Business at the Speed of Thought by Bill Gates

Jehanzeb Khan                               

CISC 2820w

Bill Gates writing assignment

In the book “business at the speed of thought” by Bill Gates. Bill Gates states key points of how companies of the next decade will use digital tools to reinvent the way they work. Digital infrastructures and information networks can help a person gain edge on their competition. Are the points Bill Gates makes valid?

In order for a company to succeed, you have to listen to the customers and their complaints about a products shortcoming. But getting the bad news from the customers and passing it to product design group takes forever. Bill gates suggests that you focus on the unhappiest customers. Using technology to gather the information about your product and see what you should improve. And lastly using technology to take the information to the right people.

Bill gate believes that you should examine customer complaints more often than the company financials. And that your digital systems should help you in taking the complaints about your product into ways that you can improve the product, converting the bad news into good news. Listening to the customer would provide greater success in the company.

I believe that a company needs to know the negative side of the product. This is because the negative side would help the company improve, meeting the consumers demand on what they would like to see in the product.  If a person doesn’t act on those bad reviews than the company won’t stay open for long.

Bill gates insists that the communications should flow through email. For a large company to succeed email has to be a key component of their digital nervous system. This helps turn the managers from middlemen into “doers”. Bill gates talks about how Email can encourage the people to speak up and have the managers listen.  

The argument that Bill Gates talks about on why email is a good way of communicating, for one he says that the use of email can help teachers communicate with one another. Instead of waiting for the district meetings. Email can help teachers to send a question and get an answer back quickly from their fellow peers.

I believe emailing is a great tool for communication because of the immediacy of how you can send an email and receive an email instantaneously, no matter if the recipient is close to you or thousands of miles away from you. Another reason why I believe email is the best way of communication because of record keeping, unless the user deliberately deletes the email. Also, it is far easier than having a document filed away in drawer because you can easily search for the exact email in a matter of seconds.

    Bill Gates brings another point about converting every paper process into a digital process. Replacing paper process with a digital process can save time for the workers to do more useful such as profitably for the company. Everything can be more efficient when it is on a digital scale.

    The argument that Bill gates talks is that he wants to have a paperless system where everything is stored digitally. When the employees see that the company eliminates the bottleneck of time draining chores, they know the company values their time. A digital nervous system can save paper and time having a positive impact on the company.

I agree with Bill gates in having a paperless environment, this is because going paperless is ultimately an efficient and more scalable way then having to hunt for a piece of paper in a filing cabinet, when in a digital database you can pull up the document in minutes. This will be more efficient which means more manpower to focus on other projects. There is also higher security for the documents, digitized companies can have data on a cloud which can be secured even with a fire or flood.

    The use of digital tools to create virtual teams is another way of bringing success to your company. Bill Gates believes in having an aim to increase the corporate IQ, in a company your managing the data, documents and people efforts. The aim should be to enhance the way people work together, share ideas to one another to a common purpose.

    Bill gates argument towards this is that he wants the leaders of the company to make people share their ideas to everybody else. To pass the knowledge that they have to someone else so they can reflect on that idea. This can help businesses in four major areas planning, customer service, training and teamwork on projects.

    I agree with Bill gates that people who share the knowledge to others, are more valuable to the company. Sharing knowledge can increase the success of the company’s overall values. Also improving the way, the people work together towards a common goal can achieve greater success for a company.

Bill gates brings out the point of using digital tools to help customers solve problem for themselves. As electronic commerce booms the middlemen have to find different ways to using the internet to strengthen the relationship they have with their customers. The merchants who treat e-commerce more than just a cash register will do the best.

The arguments he establishes as a support for his 21st projections are that he believes that smart companies will combine internet and personal contact to give the customers the benefit of both kind of interactions. If you want to move the transactions to the internet then you will need to use the internet communication to add the most value. buyers and sellers can easily find each other on the internet, instead of needing a middleman. The internet makes it easier for the buyer to get background information about what they are about to buy.