Resolve and Fortitude : Microsoft's ''SECRET POWER BROKER'' breaks his silence Read Online Free

software utilized on them.” Suspecting competitors found it aggressive and arrogant. For the company’s employees, it portrayed an unrelenting commitment to transform the nascent industry into an IT superturbine.
    We all believed in this transformation. In my first exchange with Bill, we therefore focused on the roles OEMs were playing in this bigger picture and what he expected from me in my new role. He opened up by saying, “I consider nurturing and fomenting the OEM customer base a key building block for our aspirations.” He then stated that MS software innovations were impelled by this customer base and their component suppliers and that this lockstep was what created a tsunami force of revolutionary information appliances. He then lectured me that neither of us could prosper without independent software vendors (ISVs). As I knew from my work in Apple, they delivered the applications that enriched these information appliances, like icing on the cake. As such, they fashioned the cutting edge needed to transform PC-based information technology into an unbeatable dynamo. “Powerless without them” sounded quite humble coming from him.
    Our discussion turned even more invigorating, inspiring, and sharply informative when he briefed me on MS’s evolving product strategies centered on the importance of making Windows a success and the challenge IBM posed in this regard. He further outlined his interest in the high-tech endeavors OEMs were engaged in and suggested we meet frequently to share freshly gathered intelligence. Hardware-driving software and vice versa ensured the insight I provided would keep him apprised of key novelties. His challenge to me: “Your new job is not just a sales and marketing job. I expect you to provide me with relevant information and strategic recommendations so I can make better decisions for the company.” The primary reason Jon Shirley had extended me unencumbered access was evident. Obviously, Bill wanted unfiltered reports and an opportunity for sharing his assessments of events directly with the person running the most profitable and strategic group in the company to date. I felt honored to receive such a refreshingly new level of trust and responsibility. And I made myself a promise to answer his calling by pairing the highest level of performance with perfect execution!
    Completing MS’s executive trio was Bill’s closest friend, then in charge of R & D for all operating systems and today’s CEO of MS, Steve Ballmer. He made up for any shortfall through sheer voltage and a personality inimitably his own. I heard people say that he looked like a linebacker with quarterback ambitions. Eventually he made that grade! Burly and nearly bald, he bristled with crosscurrents of energy. When raising his voice and booming with enthusiasm, he became easily carried away. People who did not know him well were scared or intimidated by some of his outbursts. Nevertheless, Steve remains the most intuitive people manager I have ever met. He presented himself as a confident, eternal optimist but played the compulsory doom-and-gloom card brilliantly—effectually offering you a contrary, chilling dimension. He had worn many different hats in the young company’s history. Bill’s “fixer” was one. Supposedly ever loyal, he had straightened out the thorniest predicaments. Holding degrees from Harvard in mathematics and economics, this chest-thumping showman was another numbers guy at heart. Numbers, finally, were what grounded him. I quickly learned how to use the numerical to reach him. The clear absolute language of numbers and their certainty and involuntary warmth had the effect of calming Steve and of speaking directly to his careening sensibilities.
    Over the years, I had gotten acquainted with our exec trio through frequently scheduled review meetings. An ironclad practice that kept the company on track and focused and top management in the loop. Formal and well-structured, these