluated in the backdrop of the success or failure of the company. The researcher wraps up the discussion by way of concluding note. 

A business primarily runs on a successful entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur is the one who utilises all the resources to mobilise them towards the organisational goal fulfilment in most effective an efficient manner. Entrepreneurship may be considered to be an ideal mix of theory and practice of human skills at behavioural as well as technical level (Malakoff, 2016). As a result, it may be construed that the concept of the entrepreneur is all-pervasive that includes the behavioural traits as well as business acumen and intelligence (Gilliard, 2018). In other words, the concept is complex and yet extremely effective in business as well as personal context (Sprowls, 1994). Therefore, the need arises for the analysis of entrepreneurship skills and activities of the renowned entrepreneurs who have immensely contributed to the corporations and businesses. To put it differently, the success story of well-known and celebrated entrepreneurs must form the basis of research looking for establishing a guide for young and budding entrepreneurs and especially for the students of business studies (Guidez, 2016). This very intention gives rise to the significance of the said proposition and paves the way for conducting the research.

In the instant case, Bill Gates has been chosen as he has been considered as one of the most influencing entrepreneurs in the world and has been contributing towards his organisation, Microsoft Corporation for long. Microsoft may be termed as world’s one of the leading companies in the technology field and for this most of the credit surely goes to Bill Gates. All this premises form the background of the paper.

Objective of Research

In making the aforesaid analysis, the secondary research has been undertaken. Since the direct interview with Bill Gates may not be feasible in the given case, the emphasis has been placed on the web publications, journals, press and other media coverage and also the corporate websites of Microsoft. Besides, the company reports like an annual report, sustainability report and financial data have also been referred for the purpose of the research. 

Bill Gates is the principal founder of Microsoft Corporation. Under his chairmanship and directorship, the firm became the world's largest PC manufacturing company.  In the year 2014, he stepped down from the post of CEO of the firm and appointed Satya Nadella in his place. During his tenure, Microsoft rose to number one position worldwide in terms of revolution in computer technology services and the primary credit for the same goes to him (Cook, 2017). His brilliant leadership ability has contributed significantly towards the sustainable development of Microsoft. Bill Gates has also been listed several times in the Forbes list of world’s wealthiest people (Bedford, 2018). Though his leadership has been effective enough for the business, the same has been criticised number of times as anti-competitive.  

Bill Gates has always believed in “Leading by Examples” and that is the reason he himself used to write codes for every program for the company during his initial days with the firm (University of Waterloo, 2018). Gates had significant achievement in terms of partnership with IBM to develop the MS-DOS operating system. Gates considered not to transfer the copyright and hence, most of the market players identified the system to be of Microsoft's, despite the name of IBM appearing therein. Soon after the immense success of the deal, Gates became the president of the company and also the Board Chairman. Afterwards, Gates launched first retail version of Windows in the year 1985 which gradually became famous worldwide (Malakoff, 2016).

An analysis of his entrepreneurial activities may reveal the fact that his primary responsibility was only towards product strategy. However, Gates very quickly gained the insight into the management operations in terms visionary approach towards new product development and his inquisitive nature of analysing the root cause of every single problem (Hobson, 2010).

Bill Gates has been passionate about computer and his dream was to make the computer reach in every office desk which is no more a dream now but a reality. He has been a hard worker from his initial days with Microsoft and able to rationalise his thinking to fit into a given situation. It may be construed that his leadership trait was mostly revolving around task-orientation rather than relationship-orientation (Cook, 2017). This is the reason Gates has been often criticised for his not so sensible behaviour towards his subordinates or staffs. In doing so, Gates has been alleged to have resorted unethical and immoral practices. There have been instances where other market players have raised serious concerns against Bill Gates for his anti-competitive attitude (Horton, 2014).    

The reading and analysis of the entrepreneurship strategy and skill of Bill Gates, it may be construed that he has been an exceptional leader with allegations floating around him. I personally would like to be like him especially for the reasons as mentioned below:

Type of Research

Bill Gates joined Harvard University to finish his graduation but left midway and started the business with his friend Paul Allen. Such action definitely requires guts and I personally would love to take such kind of challenge in my life as well. I have learnt that if I have the zeal and courage coupled with talent, I can risk my study and start the business son my own. It is needless to mention that leaving study does not corroborate the fact to become successful I will have to leave my study, but definitely motivates student of business like us to make something new and initiate accordingly.  

It is imperative to note that Bill Gates has been a phenomenal leader. Such leadership skill is always influencing on the people who follow them. During my university days, I have also learnt the pros and cons of different leadership styles and have found Bill Gates to be a task master. I personally want to be like him with major emphasis on the relationship as well. I think Gates used to lack relationship skill which I have and I would like to nourish it more and more so that in future in my professional life, I will be more approachable to the larger audience.  

The decision of retaining own copyright for MS-DOS in the case of IBM partnership has really called for the calibre. There have been instances when I suffer from the lack of such decision making skills. Indecisiveness is something which may play as an impediment for the entrepreneurs in case they are unsure of any circumstances and have to take a decision. I would like to nurture such skill within me taking reference from Gates’ personal as well as professional life.

There have been interviews and web publications on Bill Gates which talks about his problem solving skills. It has been observed that he has always been inquisitive about any codes and new development with respect to product offering and attempted to intervene with his own idea and thinking. I am also very much like him terms of curiosity towards the innovation.

From the personal and professional life of Bill Gates, I have got the motivation of becoming an entrepreneur. I have noted that post Microsoft period, he has been engaged with a number of philanthropic activities which has gained my respect for him. However, since his anti-competitive attitude has been questioned, I also do not subscribe to his such approach I feel that every market player should get an equal opportunity to compete. To put it differently, I do not want to bury the wounded. I would rather try to share the best practices and collaborate with the vendors and stakeholders to get my business going and attempt to create an organisational culture that primarily world motivate the staff to innovate and think out of the box. 

As mentioned previously, Bill Gates' entrepreneurial activities and skills have put the brand of Microsoft in the top most position in the PC market across the globe. The implications may be enumerated with more details herein.

Entrepreneurial Activities and Skills of the Entrepreneur

From a business perspective, Microsoft may be considered to be at its top form during his stay with the company. Windows has surely been a revolution in the computer technology industry (Horton, 2014). The effect that Bill Gates has brought in the overall operational aspects of the company has truly been enriching in terms of innovation as well as development. Though there have been allegations that Bill Gates has not done anything new, he has only developed the existing offering of Microsoft; however, the fact that the personal computer has attained its worldwide customer base with solid market brand value and reputation honestly establishes the fact Bill Gates has driven the growth machine of the firm.

Microsoft has contributed significantly not only towards the domestic US economy but also across the world in various countries. A report in the year 2010 suggests that the company contributed almost $9.16 billion to the Washington State in the year 2008 for the purpose of attempting to revive the economy. Besides, the company had almost 267,611 employees which may be roughly calculated to be almost 8.4 per cent of the total employment in the given State ("Microsoft Has ‘Ripple’ Effect on Washington State Economy", 2018). The management has the thrive that all the US citizens should get the best benefit of digital economy. In this context, it may be noted that Microsoft and LinkedIn both have partnered with the Markle Foundation in order to prepare and develop a model called Skillful that involves the key players across the labour market so that more number of American people can derive the benefit from the digital economy (Rampton, 2018).

The social work of Bill Gates has made him a stalwart in the global entrepreneurship framework which priorities society and environment along with the profit motive. His philanthropic activities have been significantly contributing towards the society as a whole. Bill Gates wrote few books the proceeds of which have been donated towards the support of the use of technology in education and skills development sector ("Bill Gates - Stories", 2018).

Based on the reading, I have gathered the information on Bill Gates’ leadership as well as entrepreneurship skills and styles. Though Bill Gates may be undoubtedly considered to be world’s one of the top most business leader in our recent times, I personally want to analyse Microsoft’s subsequent CEO Satya Nadella. This is because of the reason that Satya Nadella’s leadership style has been unquestionable in terms of his attempt to transform the business process and thinking (Salem, 2018). His transformational leadership style has been a great motivator not only for the subordinates, colleagues and staffs or other stakeholders of the business but also for the student of busies studies like us. Organisational culture has an important connotation in the entrepreneurship framework and the organisational performance is largely driven by the business culture and value systems maintained and nourished by the leaders (Hobson, 2010). I believe that Satya Nadella has been able to transform the post Bill Gates era in the Microsoft from the task oriented approach to relationship based approach which is a remarkable achievement in its own. I will try to inculcate the transformation leadership traits within me in my subsequent life so that my professional career becomes smooth in terms of human dealings as well as a support for value-creating activities. 

Conclusion

Based on the discussion and analysis perfo4med in the preceding sections of the report, it may be concluded that the leadership style plays an important role in successful entrepreneurship ventures. Entrepreneurs conceptualise not only the mission and vision for the firm but also make a conscious effort to achieve the corporate goal in most effective and time and resource efficient manner. The report shows that Bill Gates has been phenomenally contributing to Microsoft's sustainable growth (Christopher, 1995). There have been instances where his entrepreneurship style and approach has been questioned time and again; however, the contribution and achievement he has made for the firm has been significant in terms of disruptive innovation in the computer technology market as well as his revolutionary measures in standing out in the industry as being sole marketer of Windows which is a common place word in today’s computer savvy world (Horton, 2014). It may be concluded that an efficiently chalked out leadership strategy supported by the entrepreneurship skills will substantially add value towards the attainment of corporate goals and objectives in long-term and create value for the society by way of proceeding towards a sustainability framework. 

References:

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Malakoff, D. (2016). What’s the face of U.S. innovation? Don’t think Bill Gates. Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aaf4146

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Rampton, J. (2018). How Bill Gates Became a Leadership Legend. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/250607

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University of Waterloo. (2018). Bill Gates Speech Transcript - University of Waterloo. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20080406130809/https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/billg/speeches/2005/10-13Waterloo.aspx