Entrepreneurship and Ownership, Essay Example

Two Different Branches of Overall Management

Between the years 1914 to 1954, the rise of one of the top most performing computer company in the world has been given way. Thomas J. Watson, the founder and chairman CEO of the company decided to create an organization that would bring the computer age into a higher degree of social acceptance. Relatively, as the founder, he oversaw the growth of the organization from the point of its creation towards the distinctive definition and identification of its name in the world market.

To make sure that his company would grow into a huge and widely acceptable organization, he created a management style as well as a corporate culture that would specifically define the path of the people who begin to embrace the possibility of joining its control. His desire of creating an organization that would lead a huge industry of businesses, which employs hundreds and, thousands of people was never an easy dream to follow. Nevertheless, the strategies that he used to make sure that such desire is fulfilled were effective enough to make distinctive condition of advancement especially on the part of those who make members of the IBM’s work and operational family.

Upon starting up the company, Watson made sure that his organization’s path of growth is well defined and is specifically identifiable not only for the people within the organization but also outside the management’s control which includes a huge number of clients who appreciate what the business has to offer. Optimistic as he is, he desired to make sure that his efforts would not go into waste. Instigating a culture of accurate inventory and extensive course of promotional marketing campaigns, Watson was known for continuously moving forward. Even in the face of war, Watson refused to put his face down and accept the possibility of losing the competition due to supposedly uncontrollable situations. It was during this time that Watson proved his leadership especially that he chose to take care of his people rather than to lay them off as any other company was doing at the time.

Passing off the torch to the CEOs that came to fit his position after his death, the culture as well as the management style that he has established has become the source of company competence throughout the years. Relatively, this fact made it easier for the managers and CEOs that came after him to make definitive paths and simply follow what Watson has left as a legacy to the company. Today, the current CEO of IBM in the person of Samuel Palmisano, faces a great deal of challenge. There may not be any war at present, nevertheless, the competition in the international market is tough enough to make distinctive impact on how the management of IBM takes place. With business issues such as outsourcing, cost cutting and increased profit-margin influencing the process of management that Palmisano applies, the established culture of Watson continues to thrive in the bloodline of IBM’s way of life and operation.

Seeing how the two leaders of IBM [then and now] faced the different challenges of establishing an entity towards maintaining its integrity and bringing it to the next level of market identification, it could be analyzed how different an owner is with an entrepreneur. Most often than not, the goals of an owner are more personal, sourced deep from their desire of succeeding in the industry that they wish to affect. On the other hand, entrepreneurs are intensely involved in the process by which the organization thrives fully towards development even in the face of specific tumultuous events that might actually cause chaos in the manner by which the whole organization advances forward.  Owners could be as involved as they desire in the operation of the businesses they establish, however entrepreneurs are more involved in the situations that the business engages with and thus become more instrumental on the growth and development of the organization as a whole.

References

Samuel J. Palmisano. http://www.ibm.com/ibm/sjp/. (Retrieved on October 15, 2012).

On this Day. Thomas J. Watson Sr. Is Dead; I.B.M. Board Chairman Was 82. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0217.html. (Retrieved on October 15, 2012)