Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg, who at present enacts different roles such as entrepreneur, politician, and philanthropist, occupies an important position in the present American society. As the mayor of New York he has established his reputation as a shrewd politician.(Boyd 2006) As the founder of Bloomberg companies, he has exhibited his talent of building a great business enterprise though innovation and patience. As philanthropist, Bloomberg has donated huge amounts of money to the deserving people and institutions.

These different qualities have enhanced, to a great extent, the prestige of Bloomberg as one of the great figures in the modern United States of America. In spite of the fact that Democrats dominate New York political scene, the Republican candidate Bloomberg was able to obtain reelection as the city’s mayor. This exhibits and proves the popularity of the man. Based on this popularity, one can expect that Bloomberg’s domination in the New York political scene would continue for a few more years.

After emerging as one of the important personalities of the USA, Bloomberg has showed his interest in charitable and philanthropic pursuits. Bloomberg showed interest in donating funds to the deserving educational institutions, and he donated millions of dollars to educational institutions in order to improve the financial condition of the educational institutions. Bloomberg’s father inspired Bloomberg to keep aside a particular potion of his income for charity purposes. Bloomberg states that: “…my family taught me private philanthropy when I was very young. Every year, my father received a publication listing contributors to his favorite charity.” (Bloomberg 2001, p. 240)  Bloomberg belonged to the American Jewish family, and he supported the Jewish establishments through charity.

In the year 2003, Bloomberg gave away $136 million to nearly 650 groups. In the year 2004, Bloomberg contributed $139 million to nearly 840 groups. These details show that over the years, Bloomberg has not reduced his philanthropic interest. It is also important to note that he has distributed donation fund to different institutions. The donation recipient groups belonged to various categories such as: arts, museums, parks, ethnic minorities, children, medical research, schools, abortion rights, and gays. This detail shows that Bloomberg has been trying to help different sections of the population.

Many of these groups had to face financial crisis due to the political policy of the New York administration headed by Bloomberg. In order to solve the problems of these different groups, Bloomberg has donated huge amount of money, from his personal financial reserves, to the deserving institutions. (Noon 2004)  Although one can argue that these donations helped Bloomberg to obtain reelection, one cannot question the sincerity of the man while assisting the people and institutions to overcome their financial problems.

The charitable interest of the man indicate that he has been following the examples of other business magnates such as Bill Gates and others who have established philanthropic trusts. The newspapers have reported that Bloomberg can be considered as one the top philanthropist who has already donated millions of dollars to the various institutions. Bloomberg has taken special interest in developing educational institutions such as Johns Hopkins University.  (Noon 2004)

Michael Bloomberg was born in the year 1942 in Medford, Massachusetts. His father was an accountant, and one can notice the influence of the father on Bloomberg’s interest as the latter showed interest in mathematics and study of technological advancements. He became the president of High School Slide rule club. While he acted as the president of this club, Bloomberg acquired the leadership qualities essential for him to emerge as a great entrepreneur in his later days. He went to Johns Hopkins University to study engineering. He was able to obtain his degree in engineering in the year 1964.

Later, he went to Harvard Business School. In Harvard, he obtained the important lessons of becoming a great businessman, and it seems that he implemented most of these lessons when he established his own company a few years later. He obtained his MBA degree in the year 1966. These details indicate that his childhood experience and high quality of education which he obtained from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School inspired him to achieve great things in his life and this eventually resulted in the emergence of the Bloomberg companies. After obtaining his MBA degree, he moved to New York to obtain gainful employment. (Pearson 2006)

Bloomberg’s father was working in a dairy as an accountant, and he was working all the seven days per week. This shows that Bloomberg belonged to the family of middle class hard working parents. Obviously, Bloomberg might have contemplated concerning his future. The family value of hard work is found in Bloomberg, as it is due to his hard work that he was able to emerge as one of the great personalities of the USA. (Bloomberg 2001, p. 210) Bloomberg mentions in his autobiography that he enjoyed the company of his sister Majorie.

His interaction with his sister also played an important role in determining the character of Bloomberg’s personality. Bloomberg mentions that: “Majorie, and I would sit across from each other, with my parents at the opposite ends of the table. My father described what he did at work that day”.

(Bloomberg 2001,  p. 211) This statement shows that the family members regularly discussed personal and official issues. Since Bloomberg was the eldest son of his father, Bloomberg was inspired to imbibe the workaholic nature of his father. Concerning his father and sister, Bloomberg makes the statement that: “…my sister is focused and deliberate. My father was direct and to the point as well.” (Bloomberg 2001, p. 215)

 Through his hard work Bloomberg was able to excel in his education and business, and eventually he was able to emerge as one of the richest persons in the world. In Johns Hopkins University and B School he obtained necessary education which was assisted him in establishing reputation as a shrewd businessman. Through his hard work he was able to reach one of the top positions in the Wall Street.

Through his innovative business strategy, Bloomberg has been able to emerge as one of the most successful American businessmen. He is the founder of different companies which provide service in different sectors such as: securities, journalism, media, marketing, and so on. These companies have established their own reputation as representing the business strategy of Bloomberg.

Bloomberg was able to learn the tricks of his trade when he worked for the Solomon Brothers which ultimately requested Bloomberg to leave the company after paying handsome compensation of $10 million. After this event, Bloomberg established his own group of companies. He found that the traders of securities needed a system wherein all the data would be available to them at a single place. Bloomberg used his technological and business knowledge in order to discover a system called ‘Bloomberg’, and this system provided all relevant information required by the securities’ traders and other businessmen.(Elstein 2005)

Bloomberg has established a competitive business organization based on his appetite for taking risk and grasping market opportunities. Bloomberg has been able to establish a global financial news organization which has been able to give competition to the companies such as Reuters and Dow Jones. Bloomberg believes in providing service to the elite classes in the society, and consequently, he has not concentrated on providing service to the common people by using the internet medium. He does not believe that internet-based companies would be able to give competition to the Bloomberg boxes.

Bloomberg also argues that branding of a product plays an important role in its sale.  For example, the Bloomberg brand has been responsible for the increased sale of the goods and services produced by the Bloomberg group of companies. These details show that Bloomberg believes in the use of a particular market strategy which is the combination of technological innovation, customer service, and branding. Using these strategies, he has been able to considerably improve the fortunes of his company. (Schrage 1998)

During the course of long years of entrepreneurship, Bloomberg has evolved his own set of philosophy of life. Bloomberg believes in setting broad targets or goals, and he does not bother about the functioning of his subordinates as long as they delver the goods. He believed in the result rather than the method of achieving a particular goal. Bloomberg is a great workaholic and believes that one who works more than others can achieve success in his life. Bloomberg believes in the principle that one should never look back after taking a particular decision.

For example, after he decided to leave the Democratic Party and join the Republicans, he did not reflect on this decision. He believed in the philosophy of going into any contest after obtaining the advantage when compared to the competitors. Using this principle, he has been able to obtain success in his business and political life.

Bloomberg also argued that the principle of loyalty is very important particularly in the business arena as the different companies always compete with each other. He believed that a company or an organization requires the direction of the leader, who, through his vision and mission can inspire the subordinates to achieve greater success in their lives. By following these different principles, Bloomberg has been able to improve his personality. His life can act as model for the younger generation entrepreneurs who wish to emulate him and establish their own successful business organizations. (Avlon 2005)

References

Avlon, John. (2005)  New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Warrior, philosopher…leader?

Radical Middle Newsletter. 2 July 2006. <http://www.radicalmiddle.com/index.html>

Bloomberg, Michael. (2001) Bloomberg by Bloomberg. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Boyd, Herb. (2006). New York Amsterdam News. 97(2), 1-2.

Elstein, Aaron. (2005). New York Mayor has a Plum in the Financial News Pie. Crain’s New

York Business. 12(8), 19.

Noon, Chris. (2004). Bloomberg Extends Philanthropy List in 2004. Forbes.com. 2 July 2006.

<http://www.forbes.com/2005/08/17/bloomberg-billionaire-philanthropy-cx_cn_0817autofacescan02_print.html>

Pearson, John. (2006). Michael Bloomberg. Our States. New York.

Schrage, Michael. (1998). Michael Bloomberg. Adweek Western Edition. 48(46), 8-9.