Bill Gates Leadership

BILL GATES PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS

On October 28, 1965, William Henry Gates III was born. He was born into a family with a rich history in business, politics and community service. Early in his life , it was apparent that Bill Gates inherited the ambition, intelligence and competitive spirit that had helped his progenitors rise to the top in their chosen professions.

In elementary school he quickly surpassed all of his peer’s abilities in nearly all subjects, especially mathematics and science. His parents recognized his intelligence and decided to enroll him in lakeside, a private school known for its intense academic environment. This decision had far reaching effects on Bill Gates’ life. For at lakeside, he was first introduced to computers.

He was very smart and bored in school. His maternal grandmother Adelle Maxwell taught him a variety of card games and she was also fiercely competitive.

Bill Gates has always been a highly confident person and is gifted with great convincing skills. He has made lots of successful deal in his career. The deal with IBM was one of them.

In hindsight, Gates’ early failures seem so minuscule that they are almost laughable, but as a struggling entrepreneur, he went through the same frustration, confusion and despair that others is his situation also face. What distinguishes Gates from the rest was his ability to rebound from his mistakes and take whatever lesions he could from them. He then became more resolute and determined to see his vision realize.

Gates, has come to be known for his aggressive business tactics and confrontational style of management. Due to extreme aggressiveness, he was arrested at least twice in New Mexico; once in 1975 for speeding and driving without a license and in 1977 when his photograph was taken. His main vice was driving very fast cars in a dangerous way and collecting multiple speeding tickets.

Whereas many business leaders become locked into an aggressive stance, allowing their personal grudges to dictate their decision, Gates is always rational. Critics claimed that he allows his emotions to get the better of him in some cases; in particular, that his dislike of certain rivals has sometimes clouded his judgment. On the contrary, like a spoilt child that throws a tantrum to get its way, Gates may personalize a battle for a time, but only to focus Microsoft’s fire. What matters to Gates is winning; in order to do so, he will beat the enemy, but that doesn’t mean he won’t work with him at a later date. This makes him a far more dangerous adversary than someone who is hotheaded or acts out of emotion.

Competing with Bill Gates is like playing a game of Chess. He is always thinking many moves ahead and will punish his opponents’ blunders with cold-blooded predatory indifference. That’s why so many people in the industry fear him.

 Gates meets regularly with Microsoft’s senior managers and program managers. By all accounts he can be extremely confrontational during these meetings, particularly when he believes that managers have not thought out their business strategy or have place the company’s future at risk. He has been described shouting at length at employees before letting them continue, with such remarks as “that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard” and “why don’t you just give-up your options and join the peace corps?”. However, he often back down when the targets of his outburst respond frankly and directly. When he is not impressed with the technical hurdles managers claim to be facing, he sometimes quips, “Do you want me to do it over the weekend?”

Gates’ approach worked primarily, he had no social life and often slept on the floor in the office when he was into a project. He was famous for losing credit cards.

His passion for winning was also apparent from an early age. His love of mathematics became an obsession with computers in his school. His extreme passionate nature comes out when he decided to stop studying in a top-notch Harvard University and pursue his dream of writing software, coding and technology. Gates and Microsoft are largely inseparable.

According to a press inquiry, Bill Gates scored 1590 on his SATS, which at the time corresponded to an IQ of 170 – a figure frequently reported in the popular media and was able to enroll at Harvard University in the Fall of 1973 to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science and pre-Law.

Much of Gates’ success rests on his ability to translate technical visions into market strategy, and to blend creativity with technical acumen.

Since the early days of Microsoft, Gates has pursued his vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home”. It was his vision that guided Microsoft’s immense success. An intense businessman who typically put in 16-hour days and took only two three-day vacations in the first five years after establishing the corporation. Gates was demanding, and strong-willed about implementing his vision. Co-workers, clients and industry analyst also remarked, however, that he did not surround himself with YES-Sayers but was more than willing to change his mind if someone convinced him of a better alternative. Analysts also observed that one of the keys to Gates’ success was his ability to focus on the fundamental of the business while keeping office politics or his own ego from getting in the way.

He is also widely criticized as having built Microsoft’s business through unfair, illegal, or anticompetitive business practices. Government authorities in several countries have found some of Microsoft’s practices illegal, as in United States Vs Microsoft. Worst of times, grilled by lawyers in 1998 when Microsoft grew so big that the government brought an anti-trust suit to peg back its Monopolistic power.

BILL GATES’ CHARISMATIC CHARACTERISTICS

Gates is often characterized as the quintessential example of a super-intelligent “nerd” with immense power and wealth. This has in turn led to pop culture stereotypes of Gates as a tyrant or evil genius, often restoring to ruthless business techniques. As such, he has been the subject if numerous parodies in fim, television and video games.

Gates has been at the top of his profession for more than two decades now, in that time he has become the richest man in the world in his early 40s. Yet despite his enormous wealth and achievement, Gates shows no signs of slowing down. His says he is driven by a “latent fear” that he might miss the next big thing. Over the years, he has repeatedly shown that he is the closest thing the competitor industry has to a seer. His in-depth understanding of technology and a unique way of synthesizing data gives him a special ability to spot future trends and steer Microsoft’s strategy. This also inspire awe among Microsoft fans and intimidates its competitors.

Although he was considered a charismatic leader within his own company, he was also extremely tough. He fired Microsoft’ first company President after only 11 months on the job.

The position of Power that Microsoft enjoys today is the culmination of a business strategy that Bill Gates and his Partner Paul Allen formulated many years ago when both were still in their 20s. The key to that success resides in a combination of factors. These include the dazzling technical brilliance of the early Microsoft programmers; the enormous energy and ferocious competitiveness of Gates himself; and his unique vision of how the PC revolution could be brought about and the role of Microsoft could play in it.

Bill Gates is a Schumpeterian entrepreneur as he changed “ the stream of allocation of resources overtime by introducing new departures into the flow of economic life” by creating a high –quality operating system monopoly in the personal computing business thereby propelling it to the most important sector of the modern economy.

Paul Allen, who had been serving as Microsoft’s head of Research and New Product development, left the company in 1982 after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. The following year, Gates faced a major challenged to Microsoft’s domination of operating systems for home computers when a company called Visicorp developed a mouse-driven computer system with a user interface based on graphics rather than the keyboard and text-driven system of MS-DOS. Gates quickly recognized that Visicorp’s system would be the wave of the future because it was much easier for technologically unsophisticated people to use. Even though Microsoft did not have such a system in the works at that point, Gates started an advertising campaign with an announcement at the Plaza Hotel in New York that a new Microsoft operating system with graphical user interface would soon be available. This next-generation system was to be called “WINDOWS”.

Gates’ announcement was a bluff; the truth was that Microsoft was nowhere near developing such a system. But the marketing ploy worked because people preferred to wait for a system designed to be compatible with their existing Microsoft products rather than undergo the trouble and expense of installing an entirely new operating system.

Furthermore, windows allowed users to avoid buying new software applications to replace the DOS- compatible programs they currently owned. Windows 1.0 was finally released in 1985. That same year, Microsoft reported $140 million in revenue, just because Gates’ ability to accept risk and new challenges.

Gates is the “ultimate expression” of “Nerd Power”. His own rise to fame and fortune personifies a change in the business constellation. Once unfashionable in corporate America, in the wake of the computer revolution the technical experts or techies have risen to prominence.

The blue-suited IBMers who had dominated the computer business for decades were wrong-footed by the switch from mainframes to Personal computers. Standing on the threshold of the change was Bill Gates, ready to usher in the new paradigm. Both Gates and Paul Allen, were very different to the IBMers.

The young Gates, with his bottle-glass spectacles, dandruff and acne, and Allen, with his long hairs and shaggy beard, provided Americans with a caricature of the nerds they knew at school. More significantly, for the first time, Corporate America’s discomfort with raw intellect and technical expertise was challenged.

BILL GATES TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP CHARACTERISTICS

Gates does regard himself to be an expert in is unraveling the technological past from the technological future. Gates’ own talent is for understanding what’s just around the corner. His great talent as a leader lies in his ability to inspire the people around him with the challenge of helping him to transform the computers industry.

Gates set about achieving his vision by transforming Microsoft into a major player in the computer industry and using its dominant position to create a platform for the huge growth in applications. What Gates realized very early on was that, in order for his vision to succeed, it was essential that an industry standard be created. He knew, too , that whoever got there first would have a major opportunity to stamp their own authority on the computing industry.

His belief in high intelligence and hard work has put him where he is today. He does not believe in mere luck or God’s grace, but just hard work and competitiveness. Bill’s Microsoft is good competition for other software companies and he will continue to stomp out the competition until he dies. He likes to play the game of risk and the game of world domination.

THINKING BIG: Along with focus, the ability to dream big and pursue that with single- minded determination sets Gates apart from other entrepreneurs.

GIVING BACK TO SOCIETY: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided a new dimension to philanthropy by addressing issues that are global in nature – malaria, cancer, AIDS. Gates has shown a remarkable degree of consistency both in his business goals and in his goals in philanthropy.

NEVER STOP LEARNING: In order to stay up to speed with new technologies, Gates will assemble a collection of the leading experts in a particular technical area and have them provide intensive briefing sessions. He calls then “think weeks” and they amount to total immersion in a subject. During this period, he will soak up information like soap.

The fact of the matter is that Gates has one of the most severe cases of intellectual curiosity ever known. Even on holidays he consumes book after book just to quench his thirst for new knowledge. It’s a characteristic that helps explain the enduring success of Microsoft in an industry where a great many once-successful firms have fallen by the wayside. It is one of the factors that makes him such a deadly adversary.

Despite Gates’ reputation as a visionary, criticism often made of Microsoft is that the company is not a great innovator, and simply raids the ideas of others- converting them into Microsoft products. The company has also been accused of a predatory attitude  towards its partners. Microsoft has been described as “the fox that takes you across the river and then eats you”. But according to one industry insider, most of the criticism is sour grapes on the parts of its competitors.

“Like the Japanese computer companies Microsoft may not be an inventor, but it perfects products”, said by President of Technologic, an industry consulting group.

Gates’ pragmatism also extends to buying his way into key markets. He is quite prepared to go out and buy the development expertise of other companies and then plug it into the Microsoft machine. In fact, this is a strategy that Gates has used many times. In 1982, for example, he bought the basis of DOS from a small company called Seattle Computers, and went onto make it into the industry standard and it’s not just software that he’s prepared to plunder, on occasion, Gates has bought companies simply to acquire the expertise of exceptional programmers, who often have a stake in the smaller firm. In such cases, Gates is able to offer several million dollars for the company as an inducement for the key individual to join Microsoft. In this way, he can bring deep seams of technical expertise into Microsoft very rapidly.

CREATIVITY

In Microsoft, Bill Gates has created a voracious learning machine. Learning, he believes, is the sign of a “smart organization”, one that is continuously improving its internal processes. It is also the best way to avoid becoming complacent, and the best protection against making mistakes. His competitors aren’t so careful. By capitalizing on the errors of the others, Gates has prospered.

In many ways, what sets him apart from other leaders in the computer industry in his focus on the business. Despite his incredible success and the distractions of fame and fortune, Gates remained as committed to Microsoft as he was at the start. He combines an analytical mind with a real passion for the technology, which means that he is always scanning the horizon for the next big thing. This intellectual restlessness resonates throughout Microsoft. It keeps Gates and his people on their toes.

Gates has consistently sought out and hired the smartest individuals in the computer industry. This is a deliberate strategy and one that ensures the company attracts the highest caliber staff. Some people has accused Gates of being elitist but he is one of the first entrepreneurs to truly understand what intellectual capital is all about. Microsoft calls them “high IQ people” and has always gone out of its way to attract the very brightest recruits.

NURTURE CREATIVITY: At Microsoft’s specially designed headquarters at Redmond, Washington, Gates deliberately set out to create an environment which suited the bright young people the company wanted to attract. With its simple aesthetics, open communal areas and green spaces it resembled the college atmosphere familiar to many of those joining the company straight from university.

Gates’ famous stamina for work translates into a Microsoft culture that can be described as “work hard, then work even harder”. For many years, Gates regarded taking holidays as a sign of weakness. The Microsoft campus at Redmond is geared up to allow employees to work very long hours, with a selection of cafeterias providing subsidized meals and even soft drinks.

Relative to its stock market valuation, Microsoft remains a relatively small company. Internally, too, the company is constantly splitting into smaller units to maintain an entrepreneurial environment. At times, change is so rapid, that Microsoft seems to be creating new divisions on an almost weekly basis. Gates also relies on maintaining a simple structure to enable him to keep his grip on the company.

CREATE A SMALL TEAM CULTURE: Early in Microsoft’s evolution, Gates came to the conclusion that the best software was created by only small groups of developers. Although Microsoft now employs many thousands of people around the world, Gates has tried to retain the feel of a small company.”Even if we are a big company”, Gates says, “we cannot think like a big company or we are dead”.

Through stock options, Gates has probably made more people rich than any other man in history. This is a great motivator.

CREATE A MERITOCRACY: There are virtually no status symbols at Microsoft. Respect has to be earned. A relaxed, collegiate style and dislike of status symbols is balanced by a demanding attitude towards performance and meeting deadlines. When people leave, Microsoft’s research suggests, they do so because the challenge has run out. But perhaps the most telling test of the Microsoft culture is that so many of the original employees are still there.

When Gates faced a dilemma, he didn’t stop and give-up. He asked questions about what could be done to solve the problem. For his business activities to his philanthropic efforts, Gates’ curiosity and desire to constantly be learning has been one of the key factors behind the success.

Gates speaks the language of computer programmers. It pervades his everyday speech. He talks frequently about “maximum bandwidth” and even nicknamed one girlfriend “32-bit”. This is both one of his great strengths as a leader and also one of his weaknesses. Talking to fellow techies, it gives him an open channel of communication which allows him to inspire Microsoft employees to greater heights. On the negative side, however, his nerdy vocabulary and directness can make him seem inarticulate when he tries to communicate to the wider public.

Gates’ own direct, slightly impatient manner and his unwillingness to suffer fool can also make him appear rude. On a good day, he can be charming, but on a bad day, he can be downright abrasive. At industry gatherings he can seems condescending, even patronizing about the idea of others. At internal meetings he is prone to outbursts. Some say tantrums, if doesn’t like the way the discussion is moving.

“That is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard”, is a typical Gates Lines. Direct it may be, but it is hardly likely to make the person he’s talking to inclined to volunteer more ideas. Steve Ballmer, a long term Gates aide and friend for more than 20 years is well aware of how the Gates can come across sometimes. “Part of Bill’s style of presenting, clarifying and challenging ideas is to be very blunt and a little bit dramatic and some would say a little rude”, he says.

Being able to pass on leadership skills to others requires three things, First, a “teachable point of view” ,”You must be able to talk clearly and convincingly about who you are, why you exist and how you operate”, second, “the leader requires a story.”

“Dramatic storytelling is the way people learn from one another. This explains why Bill Gates and like feel the need to write books”.

The third element in passing on the torch of leadership is teaching methodology. To be a great teacher, you have to be a great leader. The great corporate leaders are hungry to know more and do not regard their knowledge as static or comprehensive.

MOTIVATION:

Microsoft has always paid its employees salaries that are lower than its rivals. Until recently, Gates himself took an annual salary of just $175,000. (In 1993, Microsoft paid its top 5 executives a total of $1.9 Million combined, while head of rivals Oracle Corporation Larry Ellison was paid $5.7 Million alone). What makes his possible is the company’s long term commitment to stock options-offering almost all staff an “option” to buy Microsoft shares at a fixed price in the future. This has been a major factor in the company’s ability to recruit the best programmers.

Through stock options, Bill Gates has made more people millionaires than any other entrepreneur in history. Gates instituted systems that reinforce the effectiveness of the small team mentally. According to MIT, Gates has created a special culture that fosters creativity, both individually and in team, at the same time, as meeting commercial deadlines and demands.

The Microsoft product development philosophy is labeled “synch-and-stabilize”. This involves focusing creativity by evolving features and “fixing” resources; and doing everything in parallel with “frequent synchronizations”. The most striking  about the Microsoft approach is that the company is not be freewheeling ideas factory it is often portrayed as. In particular, the seemingly relaxed atmosphere is only one part of the picture.

Pizzas maybe delivered directly to desks, but there is also a great deal of control, or discipline at work. It may appear jolly and collegiate, but it is deadly serious. e.g. the scope and ambition of each and every project is carefully delineated.

The number of people involved and the times they spend on a particular project are also carefully controlled. Some rules are unbending- bugs have to be immediately repaired to ensure that work is coordinated.

People are given responsibility and allowed to determine their own working patterns and schedules-up to a point. The boundaries are very clear and simple. People know where they stand, how the system works, and what is expected from them. The system works because the people are smart enough to make it work and are highly motivated at the individual level.  Their knowledge and creativity is appreciated and rewarded.

“Brain based companies have an ethereal character compared to yesterday’s outfits and that’s putting it mildly. Time clocks certainly have no place. Barking orders is out. Curiosity, initiative and the exercise of the imagination are IN.

No one epitomizes the switch to intellectual capital more than Bill Gates and Microsoft. Gates was one of the first to recognize that attracting and retaining the best computer programmers was the only way that Microsoft could remain on top. He has been mining the ether ore of his “high IQ” knowledge workers ever since.

BAHAVIOR / ATTITUDE OF BILL GATES

On a personal level, Bill Gates has been described in less than glowing terms. As a child he had a tendency to tamper tantrums- a habit some of those who’ve worked with him say he hasn’t lost. Certainly Gates does not suffer fools gladly.

“Time is very short, so if people are repeating things that I already know or if they aren’t smart or didn’t listen to something that I said with some precision, then that’s not a good person for me to work with-they don’t belong to this team”, he once said. His own intellect makes him impatient of those who aren’t as smart as him.

Gates has spent his whole life among very smart people, and has a low tendency for those whose intellect he does not respect. At company briefings he has been known to go ballistic throwing things and shouting “this is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of  ...” a familiar phrase to people who worked with him.

You could argue that if he behaves like a spoilt child than he really doesn’t deserve to be liked. But there is another side to Gates. He can be charming – if not quite charismatic. He has also shown on numerous occasions that he can be extremely patient when an important deal is at stake. The poker-playing days at Harvard have stood him in good stead. His cool, analytical mind makes him a better strategist than most of his rivals. He can be also extremely generous.

Though Gates was highly appreciated for his visionary leadership, he was also criticized as something Gates took things so much to heart that his emotional feeling overshadowed his rational thinking. They said that Gates intense rivalry with some of his competitors made him personalize every battle and obscured his judgment.

Critics claimed that winning was so important to Gates that he would go to any extent to beat his opponent. A critic says, “Bill Gates not only wants to win, but he wants to kill the competition. He wants to bury the wounded…”

LEADERSHIP STYLE

1)      Autocratic Style

Control is basic to Gates’ nature and his management practice. He has an obsession with detail and with checking up. He is trying to monopolize the World Wide Web software market and has legal problems with the department of Justice. Microsoft restricted the ability of its internet partners to deal with its rivals. And also he dislikes complaints.

2)      Delegate style

Gates paid special attention to recruit and retain the best talent in the software industry. He believed that the recruitment of talented software engineers was one of the most critical elements in the software industry. Gates looked for a bundle of attributes in recruits. These include the capacity to grasp new knowledge quickly, the ability to ask probing questions, and deep familiarity with programming structures.

Though a great number of potential recruits applied for jobs at Microsoft, Gates assumed that the best talent would never apply directly. Consequently, Microsoft’s HR managers had to hunt for the best talent and offer them a job.

Gates gives autonomy to his managers; he delegates authority to managers to run their independent departments.