Summary

The Case study which was assigned to us involves the success story of an entrepreneur Jeff Hawkins, the pioneer of Palm Pilots, who had the desire to pursue his ideas. He got inspired from his father who used to build boats. According to him, the skill of learning to use tools, fiberglass and screws, which he acquired in childhood, helped him in becoming an entrepreneur. After getting the degree of electrical engineering, he joined Intel. Three years later, he joined GRiD where he developed a software name Palm Print and hand held device GRiD Pad. The GRiD Pad was a big failure due to his slow, ugly style and serious limitations. Then he founded his own company named Palm. His was hand held device named Zoomer was also a big flop because of its bad text recognition and price. To realize his dreams, he hired Donna Dubinsky, a former apple computer employee, so that she can help him out in sales and management. Hawkins and Donna started to perform in depth survey regarding the failure of his two hand held device. The main problem identified was the in ability of his hand held devices to recognize individual hand writings. So he decided that instead hand held devices learns everyone`s handwriting, everyone should learn the handheld device`s handwriting. For this he developed Software named Graffiti. In order to get finance, he sold the company to U.S Robotics and introduced a new hand held device named Palm Pilot which was a big hit and became the fastest-selling product in history.
Hawkins faced a lot of failures but he stick to his ideas because of his passion for his work. Despite of his failures he tried to identified the flaws in his products and at last he reached to his destination.

Answer 1: The characteristics to be a successful entrepreneur which Jeff Hawkins possess include

Passion for Business Passion for business derives from the entrepreneur`s believe that this product will change the live of people. It will bring a tremendous change in societys trends. Same was the case with Hawkins who was sure of his idea that a hand held device can change peoples` life. He wants to facilitate people and his goal was to develop a hand held device which can be complement their PCs. When Hawkins was asked how he feels after the success of Palm pilots, his reply was that he gets happier when people say that this is great. It changes my life. Passion for business was one of the major characteristics which contributed toward his success. Product/Customer Focus Enthusiastic entrepreneurs are really keen towards the need and wants of his customers. They always desire to make a product based on customer focus. Hawkins first two failures were due to lack of customer focus. Although his device was customer oriented but there was a lack of research. Before his 3rd attempt, he did in depth survey of what he lacks. The main problem identified was the in ability of his hand held devices to recognize individual hand writings of his customers. So he decided that instead hand held devices learns everyone`s handwriting, everyone should learn the handheld device`s handwriting. Customer focus was the point which leads him to ultimate success. Tenacity despite Failure By tenacity we mean diligence or holding tightly to some object. An entrepreneur is well aware of the fact that failure rate associated with his efforts is very high. Tenacity despite failure was one of the main and most important characteristic of Hawkins which led him to reach to the ladder of success. He failed two times but he remained stuck to his idea and tried again and again. His first attempt was GRiD Pad. But it has some flaws so he tried hard and went to study human brain recognition patterns in order to remove the deficiency in his hand held device. His second attempt was Zoomer it failed again because it is costly and has bad text recognition. Before his third attempt he conducted research and through survey he got amazing results and he come up with new findings. He followed it and developed standard handwriting recognition software called Graffiti and then Palm Pilot which was his wonderful success. Execution Intelligence
Hawkins learned by trial and error method. When his first attempt failed, he decided to open his own company, but for this he needs money. He arranged money by venture capital and hired Donna Dubinsky who possessed great skills of sales and marketing which Hawkins lacked. He

also faced financial problem when he planned to develop Palm Pilot. For this he sold his company to the U.S Robotics. From this step he was able to fulfill his financing needs. After his success he ultimately separated his company as a legal entity. But if you study the characteristic of good entrepreneur you found that good entrepreneur have good executive intelligence, he have to develop good business idea , develop team, raise money and managing finance so if you observe Hawkins, you found that he did the same. Which proves that Hawkins have good execution intelligence.

Answer 2: The following are the myths which are dispelled by Jeff Hawkins Myth 1: Entrepreneurs are born not made Myth that entrepreneurs are peoples who are genetically predisposed to be the entrepreneur is falsified. If we analyze Hawkins story we found that he like other normal young boy help his father in building boats. So entrepreneurs are not born but made. Although they have some potential to became an entrepreneur, like Hawkins. He was very passionate about his idea and has the ability to inspire people from his work. So he was not born as entrepreneur inspite he made up himself and reached the destination where he wanted to be. Myth 2: Entrepreneur are Gamblers Entrepreneurs are not gamblers inspite the take calculated risk like is case of Hawkins. He started job at Intel, worked there for 3 years. He left that job to work at a small company named as GRiD whose goals were to design a computer that a person could carry. At GRiD he fascinated by how human brain functions. He again took risk left the job and went Berkeley to study how human brain recognizes patterns. After studying this he again joined GRiD to work on the hand held device. When the device got failed, he again took the risk and decided to start his own company. All things activities shows that Hawkins always planned before taking any type of decision. Myth 3: Entrepreneur are motivated primarily by money Hawkins falsified the myth that entrepreneurs are motivated by money because Hawkins primary need was not money. His desire was to give value to the customers. During his career he came across many phases when he needs finance for his company, for this he did venture capital and then sold the company to U.S Robotics. When he achieved success and had lot of money then he said that the thing that makes me feel great is when people say after using my product that this is great its changes my life. His statement shows that money was not his primary focus but its primary focus was to make his customer feels great and satisfy their needs.

Myth 4: Entrepreneur should be young and energetic There exist another misconception is that entrepreneur is young and energetic but it is not necessary. To be an entrepreneur one must have passion and expertise to run business smoothly. When Hawkins was youngster and completed his graduation, he started to work with Intel and GRID companies and after that he continuously improved himself and tried to develop skills which he lacked. If you take an average in 1979 when Hawkins graduated his probable age was 21. And in 1992 he opened his company palm. After 13 years from his graduation he formed a company when his age was 35. He was 39 years old when his first hand held device got succeeded. Myth 5: Entrepreneur love the spot lights
Entrepreneurs love spotlights but it is also wrong because if we study Hawkins history and background we found that Hawkins was a successful entrepreneur but he never run for the spotlights and fame. His only passion was to give value to his customers.

Answer 3: Yes, hand held devices have positive impact on economy, society, and the ability of business to increase productivity and leads society towards success. We think so because of following reasons:

With the invention of hand held devices the economic activity also moved. It was the time when economic activity was moving towards the direction of smaller entrepreneur firms, which was due to unique ability of innovation and specialized task. Similarly due to invention of hand held devices there was a positive change in the economic activity. Hand held devices provided people with ease and portability. It was introduced at the time when there were a lot of technological changes and people were transferring their manual work to their personal computers. With the invention of these portable hand held devices, as it was a great innovation, people shifted their interest from PCs to hand held devices. Consumers wanted to adopt all those gadgets that increase convinces and portability but along with that they want quality of hardware and software. Similarly people started thinking that technological changes will lead their company towards success. As there was demand of hand held devices, the productivity of the companies also increased. So all these factors increased consumer acceptance.

Answer 4: Yes, palm pilot was Hot when it was introduced but now its demand is decreasing because now it is out dated. The technology is changing rapidly. At the time when palm pilot was introduced they didn`t have the facility of internet with them. Now there is a lot of technology change, people are more interested in I pads and other device. Due to this reason the palm pilot and other devices like that are waning in terms of consumer appeal.

Conclusion
After analyzing the case we concluded that Hawkins have all characteristics of a good entrepreneur as he had passion for business, his primary focus was towards people that they must like his product and his product will satisfy their needs. He had tenacity despite failure, he had all execution intelligence. We also found that entrepreneur is made by external environment and it depends that what person experience and observes from his childhood and as time passes this passion increases. A successful entrepreneur always tries to reduce the risk factor despite of failure he must try to find out deficiencies and try to remove them. If he fails he never give up he tried until he succeed. A successful entrepreneur is one who has ideas, skills and lot of passion and experience to serve people to fulfill their demand s and makes them satisfied. To become spotlight Is not their wish they wants to serve people and makes them happy