Time magazine Persons of the year for 2006 for his charitable endeavour in the medical industry and the richest man in the world in Forbes magazine with assets worth $45b, Bill Gates has definitely achieved more than a man could achieve. In his more than 30 years of founding Microsoft from a mere garage in Redmont, to an operating system and software empire, he had collected more than billions by monopolizing the computer market and in return used the money to save humanity through Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which now has $29.1 billion in assets.
Aspiring to a doctor since young, his career path or should we say entreprenuership path has led him to the technology area instead of the medical industry. Instead of feeling demotivated, he maintained his insatiable drive to climb up the technology ladder and is now able to use his success to save human from various uncurable medical diseases. Thus, it is understandable when he decide to change his priorities to spend more time with his charity work and less time with Microsoft. When you have arrived at a stage like him where you could have anything you want, you would want to give back to the society. And that is why I commend his effort to focus more attention while allowing him to do what he had aspired to be in the medical line.
With his departure from Microsoft, everyone is speculating a tremendous change from the core values of the company to their technolgy strategy. I could not agree more but I forsee that noone will be able to simulate his larger than life persona in creating waves of change. All I am hoping for the company is that instead of being a 'copycat', it willmove to be an innovative company instead with the technical direction and visions from the new chief technical officer, Ray Ozzie who (thank God) is a staunch supporter of Services Oriented Architecture (SOE) or more popularly known in Microsoft as Software as a Service (SaaS).
Regardless, none will be able to emulate the drive, passion and autocratic management that Bill Gates has so successfully imbued on Microsoft. He is the embodiment of Microsoft, just like Tiger Woods is to golf. With his departure, Microsoft has lost the single strong personality that could turn the ship when needed, like when they recognized the threat of Netscape. It will make them slower in responding to competitive threats and in this fast-paced industry, it is all about the speed in change and innovation. All the best Microsoft & Bill Gates. However, have this feeling that this will not be the last we see of him. We'll see :)
Original Source: 'Mobile Talk' from an Employee in a Telco
