Case Study: Triumph Of The Nerds

Kristina Isabelle D. Bello Entrepreneurial Behavior

2TE-4

Triumph of the Nerds

1. What were the key strategic decisions made by the following large companies:

• Intel - Their microprocessors today power 85 percent of the world's computers.

• IBM- Tom Watson and his son Tom Jr developed what they are called Big Blue into the top computer company. They make mainframe computers for companies. They require strong sense of loyalty, strict dress code and rules to be followed. If we take a look closer, the ways of IBM is really different from the ways like, for example, Apple implements.

It started when he, himself was in need of an operating system and turns out that other people need too so he started selling them his operating system.

• Visicalc -It was the first electronic spreadsheet for financial planning. It recalculates the profits and expenses for the year so when you change the number, it pulls everything back. It started slow and eventually took off. People had the chance to invent their own scenarios and budget without taking so much of their time. Dan Bricklin, the Visicalc inventor, marked not to patent his apreadsheet idea for he and Frankston didn’t earned a sum of money in years.

3. Why did they fade into obscurity? What could they have done better?

They fade into obscurity because they didn’t realize that in a competitive market, there would always be someone who would take credit on your work. You should always have an eye on innovating your products. 5. How did the following startups evolve into large

What key strategic mistakes did they make that allowed them to grow as rapidly as they did? What could they have done better?

Even though at first, they just want to impress their friends by building some microcomputers, they eventually learned that they could build something that could run the things needed for the operation of the society. Like Apple, who is so big and successful that the founders didn’t even have to worry about money for the rest of their lives. To think that, they only did it to impress their friends. 7. What did you learn from the videos and reflecting on the lives of these failed and successful companies?

They did it because they have the interest. They have the passion on what they do. They made it their life. It is what makes them wake up in the morning. They never really intended to do t for money but for fun. And with that, they made a great revolution in the history. 8. How can you apply these learnings in your life? How can you apply these learnings in the products you will develop this