INTRODUCTION
This essay aims to examine the world and nature of entrepreneurship in a limited context with the objective to evaluate and assess an interviewee, which is an entrepreneur, if one falls into the context of entrepreneurship. Not all who have businesses can be readily considered an entrepreneur for entrepreneurship have the certain characteristics, attitudes, skill, and so on before one can be considered a true entrepreneur.
The definition of entrepreneurs is broad; some studies have narrowed the definition of entrepreneur into three dimensions, entrepreneur’s attitudes, abilities and motive. The attitude dimension pertains to the way how entrepreneurs interact with customers to learn customer’s needs since customers are valuable for the business. But the most important attitude as to what an entrepreneur should have is to be a moderate risk taker. Risk taking is part in any business aspect (Bornstein, 2003), if an entrepreneur is coward to be a risk taker of the fear of losing a lot, then the entrepreneur is not likely to excel in the business aspect because it causes stagnation in terms of the business opportunity for growth. Meanwhile, on the abilities dimension, According to Mariotti (2000), entrepreneurs can think both intuitively and rationally. Intuitiveness is a skill useful for creative task. The need for an entrepreneur to be creative is apparent because as an entrepreneur, to make the business looks interesting and exciting, will gratify the curiosity of the people for the simple reason that people always like to venture for things that are interesting and new. On the other hand, the motive dimensions. Entrepreneurs are not to be called entrepreneurs if they do not have the urge for achievement. The three entrepreneur’s dimension as what have been studied by researchers, is basically pertains to the aspect of entrepreneurs that is intangible and the extra factors that makes an entrepreneur. The mentioned entrepreneur’s dimensions are the intangibles characteristics of being an entrepreneur that is not readily learned but is of intrinsic nature. Although, these dimensions can be developed it still does not imply that one can really get the essence of it.
Further, entrepreneurs are being characterized as one who identifies and capitalize on opportunities that place emphasis on innovation, profitable venture, effectiveness and the non-programmed or vague situations. Simply stated, entrepreneurs often gets involved in decision making which involved in the identification, design, selection and implementation as the phases that constitutes the decision process an entrepreneur must partake. Identification when entrepreneur is able to pinpoint the perceived need to fill an unfilled need. An entrepreneur having have identified the gap, could find means and appropriate solutions to eliminate the discrepancy that exist. This ability to seek solutions to a discrepancy is the coverage of the design phase. In the selection process, it connotes entrepreneurs taking actions that evoke the making of choice as to what course of action to make. The final phase of decision process, which is the implementation, implies the bringing in of the whole package in the decision process and its actual application whether or not it will be effective or it still needs improvement. The decision making ability of an entrepreneur is very crucial as it serves as a test for the entrepreneur and is likely to be a predictor of the future success of an entrepreneur in general. One wrong decision may cost a lot, thus, the decision making ability of an entrepreneur says something as to how capable an entrepreneur is (Dees, 2001).
PART A: Bill Gates: The Entrepreneur
A world leader, he is the owner of Microsoft, Bill Gates. Microsoft has dominated the software industry globally, This made him one of the richest man in the world. He said, “The key point is that you’ve got to enjoy what you do every day. For me, that’s working with very smart people and its working on new problems.” (Wallace, 1993)
Born on October 28, 1955, there is no doubt that Gates has already achieved everything there is as an entrepreneur. He risked capital on business ventures questionable at the time and succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. He may not plan to gamble on an inventive idea, but he did not want his leadership to be characterized by the same entrepreneurial spirit and energy as these corporate heroes. Bill Gates bore the pain of his errors only once. He recognized that poor judgment is something to learn from, not suffer from (Lowe, 2001).
He didn’t have the time to waste worrying about yesterday. He never characterized a mistake as a statement about itself, but as a statement about its performance in a particular situation under a particular set of circumstances. He vowed next time to change his performance, the situation, or the circumstances (Manes, 2003). Microsoft is still governed by rules that focus on fundamental core beliefs. People are more important than the plan; make them feel important, praise them, reward and respect them, and instill a sense of pride and pleasure to help them to do their best.
Gates demonstrates a talent for being able to empathically understand and value the positive nature of individuals. Certainly, leaders in this category express great strength in Leadership, Power, Control and situational control. LPC and situational control views that the personality of a leader is very important in a company, because this reflects the primary goals of the leadership situation; this applies to Gates. His subordinates are often motivated to do more than originally expect because of their feelings of trust, admiration, loyalty, and respect for him. This motivation occurs because Bill Gates assists his subordinates in becoming more aware of the importance of the task and the value of the outcomes, under conditions when he provides an environment that will inspire and motivate them to overcome obstacles; it helps them think beyond their own self-interest to the needs of the work group and the organization (Edstrom, 1999).
From this concept of leading, including making sense of the situation and using team-motivating behaviors, the most enduring and resilient indicators as to whether or not an individual is a good leader is the extent which he or she is perceived as such by the team members. Although this benign perception doesn’t in itself assure success, reaching mutual goals without it is very unlikely.
With these views of leadership effectiveness and the various examples of leader behaviors, the objective is to dramatize something universal rather than to suggest that LPC and situational control of Leadership is reserved for the leadership gods. However, on a personal level for the well-known leaders have strengths across the board that will serve well in every leadership contingency.
PART B
A. ‘Business Domain’ – the products, services and markets in which the business operates.
Microsoft had gained a reputation as one of the world’s highly chosen computer systems companies and a superior leading supplier of computer products and services that customers worldwide needed to build their information-technology and Internet infrastructures. Microsoft’s climb to the top position in the market was the result of a determined effort on delivering the excellent client experiences. Direct selling, from manufacturer to consumer, was a key component of its strategy.
Microsoft recognized ahead of time the need for speed, or velocity, quickening the pace at every step of business. The company learned that the more workers handled, or touched, the product along the assembly process, the longer the process took and the greater the probability of quality concerns. Microsoft began to track and systematically scale down the number of “touches” along the line, even driving it to zero. The company took orders from customers and accomplished them by buying and assembling the needed components. Customers got exactly the configuration they desired, and Microsoft foreshortened its need for plants, equipment, and research and development department. As a result, Microsoft turned a product business into a service industry.
B. Which target customers has the entrepreneur selected and why?
Microsoft was fortunate to have a leader like Bill Gates who was a visionary and a dynamic catalyst. Bill Gates says his most important leadership responsibility is looking for “value shifts” in his company’s customer base. To identify the shifting needs of customers, he has to stay in close contact with them. To build customer intimacy and loyalty, Microsoft leverages its customers’ knowledge of their own unmet needs Microsoft’s brand image was and is shaped by customer feedback.
Microsoft‘s product life cycle is very good and being the best among and top company selling PCs. It can be said that Microsoft is in maturation stage as they are dominating in the computer world. The internal business environment of Microsoft is very good and has achieved the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System, as the organization implemented goals where by the goal is to improve internal environment performance being used to share successes throughout the company. Microsoft’s direct customer business model is the key to the company’s dramatic growth and success and has focused on selling directly to customers. This helps eliminate the middleman and offers customers more powerful configured systems than most competitors. The direct model enables Microsoft to develop a thorough understanding of customer expectations which strengthens customer relationships and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty.
C. Any ‘unique selling point (USP)’ – i.e perceived added value to the customer
The company was established on a fundamental concept: that Microsoft could be able to comprehend the consumer needs and wants more effectively through the provision of the most efficient computing solutions to sustain those needs. This can be accomplished through selling computer systems directly to clients. This direct business model reduced retailers, who gave burdensome wasting of time and excessive expenses, and also enabled Microsoft to establish every system to order, giving clients modernized, effective systems at affordable prices. Microsoft invented the latest needed innovations faster than other companies with slow, erratic distribution mediums, turning over inventory an average of every four days. In less than two decades, Microsoft became the number-one retailer of personal computers and computer software, outselling IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq.
Microsoft’s direct-to-customer business model is the key to the company’s dramatic growth and success and has focused on selling directly to customers. This helps eliminate the middleman and offers customers more powerful configured systems than most competitors. The direct model enables Microsoft to develop a thorough understanding of customer expectations which strengthens customer relationships and increases customer satisfaction and loyalty. One of the characteristics that distinguish Microsoft from its other competitors is that Microsoft provides the mode to custom the computers of the customers’ choice and taste and delivers the system to the customer as it is the most crucial and critical success factor behind Microsoft. Therefore, Microsoft is aware of the benefits they wish to realize, how it will be realized and ensures only investments of appropriate amounts of resources to obtain benefits. Microsoft relies on reputation in the US market of award-winning service and a high-quality product. Customer satisfaction and consumer awareness surveys are conducted quarterly to ensure the image that Microsoft creates for itself within a culture has not existed before there is a positive one. Market timing and speed are critical to many industries, such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and some consumer goods.
D. Sources of competitive advantage
Part of Microsoft’s strength in its company’s SWOT analysis is its unique direct to customer model. The creation of the model was the major reconfiguration of the traditional personal computer value chain, which computer manufacturers and Microsoft competitor are using. By employing the model, the company outsourced all components but it still performed the assembly. In the process this eliminated retailers and directly shipped the computers from its factories to end customers. This action leads Microsoft into Cost leadership among the players in the industry. By eliminating the retailers, consumers were buying consumers from Microsoft with out the extra payment for retailers’ margin. This in turn leads to cheaper computers from Microsoft compared to its competitors.
By reconfiguring the traditional “build-to stock” value chain model of computer manufacturers, Microsoft computers defined its biggest core competency and the activity in which it can pursue its competitive advantage. First Microsoft gained cost advantage from its competitors by understanding cost drivers (retailers) in its production and squeezing them out. The implementation of the direct to consumer model solved the problem of expensive computer born out of the margins asked by the middlemen. Microsoft computers also realized the differentiation advantage by focusing on their efficient model as its core competency which resulted to Microsoft outperforming its competitors.
Another part of Microsoft’s strength in its SWOT analysis is its better access to technology compared to its competitors. Microsoft introduces the latest relevant technology much more quickly than companies with slow-moving indirect distribution channels. Nowadays Microsoft’s activities include the transfer of even larger quantities of product sales, service and support to the Internet; utilizing the Internet to enhance the effectiveness of Microsoft’s purchasing, production and distribution process and further widening a vast range of value-added services.
E. Use of creativity and innovation in any aspect of the business
As the Internet is becoming more integrated into daily life, businesses rely on the Internet for commerce and real-time information exchange; customers go online to shop, bank and conduct personal correspondence. Because of this Microsoft began to take customized orders for hardware and software over the phone or via the Internet. And it designed an integrated supply chain linking Microsoft’s suppliers very closely to its assembly factories and order-intake system. With the industry’s most efficient procurement, manufacturing and distribution process, Microsoft offers its customers powerful, richly configured systems at competitive prices. Every Microsoft system is built to order. Customers are getting exactly what they want. Microsoft uses knowledge gained from direct customer contact before and after the sale to provide award-winning reliability and tailored customer service. The chief financial objective that steered managerial evaluation at Microsoft was return on invested capital (ROIC). Microsoft’s scorecard included both financial measures (ROIC, average selling price, component purchasing costs, selling and administration costs, and margins) and non financial measures (component inventory, finished goods inventory, accounts receivable days, accounts payable days, cash-conversion cycle, stock outs, and accuracy of forecast demand). The scorecard was returned on a real-time basis, and related performance measures were broken down by customer segment, product category, and country.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment