The Post Bill Gates Era at Microsoft
Today, as Gates prepares to step down from day-to-day management of the company, another fact is clear: The modern Microsoft remains a company in search of a second act. True, it remains one of the world’s most profitable enterprises, making more profit in its 2007 fiscal year than Apple, Google, Yahoo, Oracle, and Adobe combined. But the cracks in the Microsoft hegemony aren’t just showing, they’re growing.
Gates’ responsibilities is going to be handed over to two executives: Craig Mundie, who takes charge of advanced strategy and policy; and Ray Ozzie, who gets Gates’ old title of chief software architect. Gates remains company chairman.
Gates leaves behind a world of technology and a reputation that will likely grow in stature over time. The company he and Paul Allen founded and that Gates really relentlessly drove for over three decades created an unrivaled universe of extraordinarily popular and successful products, not the least of which is Windows.
There’s an assumption that marketing is a seedy side of business (often because it’s lumped together with PR). Truth is, a good product could go nowhere without smart marketing (and PR). Bill always got that.
With Gates now leaving the building to go off to run the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mundie and Ozzie have been left with that small job on their hands.
Source: PC Magazine
Filed under Business News, Enterprise Software, Internet