Prematurely analyzing effects of Bill Gates’ departure
Now that Bill Gates has announced plans to work less at Microsoft after two years, blogs around the world are jumping onto the wagon to announce how Microsoft is going to change and how Microsoft is changing because of that very decision. These predictions are so far without any merit. In the case of Bill Gates leaving, no connection has so far been presented between his departure and things happening at Microsoft.
The recent contract between Microsoft and Creative Common has been associated with the departure announcement. This is again an assumption that is being made too early and without any evidence of even the most indirect kind. In the above case, the contract with Creative Commons had been happening even before the announcement of the departure. A link between two different things should not be claimed without explaining or presenting the link itself or at least some information that gives such a claim some benefit of the doubt.
Microsoft is going to steer in the same direction that Bill Gates wanted for a few more years. Announcements like the cancellation of the new storage technology WinFS do not imply that things are shaking because of the departure. Anthony talks about “changing of the guard” at Microsoft; I agree, things will change. However, they will not change because of the departure; they have already been changing for a while now and will continue to change faster or slower now, since the priorities in focus and leadership will keep changing a bit in the future.
Speculations can be good. However, some supposed speculations are actually rumors. It’s type of spreading a trend that Bill Gates has been a bad influence or that the departure is going to cause turmoil at the company. While the departure may cause issues or things to happen, nothing has happened so far that proves such a thinking, and no clear reason has been provided by anyone who thinks the departure is clearly resulting in different things. Such writing should only be read as a rumor or something similar until and unless some link is shown to exist between the two separate issues claimed to be related.
There are also many premature assumptions on the topic by many people. Anything new or innovative that comes out now does not mean it’s because of the absence of Bill’s dictatorship, even though we will see many people claiming otherwise. These things, in reality, are what Bill, Steve and others have been planning to do regardless of who is in charge. The direction for the company has been set mostly for now: in addition to projects like the Xbox, to get a good foothold into the business market and online services along with stabilizing and increasing the foothold that Microsoft already has in the desktop software market. People keep forgetting that Bill Gates is still working at Microsoft and will continue to work fulltime for at least another two years. Even after two years he will still work part-time, and thus still have a say in the planning of things.
Keeping ourselves on topic and not delving into the off-topic issues of monopoly and related things, we should read about any claim or hints just as we would read any sentence. If such a thinking is supposedly a symbolic reference, that something suspicious or some kind of a connection between things does exist, then this symbolism serves no purpose in making any correlation between events, since symbolism does not count as a point or evidence in showing connection between any two things in the business world, or in any world for that matter. A claim, regardless of what form it’s in, should come with some kind of a validity. All the claims so far of correlation between Bill Gates leaving and things happening at Microsoft have no validity so far.
In short, it’s still too early to associate anything directly to the departure of Bill Gates. An analysis or critique of something should be done without bias. In the case of Bill leaving, most of the writings online tend to show some sort of a bias by showing some negative correlation between Bill, Microsoft and something else. Maybe it’s done because people do have some concrete proof but can’t express themselves clearly, or maybe it’s being written when one cannot think of something else to write about. Regardless of why something is speculated, speculations should always be analyzed for validity. The post-Gates world is far from seeing the light of the day yet.
Below is the email Bill Gates sent to all Microsoft employees on June 15th, 2006, with the subject “My Transition Plans” explaining his departure announcement.
I wanted to take a moment to share some of my thoughts, as well.As Steve’s mail indicates, I’ve decided that two years from now, in July 2008, I want to devote more time to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Right now and for the next two years, my full-time job is here at Microsoft, and my part-time job remains the Foundation. Beginning in July 2008, I will switch that, to be full-time at the Foundation, while remaining involved with Microsoft as Chairman and an advisor on key development projects on a part-time basis.
To prepare for this change, we have a well-thought-out transition process. Again, I will continue at Microsoft full-time for the next two years, but over the course of those two years, my day-to-day responsibilities will shift to a team of incredible technical leaders who are already doing amazing things at the company.
I feel very lucky that we’ve got extraordinary technical leaders at the company, like Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, who can step up to assume the roles that I’ve played. I’ve known Ray for the last 20 years, and he has created some of the most important developments in the industry. Craig and I have worked together for nearly 14 years, and he’s been a technical visionary and a leader on policy throughout his career. With Ray and Craig stepping up, I feel very confident that the technical stewardship of Microsoft is in very capable hands.
And I feel the same way about our business leadership. Our core businesses are strong and we have a clear vision for how we will meet new challenges and opportunities. We just had our first $12 billion quarter, and we continue to generate almost a billion dollars in profit every month. We are about to launch breakthrough versions of Windows, Office and Exchange, which are already generating a lot of excitement.
Six years ago, Steve and I made a major transition when he stepped up to be CEO. He’s done a fantastic job by every measure, whether it’s the people he’s brought in, the new ways he’s running the company, or just the objective results - like doubling our revenue in six years. Steve has driven us to make bold bets on things like Xbox, Real Time Communications, business applications, IPTV, and many others including the Live platform. Steve is the best CEO I could imagine for Microsoft - he is changing the company in ways it needs to be changed. He is bringing in new leadership at all levels. And, he is focused on the long-term - making Microsoft a great company not just today but for decades to come.
With Steve’s organization of the company into three divisions led by our incredible presidents - Jeff Raikes, Robbie Bach, and Kevin Johnson - we’ve laid a solid foundation for greater autonomy, agility and entrepreneurial spirit in our product groups. And with the great addition of Kevin Turner as our COO, our leadership team has never been stronger.
Our deep technical strength is one of the key reasons I believe Microsoft is well-positioned for great success in the years ahead. I’m very pleased that in addition to Ray, Craig, David and Rick, Steve has asked J Allard, Bob Muglia, and Steven Sinofsky to play an expanded role in shaping the company’s business and technology strategy. And when you consider all of our remarkable Technical Fellows, Distinguished Engineers, all of the brilliant researchers working at our MSR labs around the world, and all the technical people in the business groups, I can safely say that our technical talent has never been stronger or deeper.
Obviously, this has been a very hard decision for me. Microsoft will always be a huge part of my life, and I’m lucky to have two callings that are so important and so challenging.
On a personal note, I know that my work on global health and education issues at the Foundation would never have been possible without the enormous success of Microsoft, so I want to thank you and all of the employees past and present who have contributed so much to this company.
For these last 31 years, I’ve had the best job in the world. I’ve worked with some of the brightest and most passionate people in the world. Together, we’ve built a great company whose products have empowered people around the world.
We’re only at the beginning of what software can do, and I’m excited about the impact that Microsoft can have. I’m going to take an extended vacation this summer with my family, but I’ll be back in late August and I look forward to working with all of you for the next two years and beyond, to make those dreams a reality.
Thanks.
Bill
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( June 29th, 2006 at 4:20 am )
Hmmmm….
I think Google has left no other choice for Microsoft or Yahoo or any other major players. So, even if bill wants to stay or leave, Microsoft is going to have to learn to innovate and be more focussed about the customer rather than their bank balance.
http://arstechnica.com/news...
20060628-7154.html
http://members.microsoft.co...
Search/EvidenceDetails.aspx?
EvidenceID=13774&LanguageID=1
This page says that Tommy.com uses Microsoft technology. But last time I checked tommy.com had JSPs (java server pages) on their site. Is microsoft lying?
( July 4th, 2006 at 4:09 am )
Thanks for the links. Interesting point you have there. I’m not sure why the site is running JSP while MS is saying it’s supposed to be using ASP.
Or could it be the custom version of Java by Microsoft? Not sure, am checking for more info.