Three years from now, do you think that Zazzle will have disappointed or dazzled its investors? Why? I think that Kleiner Perkins and Sherpalo Ventures investment in Zazzle was a good decision. These venture capitalists saw Zazzle as a significant breakthrough in e-commerce with the ability for mass customization. There was also a strong culture fit and shared vision between the entrepreneurs of Zazzle and the VCs, as the VCs are interested in break-through ideas in consumer internet services with the objective to guide and mentor entrepreneurs to take good ideas and technology and make them into successful businesses.
He has a lot of help and many years to come up with this technology. Pushing his ideas to the extreme, he made employees work long hours and on a “need to know basis”. If Jobs never pushed though, the world could be a very different place than what it is now. Fred Vogelstein goes into how risky it was for Apple to “show off” the Iphone for the first time. “Not only was he introducing a new kind of phone-something Apple has never made before- he was doing so with a prototype that barely worked.” (2).
If they wanted to be truly successful they would need to elicit the expertise of a professional management team already a tested and proven success to create a product strategy that would catapult them into the industry. With the help of Neil Ferris, co-founder of Apollo Computers, a company that realized $1 billion worth of success through its IPO, Giganet hoped to realize some of the same successes. And they did. After an uncertain start and many failed attempts at raising funds with several major industry leaders, Giganet finally succeeds in striking a deal with Dell. Dell offered to use Giganet’s switches as well as invested $5million in the company.
In addition to this, Pixar prides itself on actively pursuing technological advances and being at the forefront of the latest software trends. Jobs Never Quits Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory states that Motivation is the end result of expectancy multiplied by instrumentality multiplied by valence. If Jobs were to not possess any of the three qualities listed (expectancy, instrumentality, valence) he and his employees would lack motivation, meaning the downfall of Pixar. There are several ways in which Jobs can and did maximize these traits though. Job’s selected workers with ability
Competition in the notebook PC market was fierce, and Toshiba could retain its position as market leader only by relentlessly improving its manufacturing processes and lowering costs. Toshiba had some formidable advantages over its competitors, stemming largely from huge investments in such technologies as thin-film transistor (TFT) color displays, hard disk drives, lithium-ion batteries, and CD-ROM drives. In addition, by forming partnerships and joint ventures with other industry giants, Toshiba could share the risk of developing expensive new technologies. With its highly automated factories and sophisticated communication networks, Toshiba brought formidable manufacturing expertise to these alliance. A sophisticated computer network linked OME with other domestic and overseas Toshiba development and production sites.
Sony have been able to introduce innovative products that customer didn’t really think they need, but that have become a huge success when adopted by the consumers. This has further contributed to Sony’s great customer loyalty. Since Sony operates in many different product categories and reach out to a lot of different customer segments, this contributes to them having a lot of competitors as well. Although remaining a force to be reckoned with within the electronics sector, they have lost their leadership position to some of their competitors. Companies like Apple, who are ranked 1st as the most valuable brand in the world, could become a direct competitor if they expand their product line.
His Creation of Microsoft revolutionizes the computer world and made the lives of people easier (Microsoft Corporation). Bill Gates, by creating America’s dependence on computers with Microsoft serves as one the most important turning points in American History. To start with, before there was even a Microsoft, there was very little scope for personal computers and software related to computers back then (Computer changes in the 1970’s). In the beginning of the 1970’s, few people had no idea what their computer technology would lead to and only a few people probably had the vision that they would have been made into what they are now. Before Computers had any sort of Microsoft software, computers were somewhat hard and too complex for people to use.
By forming alliances with companies like Boeing and Advanced Scientific Concepts, it is able to develop and improve upon products that it otherwise is incapable of obtaining using only its own technology. The company also has a healthy financial position with an excellent cash and long-term debt rate. Despite these competences, iRobot still has serious concerns. Although the robotics industry is not highly competitive, iRobot needs more competition to help build up the total scale and visibility of the fledgling industry it has pioneered. Home care robots, its biggest revenue source, are a luxury supplemental good.
Musk was a risk taker and took an even bigger risk by launching a company his brother Kimbal called zip2 using $28,000 of their father’s money and funds from angel investor the two brothers took advantage of a growing new enterprise called the Internet. Is it made to take advantage of what the internet can offer and Musks’ Company developed online city guides for newspaper publishers. Before long it had won the contracts of some of the biggest players in the newspaper industry such as The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. But there was tension, Musk wanted to be CEO, but the board stood firm against the move. In 1999 right before the dot com bubble was about to burst.
So despite knowing the culture of successful companies, it is virtually impossible to copy, making culture a strategic asset (Flamholtz and Randle, 2011). Take Apple for example, it has overtaken Microsoft as the most valuable technology company. Usurp Microsoft position which they held for almost two decades. The concept of culture helps to explain all phenomena to normalise them. That is, if we understand the dynamics of culture, we will be less likely to be irritated and frustrated by the irrational behaviours of people in the organization.