Bill Gates
Bill Gates, the software magnet holds not only an enviable
position in the business world today but is the acclaimed genius of our times. As
the American business executive officer
of the Microsoft Corporation, Gates dominates the world of hi-tech computers.
Gates was born at Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955. Gates’
father was a lawyer and his mother a strong-willed, outing lady. Gates in
contrast was a shy boy. He preferred the company of his own thoughts. Unlike his
mates Gates was far more concerned with the magic of numbers than fast cars and
movie mania. He would spend hours alone and his parents became concerned about
the little boy. His father recalling Bill’s childhood says, “He was so small
and shy, in need of protection and his interest were so small and shy, in need of protection and his interests were so
different from the children of his age.” Gates at the time was in the sixth
standard. Often, when asked, “What are you doing?” the standard reply would be,
“I’m thinking.”
Bill’s rationale and a fiercely competitive spirit where “winning
mattered” was nurtured in early childhood. Large family dinners were often
followed by organized bridge games and trivia. These, Gates recalls, were
played seriously. He was nicknamed “Trey” (Three in card terminology.)
Even as a boy Gates’ interests were different from others. Instead
of following the normal run of the mill activities. Trey often spent time
thinking about the numbers and their varied behavioral pattern. At a small
school where he studied he first came in contact with the world of computers. It
was a teletype computer terminal.
By his 13th year, Gates and his close friend Paul
Allen had picked up computer language from a manual. In the eighth standard,
Bill had to his credit two programmers. One of them dealt with conversion of
one mathematical base into another base. The second programme was a game of
noughts and crosses. Later he devised as computer version of RISK, a board game
with the final aim of world domination.
Trey’s novel interest gave him an exposure into the world of
men where work was done with a serious intent. With his friend Paul, Trey spent
hours at a local company with a new computer. They had to identify the “bugs”,
that would crash it. Often Trey would sneak out after his parents went to bed
and spent most of the night at the company. He did maximum overtime and his
reward was pleasure!
While work was pleasure, pursing of leisure was an arduous
task for the reticent Bill. Gates lacked confidence in social settings all
through his early years. It was only in high school that the shackles of self
consciousness began to give away. Getting places in the top 10 of the US aptitude
exam and his meritorious mental ability amongst his comrades gave him the
required confidence. At this point “his confide4nce and sense of humour
increased, “ his father recalls. He even worked out programmes that would put
him in classes with the ‘right’ girls.
It was at Harvard that Bill Gates met steve Ballmer. Both took
postgraduate level courses and Ballmer nurtured Gates’ social side. Under Ballmer’s
influence Gates joined the college eating club and started to visit popular
discos in New York. In 1980 Ballmer joined Microsoft. Gates says, “I always
would have close business associates like Ballmer and several of the other top
people at Microsoft, and that we would stick together and grow together no
matter what happened.”
While attending Harvard in 1975, Gates teamed with Allen to
develop a version of the BASIC computer programming language for the ALTAIR,
the first personal computer. This led to the formation of Microsoft in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, in the same year. Gates decided to drop out of Harvard in 1977 to
work at Microsoft full-time, pursuing his vision of “a computer on every desk
and in every home.” In 1979, Gates and Allen moved the company of Redmond,
Washington, a suburb of their hometown of Seattle. Since then, Microsoft has
grown from 15 employees and over $50,055 in revenues in 1978 to over 55,000
employees and $ 50 billion in revenues for the fiscal year in June 2005.
In 1981 Microsoft took its first step in diversifying beyond
the programming languages market when it released MS-DOS, the operating system
for the original IBM personal computer (PC). Microsoft went on to convince
other PC manufacturers to license MS-DOS, which made it the de-facto software
standard for PCs. Microsoft’s collaboration with IBM throughout the 1980s
created the world’s first mass-market phenomenon in the computer industry based
on the availability of computer chips, parts and the MS-DOS operating systems. The
acceptance of the MS-DOS as the software standard for the PC led to Microsoft’s
Increasingly important role in the industry.
Microsoft is a sprawling campus of over thirty-five low-rise
buildings where competitive workers work relentlessly to materialize Gates’
dream, perhaps of world domination. To Microsoft goes the credit of growing the
market in desk top operating systems. They survived companies like IBM, which
are 10 times their size.
Dressed in khaki trousers and flannel shirts, the young
members of the Microsoft world are called “Bill clones.” These are brilliant
young minds hired to be trained in the combined art of technical brilliance and
creativity. At the entrance test they are subjected to e rigorous IQ test that
poses all but easy questions.
One of the routine tasks of Gates at the Microsoft is to
hold meetings with teams working on various projects. The teams are subjected to
grilling questions on politics of their rivals, details of technology,
marketing strategy and so on. No area remains untouched. Gates expects only
excellence from his teams. There is no place for second rate outputs. A good
set of ideas is unhesitatingly termed as “really Neat” or “supercool.” The bad
strategies are unsparingly labelled as “crummy”, “really dumb” or “random to
the max”.
Gates’ office like the man himself is shrouded in silence
most of the time. The phone almost never rings. Most of his contact to the
outside world is through e-mail. The office is sparsely decorated with ordinary
furniture with a lot of airy room for thought.
Gates married Melinda French on January 1 1994. She was
working for the company when he met her at One of the Microsoft press
conferences. She is intelligent and independent and spends most of her time
devoted to charity work now. The Gates have as already given away over $ 500
million as charity to various organizations.
Although the birth of three children may have tempered the
fiercely competitive spirit, he still pushes hard and is known to be a Darwinian
at heart. A former Microsoft executive and an admirer-cum-critic points out, “He
doesn’t look for win-win situations, but for ways to make others lose. Success is
defined as flattening the competition, not creating excellence. In Bill’s eyes,
he’s still the kid who’s afraid he’ll go out of business if he lets anyone compete.”
Countering the view that what drivers Bill is not threatened by intelligent people
. . . . only stupid ones.” For Gates
competition is a sport and one must play it with verve and alacrity. He calls
it “superfund.”
The 50-year-old big boss of the bit and byte with a passion
for speeding and intelligent minds is a much matured man. Less enamored with
pure intelligence than before he says, “I don’t think that IQ is as fungible
choices and how to think more morally.”
This giant of the computer world has a lot of years ahead of
him. With his marked ability to translate technical vision into market strategy
and to blend creativity with technical acumen, we can look forward to a future
of stupendous innovation, that not only sharpens our grey cells but will have
us crying for more.
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