assignment on entrepreneurship development( stories of a successful entrepreneur a study on bill...
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Z.H.SIKDER UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGYModhupur, Bhedorgonj, Shariatpur
An Assignment on-“Stories of a Successful Entrepreneur- A study on Bill Gates”
Prepared For:Md. Zakir Hossain
Lecturer
Department of Business Administration
Z.H. Sikder University of Science and Technology
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An AssignmentOn
“Stories of a Successful Entrepreneur- A study on Bill Gates”
Submitted to:
Md. Zakir Hossain
Lecturer
Department of Business Administration
Z.H. Sikder University of Science and Techonolgy
Submitted by:
The Edutainers
Program: BBA, Batch: 1st
Section: A
Business Administration
Z.H. Sikder University of Science and Techonolgy
Date of Submission: 30 November, 2013
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Group Name: THE EDUTAINERS
Group Details
Sl
no.
Name ID Email
1. Sarif Ahamed Sawon 120216034 [email protected]
2. Sayeda Israt Zahan 120216132 [email protected]
3. Jannatul Ferdows 120216020 [email protected]
4. Mijanur Rahman 120216002
5. Md. Sourav Hossain 120216037 [email protected]
6. Helena Akter 120216124
7. Sabbir Ahamed 120216003
8. Rita Akter 120216006
9. Azaaz Munshi 120216086 [email protected]
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Letter of Transmittal
November 30, 2013
Md. Zakir Hossain
Lecturer
Department of Business Administration
Z.H. Sikder University of Science and Technology
Subject: Submission of An Assignment focused on “Stories of a Successful Entrepreneur
-A study on Bill Gates”
Dear Sir,
Here is our study assignment that you assigned us; to submit as a partial requirement you’re
your course namely ‘Entrepreneurship Development.’ While preparing this assignment
we have gone through internet, newspaper, journals & different study assignment that are
available in the secondary sources. Actually this study is very much relevant with our
course and we have learnt a lot about practical field of this course, & hope that will be very
much beneficial for our Entrepreneurship Development decision making. We have put our
best effort yet it is very likely that the assignment may have some mistake and that are
unintentional. I hope that the assignment will meet your expectation.
We shall be glad to answer any kind of question about any matter relating to this assignment
and shall be pleased to provide further clarification if necessary.
Yours Faithfully,
The Edutainers
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Acknowledgement
First, it is the Almighty ALLAH who gives us the sense to understand what is right and
wrong. We have to prepare with proper acknowledge and information which we got from
various sources of references.
At this point, we would like to acknowledge some of the people who have made a major
contribution to prepare the assignment. First of all, Lecturer Md. Zakir Hossain, study
assignment instructor, who has given us the instructions to prepare the assignment correctly.
We highly grateful to some individual who conducted the study on the same topic help us a
lot and make us easy in preparing this assignment.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This assignment is the study on a successful entrepreneur. We have chosen Bill Gates- an
American Entrepreneur. Actually he is an Icon for all the new Entrepreneur of the world. At
first we worked on his Biography and Life style. We surprise to see that he was an amazing
student in his educational life. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and enrolled at
Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. We also find that he dropped out his university study
so that he can give fulltime concentration on building Microsoft Corporation. After analysing
Characteristics we find that he is an intelligent person, He has a clear vision for his company,
he has passion for development of software and others operating system. He find some
innovative idea to gradually develop Microsoft. From his biography we also find that he is a
risk bearer in several times. When IBM cancelled contract with Microsoft he never felt
disappointment. He is a also continues Lerner.
We also find that Microsoft Corporation is a reputed Brand in Market. On the other hand,
Microsoft has some problems such as Security flow. It operating system is also easy to use in
comparison Apple apps etc.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SL. No. Particulars Page No.
Preliminary pages:
Letter of Transmittal 04
Acknowledgement 05
Executive Summary 05
01 Chapter 01: Introduction
1.1 Introduction 07
1.2 Title of the report 07
1.3 Objectives of the study 08
1.4 Methodology of the Study 08
1.5 Limitation of the study 08
02 Biography Of Bill Gates 10-11
03 Career Of Bill Gates 12-13
04 Facts about Bill Gates 13
05 Achievements 14
06 Characteristics Of Bill Gates 15-17
07 Bill Gates' Secrets of Success 17-21
08 Present Condition of Business: 21-26
09 Problems and solutions of Microsoft 26-27
10 SWOT analysis of Microsoft 28-32
11 Conclusion 33
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1.1 Introduction:
William (Bill) H. Gates III is co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft
Corporation, the world's leading provider of software for personal computers.
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955. He and his two sisters grew up in Seattle. Their
father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Mary Gates, their late mother, was a
schoolteacher, University of Washington regent and chairwoman of United Way
International.
Gates attended public elementary school before moving on to the private Lakeside School in
North Seattle. It was at Lakeside that Gates began his career in personal computer software,
programming computers at age 13.
In 1973, Gates entered Harvard University as a freshman, where he lived down the hall from
Steve Ballmer, who is now Microsoft's president. While at Harvard, Gates developed a
version of the programming language BASIC for the first microcomputer - the MITS Altair.
BASIC was first developed by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz at Dartmouth College in the
mid-1960s. In his junior year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to devote his energies full-time
to Microsoft, a company he had started in 1975 with his boyhood friend Paul Allen. Guided
by a belief that the personal computer would be a valuable tool on every office desktop and in
every home, they began developing software for personal computers.
Gates' foresight and vision regarding personal computing have been central to the success of
Microsoft and the software industry. Gates is actively involved in key management and
strategic decisions at Microsoft, and plays an important role in the technical development of
new products. Much of his time is devoted to meeting with customers and staying in contact
with Microsoft employees around the world through e-mail.
1.2 Title of the report
To write a report it is necessary to select a topic. A well-defined topic reflects what is going
on to be discussed throughout the report. The topic that has been assigned by supervisor is
“Stories of a Successful Entrepreneur- A study on Bill Gates” . The report has discussed
about Bill Gates and Microsoft.
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1.3 Objectives of the study:
The main objectives of the study are to:
To know about an successful Entrepreneur
Follow him as a role model for doing Business.
To know about the Microsoft
Learn about the Management System of this Corporation
Acquire the Qualities of Bill Gates
To know about the Problems of Microsoft’s Software
1.4 Methodology of the study:
Source of Information:
Secondary: The secondary information collected from website, Magazine, Memorandum,
Journals, books and some other relevant sources. Both primary and secondary data sources
will be used to generate this report.
1.5 Limitations of the study
While preparing this report, some problem may be posted during the process. Due to some
limitation there can be some erroneous results. Although we tried to our best level to
eliminate errors, unfortunately, we faced some limitations while working on this report.
The study was subject to the following limitations, the absence of which could have
made this report more accurate, systematic and factual.
Within a short period we need to gather information about our topic and make study
based on collected information. But it is quite hard to gather adequate knowledge and
data in such a short time.
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It’s very tough to get an appointment of a successful busy professional and many of
the times they are not willing to give all relevant information.
On the way of our study, we have faced the following problems, which may be termed
as the limitations of the study. These are:
Inadequate data: To understand the facts about the study in a realistic way and more clearly
the quantitative expression of information, necessary data is required. But it was very difficult
for us to collect the secondary data in all area of the study.
Lack of Record: Sufficient facts and figures are not available. If these limitations were not
been there, the report would have more useful and attractive.
Poor Library Facility: The library of our university is not well ornamented. There are no
collections of multinational sector related journals, magazines, papers, case studies etc.
Lack of Experience: Experience makes a man efficient. But we have no proper experience to
do this kind of report. That’s why inexperience creates obstacle to follow the systematic and
logical research methodology
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Bill Gates Biography
Background: Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell
Gates, of English, German, and Scotch-Irish descent. His family was upper middle class; his father
was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem
and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one elder
sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family,
but was known as William Gates III or “Trey” because his father had dropped his own “III” suffix.
Early on in his life, Gates’ parents had a law career in mind for him.
At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. When he was in
the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School’s
rummage sale to buy an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General
Electric (GE) computer for the school’s students. Gates took an interest in programming the
GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his
first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users
to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would
always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he
commented on it and said, “There was just something neat about the machine.” After the
Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems
including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to
Computer Centre Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside students—Gates, Paul
Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans—for the summer after it caught those exploiting bugs in
the operating system to obtain free computer time.
At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC’s software in exchange
for computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC’s offices and
studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including programs in
FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970,
when the company went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired
the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer
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time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates
wrote the school’s computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code
so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that “it was hard
to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate
success.” At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic
counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a
congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Bill Gates’ mugshot from a traffic violation in 1977
Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and
enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. While at Harvard, he met Steve Ballmer,
who later succeeded Gates as CEO of Microsoft, and computer scientist Christos
Papadimitriou, with whom he wrote a paper about pancake sorting. He did not have a definite
study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school’s computers.
He remained in contact with Paul Allen, joining him at Honeywell during the summer of
1974. The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080
CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software
company. He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after
seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.
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Career:
Bill Gates is cofounder, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft, the most
successful software company in the world, renowned for making software that is powerful
and innovative while still being user friendly. Microsoft now employs more than 55,000
people in 85 countries.
William H Gates III commonly known as Bill Gates was born on 28th October 1955 and
raised in Seattle along with his two sisters. Bill became interested in programming at an early
age while attending one of Seattle’s most exclusive schools. Gates soon befriended a student
named Paul Allen and together using the schools minicomputer they practiced their skills.
They turned to a computing company, in exchange for free use of a more powerful computer
they searched for bugs in the computers system while also learning new languages. Bill went
on to Harvard University and while there teamed up with Paul to write a new version of Basic
programming language for the first personnel computer the Altair 8800. The company was
impressed with Gates and Allen’s work and licensed the software resulting in Gates and
Allen forming the company Microsoft to develop software for other companies. Bill dropped
out of Harvard to spend more time on the new business.
Their break came when they developed an operating system called MS-DOS for the first IBM
personnel computer, and later managed to persuade other manufactures to standardize their
systems to run MS-DOS. This standardization started a new computer industry boom
throughout the 1980’s as MS-DOS took hold of the market and gained popularity, Microsoft
also started developing applications such as word processors.
Microsoft announced Windows 1.0 in 1983, which promised a graphical user interface (GUI)
better graphics and multitasking. However the final product was not released for another 2
years until 1985, with very few compatible applications Windows did not sell well.
Over the next five years Microsoft released a number of upgraded windows 2.0 versions
which added many programs, versatility and features. As Microsoft grew, its share price sky
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rocketed, and at the age of 31 Bill Gates became the youngest self-made billionaire in
American history.
In 1990 Microsoft headed by Bill Gates created a new version of Windows called Windows
3.0 with a much improved GUI and features which sold more than 10 million copies, quickly
followed by Windows 3.1, 3.11 and workgroups which added networking support. Building
on their success Microsoft developed Windows 95 followed by windows 98, 2000,
Millennium Edition and The current version Windows XP. Each new windows release has
seen Microsoft gain more market share and along with their popular applications such as
Office, games etc has seen Bill Gates become the richest man in the world worth an estimated
US$46 billion.
Gates also has interests in other business having many investments and positions in
company’s including Corbis Corporation, Berkshire Hathaway Inc, and Telexes Corporation.
In 1998 Gates gave up his role as CEO to focus on development of new technology and
products.
Bill Gates married Melinda French Gates in 1994 and has three children, Jennifer, Rory and
Phoebe. Both Bill and Melinda are keen Philanthropist’s starting the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation which has committed more than $3.2 billion to global health, $2 billion to
improve learning opportunities to low income families, $477 million to community projects
and more than $488 million to special projects and annual giving campaigns.
Facts about Bill Gates
1. Queen Elizabeth gave him the title of 'Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire'.
2. IBM contracted him for the development of their first Personal Computer.
3. He is the Co-Founder and the Chairperson of Microsoft.
4. He is the world's third richest person (As per the survey done in 2008)
5. He is an American Business Magnate.
6. Yes, it is Mr Bill Gates, a living example of success.
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7. Microsoft Windows is the world's most successful operating system. And the man behind its success is Bill Gates.
Bill Gates - A Successful Entrepreneur
Gates is one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the world. He is able to run a successful
and a profitable entrepreneurship for many years and even today, we cannot survive in this
competitive world without it.
Vision and dedication are the key factors of being a successful entrepreneur and these skills
were present in Bill Gates from the beginning. He has got the skills to identify the most
suitable employee for recruitment.
The success of Microsoft is the true example of the entrepreneurial skills of Bill Gates.
The success story of Bill Gates is highly motivating for all the upcoming entrepreneurs.
His hard work, dedication and self-confidence helped him to earn everything he has. He is a
simple man and slightly conservative in regards of money although he is one of the richest
people of the world.
The youth can take inspirations from the life of Bill Gates.
So it can be concluded that Bill Gates is one of the ideal personalities of the world who has
honestly contributed towards the world's success.
Achievements as a successful entrepreneur The list of achievements of Bill Gates is so long that a book can be written about it. Some of his achievements are mentioned below:
1. In 2005, Bill Gates knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to the British economy. His title will be 'Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire.’
2. Time Magazine included his name in '100 most influential people of 20th century'. His name was continuously there from 2004 till 2006.
3. He has received doctorates from various universities and institutes like Harvard University and The Royal Institute of Technology.
4. Bill Gates and his wife have done many generous works for the welfare of the society. For this, they have received the award of 'Order of the Aztec Eagle' in Mexico.
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5. Sunday Times included his name in its Power List in 1999.
6. Forbes Magazine listed his name in 'The World's Richest People' from the year 1995 to 2007.
7. Berkshire Hathaway, an investment company, approached him to be the Director of the company.In 2000 Gates resigns as CEO of Microsoft to spend more on software architecture and less with running the company
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 software”, 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
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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 a version of COBOL. Around this time, Microsoft emerged as the
market leader in microcomputer languages with sales exceeding $1 million. In 1979,
Microsoft developed a new version of BASIC... He had an early interest in software and
began programming computers at the age of thirteen. .
RISK BEARERIn his junior year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to devote his energies full-time to Microsoft,
a company he had started in 1975 with his boyhood friend Paul Allen development of new
products.
CONTINOUS 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 CRITICISMSIts 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
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This is one never mentioned secret of success. Action is the key word. When logic never
drives us its emotions. We must have taken 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.
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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 the areas 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.
Technical Mind:Bill Gates is born with a highly technical bent of mind. It is a gift of god to him. Microsoft
has earned lots of success through this technical mind.
He Had A Vision: From day one, Gates dreamed of having a personal computer in every home, in every
business and in every school. Throughout his career, he never once wavered from this dream.
Focusing on software as the means to popularize the PC, Gates built his empire around this
central vision and steered clear of all other distractions. And, the vision continues today. “We
are not even close to finishing the basic dream of what the PC can be,” he says.
He Had a Solid Team:“If we weren’t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to
fall behind and become a mediocre company,” says Gates. From Microsoft’s inception, Gates
prioritized his team, bringing in only trusted friends to help him get the company started. As
the company grew, he insisted that they hire only the most capable young minds and strove to
create a small and creative environment for them to thrive in. Microsoft succeeded not only
because of Gates, but also because of the strong team that stood behind him.
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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 philanthropic efforts, 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.”
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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 Marc McDonald, 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.”
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.
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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.”
Present Condition of Business:
In 1980, IBM approached Microsoft to write the BASIC interpreter for its upcoming personal
computer, the IBM PC. When IBM’s representatives mentioned that they needed an operating
system, Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely
used CP/M operating system. IBM’s discussions with Digital Research went poorly, and they
did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing
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difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and told him to get an acceptable
operating system. A few weeks later Gates proposed using 86-DOS (QDOS), an operating
system similar to CP/M that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) had made for
hardware similar to the PC. Microsoft made a deal with SCP to become the exclusive
licensing agent, and later the full owner, of 86-DOS. After adapting the operating system for
the PC, Microsoft delivered it to IBM as PC-DOS in exchange for a one-time fee of $50,000.
Gates did not offer to operating system, transfer the copyright on the because he believed that
other hardware vendors would clone IBM’s system.[30] They did, and the sales of MS-
DOS made Microsoft a major player in the industry.
1975–1984: Founding:
Following the launch of the Altair 8800, William Henry Gates III, (known as Bill Gates)
called the developers of a new microcomputer, Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry
Systems (MITS), offering to demonstrate an implementation of the BASIC programming
language for the system. After the demonstration, MITS agreed to distribute Altair
BASIC. Gates left Harvard, moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where MITS was located
and founded Microsoft there. The company’s first international office was founded on
November 1, 1978, in Japan, titled “ASCII Microsoft” (now called “Microsoft Japan”). On
January 1, 1979, the company moved from Albuquerque to a new home in Bellevue,
Washington. Steve Ballmer joined the company on June 11, 1980, and later succeeded Bill
Gates as CEO.
Among pre-IBM-PC products were the software package TASC (The AppleSoft Compiler),
which compiled a BASIC program into Apple machine language, and the hardware product
Microsoft, an add-on Z80 processor card for the Apple II and compatible computers which
allowed the use of the CP/M operating system instead of Apple soft and Apple DOS. In 1980,
Microsoft entered the operating system business with its own version of Unix, called Xenix,
which it licensed to various computer vendors.
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DOS (Disk Operating System) was the operating system that brought the company its first
real success. On August 12, 1981, after negotiations with Digital
Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft to provide a version of
the CP/M operating system, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal
Computer (PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Seattle
Computer Products, which IBM renamed to PC-DOS. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM
PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, and by
aggressively marketing MS-DOS to manufacturers of IBM-PC clones, Microsoft rose from a
small player to one of the major software vendors in the home computer industry. The
company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1983, as well
as a publishing division named Microsoft Press.
1985–1994: IPO, OS/2 and Windows:
In August 1985, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating
system called OS/2. On November 20, 1985, Microsoft released its first retail version of
Microsoft, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. On March 13,
1986 the company went public with an initial public offering (IPO), with a starting initial
offering price of $21.00 and ending at the first day of trading as at US $28.00. The ensuing
rise of the stock price has made four billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires from
Microsoft employees. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2
to OEMs.
The sign at a main entrance to the Microsoft corporate campus. The Redmond Microsoft
campus today includes more than 750,000 m² (approx. 8 million square feet) and over 30,000
employees.
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In 1989, Microsoft introduced its flagship office suite, Microsoft Office. The software
bundled separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft
Excel. On May 22, 1990 Microsoft launched Windows 3.0. The new version of Microsoft’s
operating system boasted such new features as streamlined user interface graphics and
improved protected mode capability for the Intel 386processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in
two weeks. Windows. In the ensuing years, the popularity of OS/2 declined, and Windows
quickly became the favoured PC platform.
According to The Register, Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that
Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS. Eventually, Microsoft Office became the
dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors.
In 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT 3.1, a business operating system with the Windows
3.1 user interface but an entirely different kernel.
1995–2005: Internet and legal issues:
In 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new version of the company’s flagship operating
system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more
than a million copies of Microsoft Windows 95 were sold in the first four days after its
release. The company also released its web browser, Internet Explorer, with the Windows 95
Plus! Pack in August 1995 and subsequent Windows versions.
On, May 26, 1995, following Bill Gate’s internal “Internet Tidal Wave memo”, Microsoft
began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line into computer networking and
the World Wide Web. On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online
service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. MSN became an umbrella
service for Microsoft’s online services. The company continued to branch out into new
markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24/7 cable news
station, MSNBC. Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market in November
with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system,
specifically designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds
and other small computers. Later in 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released for both
Mac and Windows, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from
rival Netscape.
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The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft’s history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve
Ballmer as president of Microsoft but remaining as Chair and CEO himself. The company
released Windows 98, an update to Windows 95 that incorporated a number of Internet-
focused features and support for new types of devices. On April 3, 2000, a judgment was
handed down in the case of United States v. Microsoft, calling the company an “abusive
monopoly” and ordering the company to split into two separate units. Part of this ruling was
later overturned by a federal appeals court, and eventually settled with the U.S. Department
of Justice in 2001.
In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, the first version that encompassed the features of
both its business and home product lines. Before XP was released, Microsoft had to maintain
both the NT and the 9x codebase. XP introduced a new graphical user interface, the first such
change since Windows 95. In late 2001, with the release of the Xbox, Microsoft entered the
multi-billion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo.[16] Microsoft
encountered turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action was brought against it by
the European Union for abusing its current dominance with the Windows operating system
(see European Union Microsoft antitrust case), eventually resulting in a judgment to produce
new versions of its Windows XP platform—called Windows XP Home Edition N and
Windows XP Professional N—that did not include its Windows Media Player, as well as a
fine of €497 million ($613 million).
2006–present: Vista, Windows 7, and other transitions:
On June 27, 2008, Bill Gates retired from day-to day activities in the company, following a
two year transition period from his role as Chief Software, which was taken by Ray Ozzie,
but remained the company’s chairman, head of the Board of Directors and would act as an
adviser on key projects. Windows Vista, released in January 2007, was Microsoft’s latest
operating system and had sold 300 million copies by December 2008. Microsoft Office 2007,
released at the same time, features a “Ribbon” user interface which is a significant departure
from its predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both titles helped to produce a record profit
in 2007.
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Microsoft announced on February 21, 2008 that it will share information about its products
and technology to make it easier for developers to create software that works with its
products. And followed that up by providing such information. However, the European
Union continued to demonstrate its dissatisfaction with the company for its lack of
compliance with the March 2004 judgment and subsequently, on February 27, 2008 imposed
a fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion), then the largest fine in the history of EU competition
policy.
In its January 2009 report of financial results, Microsoft announced layoffs of up to 5,000
employees in response to slowing economic activity due to the on-going financial crisis.
Despite this, on February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a small chain of
Microsoft-branded retail stores. David Porter, a former executive at Wal-
Mart and DreamWorks, was named corporate vice president of Retail Stores. On October 22,
2009 the first retail Microsoft Store open in Scottsdale, Arizona, the same day Windows
7 was officially released to the public. Microsoft focused on refining Vista with ease of use
features and performance enhancements with Windows 7, rather than a large reworking of
Windows.
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Problems and solutions of Microsoft:
Although Microsoft is a renowned company in the world, but it has also some problems. The
Microsoft Company does not gain their success automatically; they have also faced so many
critical challenges and problems. And these are given below:
1. Unneeded features make products more cumbersome to use and the addition of new
features often sacrifices the performance (and sometimes the integrity) of older
features.
Solution: Reboot and your PC should roll back to Windows Vista. You can then open the
setup log file \$WINDOWS. BT\Sources\Panther\setupact.log to view what happened.
Microsoft says this is usually caused because the Iphlpsvc service has stopped responding,
and just adding an environment variable to ignore it will fix the problem. Point your browser
at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/975253 for the fix.
If this doesn't help (or your upgrade hangs at something other than 62%) then browse the
setup log for other clues. And you might also try to boot and install from the Windows 7 disc,
if possible, as that reduces the chance of any conflict with your existing Vista (or XP) setup.
2. Most of the Windows OS upgrade hangs at 62%.
Solution: Users having newest version can solve this problem.
3. Perpetual upgrading encourages Microsoft to ship by ridden products, because they
can always charge for the upgrade.
4. Windows 98 is very slow to use.
Solution: User of Windows 98 can remove this problem by attached new RAM on their
CPU.
5. Microsoft OS is easy to attack by the Hacker. So, they can smoothly destroy the OS
and can steal the licence key and many more data. Because of this problem the
ultimate sales rate is decreasing.
Solution: Microsoft Company has to innovate new technology in their OS so that
intruders cannot access the Windows.
6. In Windows 7 sometimes the Operating System cannot found the DVD drive.
Solution: The standard solution here is to run REGEDIT, browse to
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HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-
E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}, then delete both Upper Filters and Lower Filters in
the right-hand pane (Upper Filters.bak and Lower Filters.bak entries can be ignored).
No change? Resetting the drive letter has worked for some. Click Start, type Disk
Management and choose the "Create and format hard disk partitions" link. If your optical
drive is visible here then right-click it, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, click
Change and choose a new letter. If the drive is now visible in Explorer, then repeat the
process to change the drive letter back; if it's still not visible, reboot and it should appear.
7. Windows 7 upgrades are usually quick, but sometimes it doesn't install at all.
8. Windows Operating System sometimes attacked by viruses when the users use
internet, pen-drive, Bluetooth, pirated CD’s etc.
Solution: The users have to use effective Anti-viruses alike Norton, Kaspersky etc.
9. In Windows 8 there is no start option and this problem hesitates the users.
Solution: To remove this problem Microsoft Company made a New Version, Windows
8.1 and the users of Windows 8 can get this version free.
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SWOT analysis of
This is a Microsoft Corporation SWOT analysis for 2013.
Company background
Name Microsoft Corporation
Industries served Computer software, Electronics
Geographic areas
servedWorldwide
Headquarters U.S.
Current CEO Steve Ballmer
Revenue $ 73.72 billion (2012)
Profit $ 16.97 billion (2012)
Employees 94,000 (2012)
Main CompetitorsApple Inc., Google Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., International Business
Machines Corporation and many others.
Microsoft Corporation is one of the best-known software companies in the world. The
corporate is famous for its Windows and Office software. In addition to software products the
business manufactures and develops consumer electronics such as tablets and game system.
SWOT
Microsoft SWOT analysis 2013
Strengths Weaknesses
Brand loyalty
Brand reputation
Easy to use software
Strong distribution channels
Robust financial performance
Poor acquisitions and investments
Dependence on hardware manufacturers
Criticism over security flaws
Mature PC markets
Slow to innovate
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Acquisition of Skype
Opportunities Threats
Cloud based services
Mobile advertising
Mobile device industry
Growth through acquisitions
Intense competition in software products
Changing consumer needs and habits
Open source projects
Potential lawsuits
Strengths
Brand loyalty: Over the years, Microsoft has been the leading OS and software provider, which
resulted in more than 90% market share for PC OS. Most of us grew up using its easy to use OS, are
familiar with it and will keep using it. Few other brands are capable to compete with Microsoft for
this reason. Even open source OS, which are completely free and well suited to use for common user,
find it hard to attract users.
1. Brand reputation: According to Inter brand, Microsoft’s brand is the 5th most
valuable brand in the world, valued at $ 57.8 billion. Forbes listed the corporate as the
7th most reputable business in the world. Brand reputation leads to higher sales and
greater market share.
2. Easy to use software: Windows OS and Office software products are so popular
not just because Microsoft has great monopolistic power, strong distribution channels
and good brand reputation but also because its products are of great quality and really
easy to use.
3. Strong distribution channels: The company works with all the major computer
hardware producers such as Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba and Samsung and major computer
retailers to make sure computers would be sold with already pre-installed Windows
software. The company also invested in Dell and Nokia to tighten its relationships
with these companies.
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4. Healthy financial performance: Microsoft grew its revenues by 20% from
2008 to 2012 and holds more than $63 billion of cash and cash equivalents that can be
used for acquisitions and substantial investments into R&D.
5. Acquisition of Skype: With nearly 300 million users, Skype is a significant boost
to Microsoft’s online presence and have a lot of potential in generating income from
online advertising.
Weaknesses
I. Poor acquisitions and investments: Few of Microsoft’s acquisitions were
successful and brought not just revenues and products but new skills and
competencies to the company. Massive, Link Exchange, WebTV, Danger are just few
examples of multimillion acquisitions made by Microsoft but soon shut down or
divested.
II. Dependence on hardware manufacturers: Microsoft is a giant software
company but it does not produce its own hardware and depends on computer
hardware manufacturers to develop products that run Windows OS. If cheap and
popular alternative OS would appear, hardware manufacturers may simple choose the
alternative and Microsoft could do little to change the situation.
III. Criticism over security flaws: Windows OS, the main Microsoft product has
been heavily criticized for being so weak against various viruses’ attacks. Compared
to other OS, Windows is the least protected against such attacks.
IV. Mature PC markets: Only recently has Microsoft entered the mobile technology
sector and still heavily depends on its OS and software sales for standalone and laptop
computers. The market for these products has matured and Microsoft will find it
harder to grow revenues in these sectors.
V. Slow to innovate: Microsoft has huge R&D resources and great position to enter
new markets with innovative products but constantly failed to do so. It had an
opportunity to be the first player in online advertising but missed the opportunity. It’s
entrance to mobile OS was also too late, while Google and Apple captured the market
share.
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Opportunities
i. Cloud based services: Microsoft could expand its range of cloud services and
software as the demand for cloud-based services is expanding.
ii. Mobile advertising: Mobile advertising markets are expected to grow in double
digits over the next few years and Microsoft has a great opportunity to tap into these
markets with its mobile OS.
iii. Mobile device industry: Smartphones and tablets markets will grow steadily
over the next few years and Microsoft could exploit this opportunity by introducing
more of its own tablets and a new company phone.
iv. Growth through acquisitions: With a huge reserve of cash Microsoft could
start acquiring new start-ups that would bring new technology, skills and competences
to the business.
Threats
I. Intense competition in software products: Microsoft is more than ever on
the pressure to introduce successful OS both in PC and mobile markets as such
competitors like Google and Apple have already established positions.
II. Changing consumer needs and habits: Customers shift from buying laptops
and standalone PCs to buying smartphones and tablets, the markets, where Microsoft
has only a modest market share and may never establish itself.
III. Open source projects: Many new open source projects are coming to the market
and some of them became quite successful, such as new Linux OS and Open Source
Office. Open source projects are free and so they can become an alternative to
expensive Microsoft’s products.
IV. Potential lawsuits: Microsoft has already been sued for many times and lost quite
a few large scale lawsuits. Lawsuits are expensive as they require time and money.
And as Microsoft continues to operate more or less the same way, there is high
probability for more expensive lawsuits to come.
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Conclusion:
In addition to extending Microsoft’s success, Gates also turned his attention to philanthropy,
including the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates and his wife
endowed the foundation with $24 billion to support philanthropic initiatives in the areas of
global health and learning. For example, Gates made plans in February 2004 to donate $82.9
million for research to develop a new vaccine against tuberculosis. In addition to his duties at
Microsoft and his efforts in philanthropy, Gates sat on the board of ICOS, a company that
specialized in protein-based and small-molecule therapeutics.
s
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References:
Available at: http://www.microsoft.com
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org
Available at: http://www.interbrand.com
The End
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