Page 2 - Inside Access

FOOD FOR THOUGHT Business Lessons:
Bill Gates
Humanity's greatest advances are not in its discoveries, but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity.
- Bill Gates
5
Make the deal of the century
When Gates realized that IBM was seeking an operating system, Gates found one, bought it and offered to license it to IBM, in one of the greatest deals of the last 100 years. This should be a lesson for all future negotiators, he outsmarted IBM. He offered them a license for the operating system at a great price – but on a non-exclusive basis. When IBM accepted this deal, the Microsoft operating system became the industry standard due to IBM's dominating position in the industry. This was the deal that helped Microsoft end IBM's domination of the computing world.
Learn how to make a great deal.
Keep following the series to read the next edition of business lessons from the legendary Bill Gates.
2
Enter emerging trends before take off
When Gates was at Harvard, he and Allen discussed the personal computer industry that was emerging. Gates left Harvard and moved to New Mexico to start his venture with Allen. One common strategy of many successful entrepreneurs was to enter a high- potential emerging industry before it took off.
Enter an emerging industry after the launch or before the take-off.
1 Learn emerging technologies when you are young
Gates' private school was one of the first to get a computer terminal. Along with a school friend, Paul Allen, Gates worked on the computer and became one of the first to gain expertise in this new emerging trend, incidentally at the same time as another entrepreneur named Steve Jobs was doing the same in Silicon Valley.
Gain expertise in emerging technologies.
3
Pivot to the fulcrum of an emerging industry
When Gates and Allen started Microsoft, they were initially writing programs for other computers. The PC world at that time, like many industries in the emerging stage, was chaotic and needed a standard. IBM was the 600-pound gorilla in the computing industry and IBM's entry could make its format the standard. Gates realized this and it was this insight that put Microsoft at the center of the PC world. Gates deduced that control of the industry would go to the person that controlled the brains, not the one that made the hardware.
Find the fulcrum of an emerging industry and dominate it.
4
Imitate and improve
You don't have to be the first to be the best. The biggest con, foisted on entrepreneurs is to innovate in the product and be the “first-mover.” Luckily for Gates, he dropped out of Harvard before he imbibed this falsehood. Gates has not innovated anything. He bought the operating system which became MS-DOS and built Microsoft. He imitated and improved Word and Excel and bundled them with MS-DOS to make Microsoft the controller of the personal computer industry. He imitated Netscape. Stop trying to innovate in the product. Do what most of the biggest, most successful entrepreneurs do.
Imitate and improve emerging products and get your edge in the strategy.
Contributed by
Oye Jolaoso
PAGE 2 INSIDE ACCESS | AUGUST 2020 4TH EDITION