"CHARACTERISTICS OF BILL GATES
INTELLIGENT
He believes that if you are intelligent and know how to apply your intelligence, you can achieve anything. From childhood Bill was ambitious, intelligent and competitive. These qualities helped him to attain top position in the profession he chose.
VISIONARY
Microsoft's vision is "A computer on every desk and Microsoft software on every computer he will continue to stomp out the competition until he dies. Every business and household must have a computer and must run Microsoft softwareâ€, was the basic guiding vision of Bill Gates.
PASSION
When as a student at the Harvard University, every single student would have wanted to be part of the great institute and graduate to be successful,Bill Gates decided to stop studying and pursue his dream of writing software’s for every computer in the world. He was just passionate about software, coding and technology that incidentally also made him the richest man in the world
INNOVATION
Gates and Allen were assisted by a staff of six, which included four programmers. In late 1977, Gates released a version of FORTRAN
language for microcomputers. In 1978, Gates and Allen introduced aversion of COBOL. Around this time, Microsoft emerged as the market leader in microcomputer languages with sales exceeding $1 million. In1979, Microsoft developed a new version of BASIC... He had an early interest in software and began programming computers at the age of thirteen. .
RISK BEARER
In his junior year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to devote his energiesfull-time to Microsoft, a company he had started in 1975 with his boyhood friend Paul Allen development of new products.
CONTINUOUS LEARNER
“Microsoft is not about greed. It’s about Innovation and Fairness.†– Bill Gates†Never stop learning was the Mantra of Bill Gates which he follow till date. This empowers him to be a Great Leader of our times. He will always be remembers as an Icon and even without his presence in Microsoft he would still be regarded as a great inventor and a real genius in every regard of Business, Technology and Entrepreneurship.
ACCEPTING THE CRITICISMS
Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.There will be people who would want to make fun of your efforts, pull you down and so on. The stronger you stand the bolder you get the faster these negatives wither.When IBM pulled out of the contract for the operating system to be bundled with the IBM Clone PCs, Bill Gates stayed on and started focusing on the creating Windows amidst lots of hiccups that will hamper the company.
OTHER KEY LESSONS-BILL GATES
“If you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.†– Bill Gates. This is one never mentioned secret of success. Action is the key word.When logic never drives us its emotions. We must have take action. Bill
Gates as a small young boy never had anything to lose which he kept telling his good friend Paul Allen. When he had several odds again him such as the American Law and several cases against him, he still consistently took action by developing more software which the people wanted. This made him a super star overnight.“Whether it’s Google or Apple or free software, we’ve got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes†– Bill Gates Bill Gates took up the responsibility of being the Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates was nurturing Microsoft by building a broad range of products. This was not just capitalizing on the knowledge but provide the best by understanding the need of the people.
Bill Gates' Secrets of Success
Hard work: Bill Gates is a hard worker since the beginning of his life. In his college days, he used to work all night long on his computer. When Microsoft was started, Bill Gates used to sleep only for 6 hours in a day without skipping a single day of office. For Bill Gates, hard work is one of the main keys of success.
Entrepreneurship
:Entrepreneurship is an integral part and is present in Bill Gates from the beginning. He knows how to manage his work, he always takes a keen interest in learning, he learns from his own mistakes, he is a creative person and, most of all, and he is focused towards his goals.
Confidence
Bill Gates has always been a highly confident person. He was always confident about his dream of becoming successful.Managerial Skills: The great managerial skills of Bill Gates helped Microsoft to be a successful company. He efficiently managed all theare as of the company which required his focus.A Great
Convincer:
Bill Gates is gifted with great convincing skills. He has made lots of successful deals in his career. The deal with IBM was one of them. He Took a Long-Term Approach
:“In the decade ahead I can predict that we will provide over twice the productivity improvement that we provided in the ‘90s,†said Gates. This bold statement captures Gates’ philosophy behind his entire business. Never one to chase after instant success or an immediate pay-off, Gates began coding software with a view to the next fifty years. He has constantly tried to keep his company at the forefront of new technological developments by funding new research initiatives. Gates’ long-term approach helped ensure Microsoft’s remarkable staying power.
He Learned From Failure
In hindsight, Gates’ early failures seem so miniscule that they are almost laughable. But, as a struggling entrepreneur, he went through the same frustration, confusion and despair that others in his situation also face.What distinguishes Gates from the rest was his ability to rebound from his mistakes and take whatever lessons he could from them. He then became even more resolute and determined to see his vision realize.
He Never Stopped Asking Questions
:“I believe that through our natural inventiveness, creativity and willingness to solve tough problems, we’re going to make some amazing achievements,†said Gates speaking to the future possibilities for medicine, education and technology. When Gates faced a dilemma, he didn’t stop and give up. He asked questions about what could be done to solve the problem. From his business activities to his philanthropicefforts, Gates’ curiosity and desire to constantly be learning has been one of the key factors behind his success.“If I'd had some set idea of a finish line, don't you think I would have crossed it years ago?†asks Gates. Showing no signs of slowing down,Gates continues to fuel his business, inspire his workers and make his contribution to the global village.“At Microsoft, there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top,†says Gates. “I’m afraid that’s not quite right.â€While Gates has been the famous face of Microsoft for over thirty years,it took the help of numerous other trusted individuals to help realize the company’s success.When Allen and Gates first met as students at Lakeside, they instantly formed a strong bond over their passion for computers. And, it was a bond that would last for the rest of their lives. Knowing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, interests and passions and having a strong sense of trust enabled these two entrepreneurs to form one of the most successful working relationships of the 20th century.Gates, recognizing the importance of a solid and trustworthy team, also brought on two former high school friends, Ric Weiland and MarcMcDonald, to be part of the core Microsoft group. Gates knew that if Microsoft was going to get its feet off the ground, it was going to take the hard work and sweat that he trusted few others to put in. From day one,
he understood the importance of having a small team that could join together each person’s enthusiasm around a common goal.When Gates moved the operation to Seattle in 1979, he had a staff of 16 people. As Microsoft grew, so too did the number of employees that the company required. Gates continued to bring in trusted friends of his whose characters he understood and who he knew he could trust,including his friend from college, Steve Ballmer, who was thereafter in charge of human resources. “Steve and I were kind of driving the business and Paul and I were driving the technology,†recalls Gates. “Our success has really been based on partnerships from the very beginning.â€The move to Seattle proved to be a boon for Microsoft in that it enabled the company to have a much wider range of skilled candidates to choose from. “In the world of software a lot of the brilliant ideas of Microsoft come from a broad set of great people we've been able to hire,†says Gates. In one particularly key move, Ballmer hired Charles Simonyi, one of the original founders of the Xerox Palo Alto research lab, whose knowledge about graphical interfaces made a significant contribution to Microsoft’s later graphical applications. As their number of staff began increasing into the thousands, the company typically focused on hiring people right out of school. “Most of our developers, we decided that we wanted them to come with clear minds, not polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that we liked to develop software, and to put the kind of energy into it that we thought was key,†recalls Gates.Microsoft continues to seek out only the best in order to help it stay ahead of its increasingly fierce competition. “They key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people,†says Gates. “There is no way of getting around, that in terms of IQ, you’ve got to be very elitist in picking people who deserve to write software. Ninety-five percent of the people shouldn’t write complex software.†By hiring the best and the brightest and carrying out work in small teams that stimulate free and creative thinking, Microsoft has managed to retain its competitive edge for over three decades.
“Though he never set out to be a millionaire, Gates not only became the world’s first cent billionaire in 1999, but also one of the world’s most respected entrepreneurs for having revolutionized the world of computers and setting new industry standards. “I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid,†recalls Gates.â€
“Power is the engine that drives the ability to influence . To understand leadership effectiveness therefore , an analysis of the complex web of power relationships and influence processes in organizations is essential. We also need to examine the sources of power and the relationship of different power sources to leadership effectiveness.†by Dr. SWATI AGARWAL and Dhananjay Kumar
