Bill Gates: An Entrepreneurial Genius And Philanthropist, Essay.

Entrepreneurship and its Aspects

Discuss about the Re Storying And Visualizing Change Entrepreneurial.

The business world is full of unexploited opportunities. The exploitation of these opportunities requires individual with special attributes. An entrepreneur is someone who identifies an existing gap in the market, gathers all the necessary resources and starts a business venture to fill the existing gap while assuming all the risks associated with the venture. The entrepreneur also enjoys the benefits associated with the venture. Entrepreneurs are innovators who use their original ideas to create goods or services for commercial purposes. Entrepreneurs play significant roles in the market economy. Their main roles include risking their capital in a new venture to create a service and availing their product or service into the market for purposes of consumption. The common aspects of entrepreneurship include taking risks, innovation of products or service and financial success from a successful venture. Entrepreneurs require special attributes and skills. Apart from the benefits of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs are also faced with the numerous challenges in their entrepreneurial Journey. This report will focus on entrepreneurship aspects with a special focus on Bill Gates the brain behind Microsoft Corporation, a Global Technology Company

Bill Gates has been referred to as the World’s greatest entrepreneur. However, his success did not come naturally but as a result of several attributes that he possesses.

A significant amount of risk is involved in an entrepreneurial venture. This aspect of Entrepreneurship requires an entrepreneur to have special attributes such ability to tolerate high levels of risk. Research has put the rate of failure for entrepreneurial ventures at 96 %. (Thompson, 2008). This signifies the fact that an entrepreneur such as Bill Gates did not have a smooth ride to becoming a leading entrepreneur in the world. Prior to the establishment of Microsoft Corporation Bill Gates was a university student at Harvard University. Because of his risk talking attribute Gates dropped out of school to into the unknown world establish a startup venture which he named Microsoft Corporation. Despite the high risks and uncertainty involved in the Venture he still went ahead to create an organization that is currently rated among the richest global corporations (Boje & Smith, 2010).

Gates had exemplary belief in his and the capabilities of his pioneer Microsoft team. Although he had failed in some subjects while studying at Harvard University he did not perceive of himself as a failure but trusted in his abilities. From the onset, he had a vision of ensuring that every home had a computer. Although this concept had never been thought of before, he had faith that his abilities would transform his vision into a reality (Dixon, Horton & Weir,2011).  He was able to drop out of the university comfortably and invest millions in a small company because he believed in his capabilities

The Success Story of Bill Gates

Despite being in one of the best international universities and the fact that he was pursuing a prestigious Law degree, Gates found himself spending most of his time in the computer laboratory. He knew from the onset that his passion was not in the law degree that he was pursuing. Gates had developed a passion for computers from his younger days while he was a student at Lake Side School. At Lake Side School, he also spent a considerable amount of time on computers. The determination to pursue his passion drove him into abandoning his pre-law degree at the University and founding Microsoft Corporation (Wadhwa, Holly, Aggarwal & Salkever, 2009).

Entrepreneurs have special attributes in that they can see ahead of time and predict the future needs of the consumers based on the current patterns. Both Gates and his Microsoft Co-Founder were able to recognize the partner of shifting towards computers in the American society. Because of the much time, he spent on computers Gates realized that with this new pattern Computer would require software for them to run successfully. He foresaw a situation where every home in the United States would require a computer in the near future, which meant that there would be a high demand for computer software .He dropped out of Harvard in 1975 to take advantage of this pattern by establishing a software company named Microsoft (Gates & Lowe, 2008).

One common aspect of the most successful entrepreneurs is being result oriented. The result oriented personality of Gates has led him to review and rewrites codes created by other professionals in the company before they are released into the market. The ability of Microsoft Corporation to produce quality software over the years has been because of his result-oriented approach (Dej, 2007).

For an entrepreneur to be successful he must know how to prioritize. Some of the aspects that determine the success or failure of entrepreneurs is their ability to manage time prioritize and maintain good habits (Lussier, 2008). Prioritization is one of the traits possessed by Bill Gates. He manages his time perfectly well and does not miss important commitments. He understands perfectly well that he cannot be part of everything at the same time and therefore knows when to say no. In short, he knows how to prioritize what he engages and does not do anything just for the sake.

Gates quit his job as the CEO of Microsoft in order to concentrate on philanthropic activities. Through his Foundation Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation formed in the year 2000, Gates has done great things that have had a positive impact on individuals and organizations (Lesinski, 2009). His most challenging philanthropic endeavor has been trying to improve the education system of the United States (Lesinski, 2009).  Some of the efforts that have been supported by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation include vaccines and immunization, Scholarship Programs, library programs, school and teacher’s empowerment programs, polio eradication, reduction of maternal mortality, support for the UNICEF programs among others. His involvement in Philanthropy won him an honorary recognition from Queen Elizabeth.

Special Attributes and Skills of Entrepreneurs

Bill Gates is a proactive Leader who believes in the opinion and the participation of the employees in decision making. While working as the CEO of Microsoft Corporation. He often held consultative meetings with his subordinates where they discussed a wide range of issues concerning the Company. He was also valued feedback from his employees and was prompt in replying to queries raised (Wood, 2012).

Gates believes that through Reading he is able to learn new things and challenge his level of understanding. He spends a considerable amount of money on library programs. This is partly because, since his childhood, he has been an avid reader. He believes reading can enable him to explore new knowledge domains that can improve his understanding of the world (Yoffie   & Cusumano, 2015).

Bill Gates is a Co-Founder of Microsoft Corporation, a global technology company based in Washington (Demuth  & Hammond, 2013).  The Company is involved in the development, manufacturing and selling consumer electronics, services, personal computers and computer software. The main services offered by Microsoft Include One Note, Microsoft Movies and TV, Outlook .com, Skype, One Drive and Bing. It also offers windows programs and computer applications such as word, outlook, excel and power point (Barton-Wood, 2012).

The entrepreneurial process is a process that is followed by all entrepreneurs who aim at being more successful in their ventures. The process is divided into several steps

Discovery is usually the first step in the entrepreneurship journey. Identification of an opportunity begins with an idea in the mind of an entrepreneur. Upon identification of an opportunity, the entrepreneur then embarks on the evaluation of the opportunity. He or she can do this with the help of other persons. Evaluation comes after the entrepreneur has settled on a particular opportunity (Dearlove, 2010). An entrepreneur can carry out evaluation through self-questioning. By asking himself questions, the entrepreneur gets an insight into the viability of the venture, associated risks and competitive advantage of the venture. Through the process, he also analyses how his hobbies and skills match with the demand of the new venture

After the opportunity has been identified and evaluated, an entrepreneur should then create a detailed business plan. A business plan is the main determinant of the success of an entrepreneurial venture. A business plan should include the vision and mission of the new venture, services, and products, capital requirements, Objectives, and goals. It is important that an entrepreneur finds time to create a business plan for their new Venture as this can be used in monitoring the progress of the organization (Pinckney-Edwards, 2008).

Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs

An entrepreneurial venture cannot succeed without bringing on board the right partners and manpower. In the third steps, an entrepreneur identifies sources of funding for their new venture as well as human resources to carry out the activities involved in the venture. In most cases, the providers of funding come in as investors (Brooks, 2015).

After funding sources have been identified and the required human resources hired, the entrepreneur launches the business into full operation in order to achieve the goals set in the business plan. This fourth stage commences with on the appropriate management structure for the new venture to facilitate an easy resolution of problems when they come up in the course of operation ( Koontz & Weihrich, 2010).

As identified earlier the rate of failure for new startups has been estimated at 96%. This means that the possibility of an entrepreneurial venture failing is higher than its possibility of succeeding. This is the final stage in the entrepreneurial process. After everything has been done the venture may either succeed or fail. Factors such as venturing into a business without real customers can be a reason for failure. Failure can also be as a result of doing something that an entrepreneur is not passionate about. Failure should be used as a lesson for the next venture (Storr, Balch & Grube, 2015).

Bill Gates faced a couple of challenges in his entrepreneurial Journey. The most significant challenge was the failure of Traf-O-Data, which preceded Microsoft Corporation. The company became unsuccessful due to lack of customers and the fact that they had adopted the wrong business model. The idea of paying for software was inexistent at the time Microsoft was founded. Trying to change this model by creating value in software was not an easy task.

Conclusion

In conclusion, entrepreneurship requires possession of certain attributes and traits. For Bill Gates, his journey in becoming the best entrepreneur globally has been facilitated by special attributes that he possesses. His most notable attributes are high tolerance to risk, belief in his abilities and those of his team, ability to recognize current patterns in technology and the determination to pursue his passion. Being result oriented, adoption of a participative style of leadership, being an active reader and a philanthropist are some of his personality and personal approach aspects. The entrepreneurial venture created by Bill Gates offers a wide range of products including computers, computer programs, and applications. The entrepreneurial process is five main stages of identification of an opportunity, developing a business plan for the opportunity, resourcing, management of the venture and success or failure.

References

Barton-Wood, S. (2012). Bill Gates, Computer Legend. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn.

Boje, D., & Smith, R. (2010). Re?storying and visualizing the changing entrepreneurial identities of Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Culture and Organization, 16(4), 307-331

Brooks, J. (2015). Business Adventures - twelve classic tales from the world of wall street. Hodder & Stoughton.

Demuth, P., & Hammond, T. (2013). Who is Bill Gates?. New York : Grosset & Dunlap,

Dearlove, D. (2010). The unauthorized guide to doing business the Bill Gates way: 10 secrets of the world's richest business leader. Chichester, U.K: Capstone Pub.

Dej, D. (2008). Personality and competences of entrepreneur. Psychology of Enterpreneurship.

Dixon, J., Horton, S., & Weir, P. (2011). Relative age effects: Implications for leadership development. The International Journal of Sport and Society, 2(2).

Gates, B., & Lowe, J. (2008). Bill Gates speaks: Insight from the world's greatest entrepreneur. New York: John Wiley.

Koontz, H., & Weihrich, H. (2010). Essentials of management. New Delhi [u.a.: McGraw-Hill.

Lesinski, J. M. (2009). Bill Gates: Entrepreneur and philanthropist. Minneapolis, MN : Twenty-First Century Books

Lussier, R. N. (2008). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.

Pinckney-Edwards, J. M. (2008). Leadership for the nonprofit sector. Place of publication not identified: Lulu.com.

Storr, V. H., Haeffele-Balch, S., & Grube, L. E. (2015). Introduction. In Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster (pp. 1-9). Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Thompson, J. L. (2008). Social enterprise and social entrepreneurship: where have we reached? A summary of issues and discussion points. Social Enterprise Journal, 4(2), 149-161.

Wadhwa, V., Holly, K., Aggarwal, R., & Salkever, A. (2009). Anatomy of an entrepreneur: Family background and motivation.

Yoffie, D. B., & Cusumano, M. A. (2015). Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs. Harper Business.