Bill Gates 2.0
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
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"Gates Closes the Window on Microsoft." "Retirement Plans for Bill Gates." "Gates Stuns Industry with Surprise Move." Those are just a few of the mostly inaccurate headlines which followed Bill Gates' announcement that he will transition from his full-time job at Microsoft into a part-time arrangement in 2008 so he can devote more time to the philanthropic work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Some of the news reports even read like obituaries!
If you have been paying attention to the remarkable career of this remarkable man you found nothing stunning or surprising about his announcement. It has been obvious for some time that Mr. Gates is spending an increasing amount of his energy on the work of the Gates Foundation. His eyes light up and he displays at least as much enthusiasm, and perhaps more, when he discusses his philanthropic work as he does when talking about Microsoft.
I've seen that look before. When you get to interview Bill Gates, you find him fixed on topic, usually a new product or innovation Microsoft is announcing. But if you demonstrate that you have some idea of what he is talking about, and you let him get his message on record, you can then take a shot at getting him to move beyond his script. I remember his enthusiasm showing when I went from a discussion of the new games for the Xbox to asking him if he played those video games with his children.
And his eyes opened wide when I asked at the end of an interview on the release of Windows 95 what it was like to hold the Codex in his hand. I was referring to the Codex Leicester, the famous notebook of Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought in 1994. He went on about what a thrill it was to own such a piece of history, how it would tour the world on exhibit, and how they would be scanning its pages and making them available for study on CD and online for the benefit of everyone.
Gates began to change the balance in his life six years ago when he named Steve Ballmer CEO of Microsoft. Gates took on the title, "Chief Software Architect", supervising product development, while Ballmer dealt with marketing and day-to-day management. He now passes that title on to Ray Ozzie, the visionary responsible for Lotus notes and other products who joined Microsoft in 2005.
It takes one to know one, and Gates is the greatest visionary of the PC age. At a time when small microprocessor based computers seemed destined to be toys of interest only to a hobbyist Gates predicted a day when these "personal computers" would be found on every desktop and in every home. He had the vision, and he also had the courage, to drop out of school and found a company, "Micro-Soft," to write software for these computers. The rest, as they say, is history.
Success wasn't assured. Mistakes were made along the way. Some business practices were rightfully questioned. But all in all Microsoft has been tremendous American success story and Bill Gates' vision has changed the way we work and the way we live.
That is what he intended to do. I don't think he intended to become one of the richest men in the world in the process. His successful business model was of course primarily responsible for that. But he also benefited from luck, timing and the mistakes of competitors.
His personal fortune means he no longer has to consider the affordability of anything he might want for himself or his family. It must be an interesting position to be in. So what do you do with that kind of money? The answer seems to be, give it away. But give it away in a manner befitting a man of vision. Give it away in a manner that will truly make a difference, and set an example for philanthropy which will be adopted by a new generation of men and women who owe their success to the computer age.
"With success," Gates says, "I have been given great wealth. And with great wealth comes great responsibility to give back to society, to see that those resources are put to work in the best possible way to help those in need."
With that task on his agenda the word "retirement" seems completely inappropriate.
While Bill Gates may not be seen so often around the Microsoft campus in the years ahead I have little doubt that his influence will still be felt. And most observers see in Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, who will become Chief Research and Strategy Officer, men well suited to steer the good ship Microsoft in the future.
The waters will be rough, for the computer industry is changing again. Microsoft’s business model has always been based on selling software in a box. Software the customer installed on her computer. In this age of the network the model a shifting to companies which provide services on the network, charging as the services are used. Google is a prime example of this "software as a service" strategy. The challenge for Microsoft is to serve the new model without undermining its traditional revenue stream.
In the words of that wise sage Yoda, "Always in motion the future is." I can't wait to observe the next chapter in the life of Microsoft and Bill Gates.
