For anybody that wants to know about how technology can be turned into business and how technology can power business, there is one man you simply have to listen too: Bill Gates. The chairman of Microsoft not only redefined technology in his incredible career but also did more to bring hardware and software into the business mainstream.
Here are a few of his most telling, wise and intelligent quotes.
Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.
The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.
I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user.
At Microsoft there are lots of brilliant ideas but the image is that they all come from the top - I'm afraid that's not quite right.
Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don't think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without the talking about the other.
Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.
People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines... There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear. But with time, people will come to accept their silicon masters.
The Internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow.
This is a fantastic time to be entering the business world, because business is going to change more in the next 10 years than it has in the last 50.
Whether it's Google or Apple or free software, we've got some fantastic competitors and it keeps us on our toes.
There are people who don't like capitalism, and people who don't like PCs. But there's no-one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft.
The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life.