strategy of bill gates

8/3/2019 Strategy of Bill Gates

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REPORT ON LEADERSHIP

STYLE OF BILL GATES


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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 ofHarvard 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 beencentral 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.


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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.

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 ableto 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.


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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.


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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

softwares for every computer in the world

He was just passionate about software, coding and technology that

incidentally also made him the richest man in the world

INNOVATION

Gates and Allen were assisted by a staff of six, which included four

programmers. In late 1977, Gates released a version of FORTRAN

language for microcomputers. In 1978, Gates and Allen introduced a

version of COBOL. Around this time, Microsoft emerged as the market

leader in microcomputer languages with sales exceeding $1 million. In1979, Microsoft developed a new version of BASIC... He had an early

interest in software and began programming computers at the age of

thirteen. .

RISK BEARER

In his junior year, Gates dropped out of Harvard to devote his energies

full-time to Microsoft, a company he had started in 1975 with his

boyhood friend Paul Allen development of new products.

CONTINOUS LEARNER


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Microsoft is not about greed. Its about Innovation and Fairness. Bill

Gates

Never stop learning was the Mantra of Bill Gates which he follow till

date. This empowers him to be a Great Leader of our times. He will

always be remembers as an Icon and even without his presence in

Microsoft he would still be regarded as a great inventor and a real genius

in every regard of Business, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

ACCEPTING THE CRITICISMS

Its fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of

failure.

There will be people who would want to make fun of your efforts, pull

you down and so on. The stronger you stand the bolder you get the faster

these negatives wither.When IBM pulled out of the contract for the operating system to be

bundled with the IBM Clone PCs, Bill Gates stayed on and started

focusing on the creating Windows amidst lots of hiccups that will hamper

the company.

OTHER KEY LESSONS-BILL GATES

If you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they

will be moved to act. Bill Gates

This is one never mentioned secret of success. Action is the key word.

When logic never drives us its emotions. We must have take action. Bill

Gates as a small young boy never had anything to lose which he kept


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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 its Google or Apple or free software, weve 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 everyhome, 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.


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He Had a Solid Team:

If we werent 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 Microsofts 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.

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 Microsofts 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


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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, were going to make some amazing

achievements, said Gates speaking to the future possibilities for

medicine, education and technology. When Gates faced a dilemma, he

didnt 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 theyall come from the top, says Gates. Im afraid thats not quite right.

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

companys success.


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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 others

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 persons 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 incharge 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


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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

Microsofts later graphical applications.

As their number of staff began increasing into the thousands, the

company typically focused on hiring people right out of school. Most of

our developers, we decided that we wanted them to come with clear

minds, not polluted by some other approach, to learn the way that we

liked to develop software, and to put the kind of energy into it that we

thought was key, recalls Gates.

Microsoft continues to seek out only the best in order to help it stay ahead

of its increasingly fierce competition. They key for us, number one, hasalways been hiring very smart people, says Gates. There is no way of

getting around, that in terms of IQ, youve got to be very elitist in picking

people who deserve to write software. Ninety-five percent of the people

shouldnt write complex software.

By hiring the best and the brightest and carrying out work in small teamsthat 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

worlds first cent billionaire in 1999, but also one of the worlds most

respected entrepreneurs for having revolutionized the world of computers


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and setting new industry standards. I really had a lot of dreams when I

was a kid, recalls Gates.

Power is the engine that drives the ability to

influence . To understand leadership effectiveness

therefore , an analysis of the complex web of

power relationships and influence processes in

organizations is essential. We also need to

examine the sources of power and the

relationship of different power sources to

leadership effectiveness.

SOURCES & TYPES OF POWER POSSESSED BY BILL GATES

Position Power

Legitimate Power: It is based on his position power given by theorganization. It is also called the legitimization influencing tactic.

Employees agree to comply with management authority in return for the

benefit of members. The use of legitimate power is appropriate when

asking a person to do something that is within the scope of their job.

Legitimate Use of Rational Persuasion

It is used by Bill Gates while dealing with higher-level managers.

Rational Persuasion includes logical arguments with factual evidence to

persuade others to implement your recommended action

Reward Power:


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It is based on the leaders ability to influence others with something of

value to them. Microsoft is famous for giving huge remuneration

packages to its employees. An important part of reward power is having

control over resources, such as allocating expense & budget funds.

Bill Gates has full control over evaluating employees performance

determining their raises, promotions & other rewards.

Coercive Power:

The use of coercive power involves punishment & withholding of

rewards to influence compliance. It is also called the pressure influencing

tactics. Bill was a autocratic leader but he never made rash threats & used

coercion to manipulate others or to gain personal benefits.

PERSONAL POWERS

Personal power is derived from the follower based on the leadersbehavior. It includes expertise, friendship or loyalty and charisma.

Expert Power: It is based on the users skill & knowledge. Being an

expert makes other people dependent on the leader. People often respect

an expert & fewer the people who possess an expertise, the more power

the individual has. Bill Gates is a master of his subject & his knowledge,


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skills, expertise is never questioned, tagging him having the expert

power.

Referent Power: It is based on leaders personal relationships with

others. It is also called the personal appeals influencing tactics based on

loyalty & friendship. But with Bill Gates it is more of loyalty due to his

autocratic behavior towards his employees. People stay at Microsoft for

longer time period than most of the companies.

INFLUENCE TACTICS

RATIONAL PERSUASION

Bill Gates extremely used this tactic by applying its functions in a very

logical manner.

Bill always explained why the objectives need to be met.He was very clear on the benefits which the followers would get &

conveyed the same to others.

He was very motivational regarding the set objectives & provided subtle

evidences that the objectives can be met.

He was very quick on explaining how problems & concerns will be

handled.He always innovate newer technologies & was very clear on their

strength over others.

PRESSURE

Bill Gates very frequently used the pressure influencing tactics from fear

of reprimands, probation, to suspension or dismissal.


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Bill gates style as Fiedler Model


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"In Fiedler's model, leadership effectiveness is the result of interaction

between the style of the leader and the characteristics of the environment

in which the leader works"

"According to Fiedler, the effectiveness of a leader is determined by the

degree of match between a dominant trait of the leader and the

favorableness of the situation for the leader.... The dominant trait is a

personality factor causing the leader to either relationship-oriented or

task-orientated"

Relation-oriented leadership:

Leaders who describe their preferred coworker in favorable terms, with a

high LPC, are purported to derive major satisfaction from establishingclose relationships with felow workers. High LPC leaders are said to be

relationship-orientated. These leaders see that good interpersonal

relations as a requirement for task accomplishment.

Task-oriented leadership:

Leaders who describe their least preferred coworker unfavorable terms,

with a low LPC, are derived major satisfaction by successfully


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completing a task. These leaders are said to be task-orientated. They are

more concerned with successful task accomplishment and worry about

interpersonal relations later

The second major factor in Fiedler's theory is known as situational

favorableness or environmental variable. This basically is defined as the

degree a situation enables a leader to exert influence over a group. Fiedler

then extends his analysis by focusing on three key situational factors,

which are leader-member, task structure and position power. Each factor

is defined in the following.

1. Leader-member relations: the degree to which the employees accept

the leader.

2. Task structure: the degree to which the subordinates jobs are described

in detail.

3. Position power: the amount of formal authority the leader possesses byvirtue of his or her position in the organization.

So in this case Bill Gates found most favorable place where positional

power is high as he has most authorities in the firm, task structure is also

defined as he gives the direction to subordinate/follower to fulfill his

vision, and last leader-member relation is also good.Thats mean Bill Gates is more likely Task-oriented leader who want

performance from his subordinate/follower and work has to be done to

achieve the goal/objective of the company.


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Level 5 hierarchy

Level 4 Leaders

Bill Gates has his own visions of what the business needs to do to

succeed. He decides on direction and then gets people to implement his

vision. This is what level 4 leader refer to as "first what, then who." Level

4 leaders are very much in the conventional mode. They may be effective

when it is not too difficult to decide what to do. And Bill Gates is too

ContributingTeamMember

Highly Capable Individual

Bill Gates


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confident what he wants to do in near future and pursue his vision

through his expertise.

Level 5 Leaders

We not put Bill Gates as level five leader because level five leader

require both professional will + humility in which definitely he has

professional will but there is some doubt about humility, although he is

philanthropist who endowed $28 billion dollar in his own Bill & Melinda

Gates Foundation and even promise to donate his 95% wealth as he will

have aged but even after a lot of critics is there that he is doing all of it

just because of status symbol, he is too centralize and blamed for curbing

innovation.

Leadership style

1. Autocratic style

Control is basic to Gate's nature and his management practice. He has an

obsession with detail and with checking up. Exp. Used to sign expenses

for his right hand man STEVE BALLMER.He is trying to monopolize the World Wide Web software market and has

had legal problems with the department of justice. Microsoft restricted

the ability of its internet partners to deal with its rivals. Also he dislikes

complaints.

2. Delegate style


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Brightest talent: 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 included 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

Gives autonomy to his manager, he delegates authority to managers to

run their independent departments.

Criticism

Curbing of Innovation: The critics argued that Microsoft was not an

innovative company. They said that Gates reformed existing products to

satisfy customer needs instead of inventing new ones. Analysts alsoargued that Microsoft's overwhelming market share was a major

impediment to innovation in the software industry. Microsoft was not just

the market leader, but also the standards provider for the industry.

Impediment in development of smaller firms: Critics claimed that

winning was so important to Gates that he would go to any extent to beat

his opponent. James Wallace of Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, "Bill


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Gates not only wants to win, but he wants to kill the competition. He

wants to bury the wounded"

Sometimes 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.

With his ambitious and aggressive business philosophy, Gates or his

Microsoft lawyers have been in and out of courtrooms fighting legal

battles almost since Microsoft began.

Many of the largest technology co. have fought legally against the

actions of Microsoft , including APPLE COMPUTER, NETSCAPE,

OPERA, WORD PERFECT , AND SUN MICROSYSTEME ETC.


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But lets look at history and see a bit more deeply on their sales strategy:

* QDOS. This program was the basis of the first computer operating system. A

command program was invented by Tim Paterson in 1980 would later be named asPC-DOS.

* Bill Gates get to see the market potential of personal computers did not exist back

then and saw the program QDOS a first attempt to realize this vision. So we acquired

the rights to QDOS for $ 50,000 and he sold millions of copies in partnership with

IBM making his first spectacular fortune.

* Windows 3.1: The success of DOS was not enough and the demand for a graph-like

operating system Bill Gates took his first work with graphics from the Windows

versions 1.0, 2.0, 2.03 to reach 3.1, which sold 2 million copies in 6 months. It is said

that the basis for this operating system was an idea borrowed from the company who

claimed Apple copyrights which shows that Microsoft did not invent the operating

system but took the idea from someone else.

* Windows 95: after a series of improvements to the consumer and new graphics,

Microsoft has launched its successful Windows 95 product.

* Windows 98: In 1998 he released the new version of the system with great success

but with certain claims of functionality so a year later re-released Windows 98 Second

Edition, an enhanced version of the first.

* Windows 2000: Launched in February 2000 under the premise of professional

line coming out this updated version of the previous system (W98), also selling

millions of copies.

* Windows ME: that same year in September and under the premise of the new

millennium that both technology markets frightened out Windows ME, although a

version was of very poor quality . also sold millions of copies.


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* Windows XP. Improvements to Windows ME and in October 2001 is launched with

great success again and also number of defects Windows XP. Software that is later

improved with patches that were updated over the Internet. In addition, this version

already contained other important marketing concept: XP Home and XP Professional

to suggest the idea of different options for home users or office (?).

* Windows Vista: January 2007 to launch a new redesigned and many technical

changes specifically aimed at safety. Version that was not liked by many consumers

but also sold by the millions.

* Windows 7: launched in October 2009, this is the most recent version of latest

technology presents Microsoft. It is estimated that by the end of the year have sold

300 million licenses.

* Windows 8: we do not know date or features or new benefits that the offer

proposed. But the expectation for the consumer is created.

All this without mentioning other parallel versions such as Windows NT, Windows

CE, Windows Server, Windows Workstation, etc. or other products such as Internet

Explorer, Windows Media Player, Paint, Wordpad, Defender, etc.

As you can see, the story reveals the great secret of Bill Gates and his successful

business strategy that could be described colloquially as follows:

* Identify a potential market for a product

* No need to invent this great product yourself

* Get this product and buy it for a good price

* Then sell it in large volume

* Then make it better and bring them again to sell

* Then make it better, change his name and sell it again

* Repeat the above steps and still selling

* Use premises as a new, improved , latest technology , greater security ,

faster , enhanced features , etc. and bring them again to sell

* If you criticize your product, use it as an excuse to offer a new proposal and still

selling

* Never stop selling, people always like the new
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So, Bill Gates has been selling improved versions of their product over and over again

and if to this we add that a program is now also sold in various languages, then the

market is expanded almost indefinitely. And if you multiply it by every product we

sell now, then we can understand because it remains the worlds richest

businessman.

This same strategy is commonly applied by companies in detergents, toothpaste, cars,

phones, etc.. improve or implement new features to their products and sell them

through ad campaigns restarted.
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strategy of bill gates

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