Business Path: Bill Gates. 10 secrets of the richest business leader in the world. Dez Dearlove

about the author
Bill Gates is a unique phenomenon of modern business, the greatest of the tech moguls. The leading position in the software market made him the richest man in the world. The wealth and technical genius of Bill Gates is only part of his appeal. His remarkable ability to anticipate business processes and his passion for winning has created a leadership style that is radically different from anything the business world has seen before.
But you are unlikely to be told all the secrets of management and leadership in the spirit of Gates in business schools. Where to get information? Advertising and anti-advertising aside, what is Bill Gates really like?
One of the most recent books on Microsoft, The Way to Do Business: Bill Gates not only reveals the secrets behind Gates' astonishing success, but also draws universal lessons from his life and career and identifies strategies that anyone who wants to succeed in business can benefit from. You'll learn how to hire the smartest people who truly love what you do, how to turn competitors into dust, and many of Gates' secrets that helped him reach the top of the business.
Dez Dearlove – соучредитель Toонсалтинговой Toомпании Suntop Mеdia. He writes regularly for the Times, American management review, and Human Resources periodicals. He is the author of several books on management theory and practice, including The Best Book on Business Thinking, The Architects of the Revolution, and The Business Way: Richard Branson.

From the author
I think my work is a good analysis of why Bill Gates achieved such success and remained successful for so many years. In the end, no matter who he is for you - the Antichrist or the messiah of the scientific and technological revolution - it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that he is in any case a unique personality. For about twenty years he has dominated the computer industry and shows no signs of decline. But Gates is not only a computer genius - he also created a business model for the 21st century. For all this he deserves gratitude.
I also want to give special credit to Randal Strauss, James Wallace, and Jim Erickson for their outstanding Microsoft books, which have been a source of inspiration to me.
I also thanks to: Steven Cumber for research and valuable thoughts; Mark Allin, Richard Burton and Katherine Meyrick of Capstone Publishing.
Dez Dearlove
September 1998

More about Bill Gates
Since the publication of the first edition of The Business Journey: Bill Gates in 1999, the richest man on the planet has come a long way, and the road has not been smooth. For the past two years, Gates has traveled along thorny paths in his journey through the “hall of fame” of business. He faced a downturn in the computer market, new competitors, and a series of legal challenges.
Much of his time and energy has been spent fighting an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft that alleges the company is using its dominant market position to limit competition. It was a fierce battle, but so far, Gates walks in the winners.
Microsoft has also taken steps to save itself. Through its new network strategy, the company aims to secure its long-term position and prevent encroachment on its traditional markets. In Redmond, Gates is tackling the thorny issue of his successor as chief administrator. If all this chicanery is dealt with successfully, Microsoft will retain its dominant position in the market. The road ahead promises new challenges. But the Microsoft boss has shown that he is still a leader on the treadmill.
The uncertainty looming over Microsoft, especially at a time when US antitrust authorities were about to order the firm's split in two, led to severe financial turmoil. The value of Microsoft's shares fell from $550 billion to $470 billion, then bounced back as the company ebbed and flowed in parallel with the decisions of US courts in the antitrust case against Microsoft. And it wasn't just Microsoft's equity that took the hit. In 1999, Bill Gates' personal fortune was estimated by Forbes magazine at $85 billion. But by 2001, that figure had dropped to a "paltry" 54 billion. In 2000, Gates even lost the title of the richest man in the world for a short period, when he was overtaken by his main competitor, the founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison.
In January 2000, Gates stepped down as chief administrator of Microsoft. His place was taken by longtime friend and colleague Steve Balmer. Gates' stepping down from the job to allow him to focus on his core interests was a highly symbolic move. He retained the position of president and the new title - "chief designer of the structure of the software system." Thus, Gates returned to what he loved most - to the "technology of the future." In Microsoft's case, this meant a new generation of Windows products that brought the personal computer and the Internet ever closer together.

Release the post of chief administrator, Gates skillfully managed this complex process. For a charismatic leader like Gates, devolution is a big problem. According to market analysts and shareholders of Microsoft, the further prosperity and development of the company without Gates - the number one leader - looked like a difficult task. In other places like this, the transfer of the post of chief administrator can lead to chaos, as even well-thought-out plans of well-meaning administrators can be realized in the most unfortunate way.
Technology firms have traditionally been unlucky in inheritance matters. Look at the anguish of Apple Computer, once Microsoft's main competitor. After an initial runaway success, Apple brought in Pepsi's John Scully to provide the company with the next leap forward. Scully ousted CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. Sculley himself was ousted in 1993 after a disastrous period in which Apple's market share plummeted from 20 percent to 8 percent. His replacement, Michael Spindler, lasted until 1996, by which time Apple's market share had fallen to 5 percent. Spindler was shown the door, and Gil Amelio took the warm seat. After 500 days, Amelio called Steve Jobs for help. Soon Amelio leaves, but Jobs stays. The revolving door at the CEO's office has come full circle, and now Apple is in somewhat better, albeit still precarious, shape. However, whether the company can last long without its boss, Jobs, remains an open question.

When a company is strong, succession problems are nothing more than a by-product of the success of the person in charge. Successful administrators are different. Often the main the administrator himself appoints his heir and determines the time of his departure. This entails very specific problems. Let's take, for example, the devolution case of Jack Welch, General Electric's most famous CEO.
Welch's intention to move from aircraft engine manufacturing to financial operations in April 2001 was well thought out and widely discussed in the press. It seemed that all possible scenarios for the development of events were taken into account. Then, in October 2000, the minute-by-minute transition of the top job took an unexpected turn: Welch announced that he was freezing his exit plans until the end of 2001 to oversee General Electric's planned $43.3 billion (total) acquisition of Honeywell. opinion, at the request of the Board of Management of the latter). In November 2001, Welch ended the long wait by naming Jeffrey Immelt, the former head of General Electric's medical division, as his likely successor. And the deal with Honeywell was later thwarted by powerful European competitors.

Gates seems to have learned from situations like this. The computer giant, which until recently seemed to be plagued by failure, is now showing a successful succession to the post of general administrator. Gates' decision to step away from the day-to-day concerns of the firm while retaining his position as chief designer of the software system architecture was a clever one. Steve Ballmer has been the de facto chief administrator for some time now. By legitimizing its official status, Microsoft thus mitigated this difficult problem.
Gates' reshuffle in the company's management came at a difficult time for Microsoft. The judgment that was to sink the company's ship seemed imminent. The antitrust case began in 1998 with accusations against Microsoft that it was using its dominant position in the market to restrict competition. The main reason was the release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser in one package with its own Windows operating system. As a result, manufacturers were forced to install the Microsoft browser on their computers. The company was also charged with the incompatibility of the Windows system with competing products such as the Netscape Navigator browser.

In its defense, Microsoft said that, first of all, it does not have a dominant position in the market. (That was all the more true, he argued, in light of the merger between Netscape and AOL, and later Time Warner.) But even if it had that position, Microsoft said, it wouldn't abuse it. It simply acted as any other company would in a highly competitive marketplace. Microsoft concluded by stating that its actions benefited the consumer. For example, in the case of Internet Explorer, the buyer received the browser for free. The last court session was scheduled for February 22, 2000.
The decision, issued in April 2000, demonstrated that Judge Jackson found Microsoft's arguments insufficiently persuasive. It ruled that the computer giant violated US competition laws. As a result, on June 7, 2000, Microsoft was ordered to split into two separate companies.

Of course, this verdict plunged Gates into both fear and rage. He immediately appealed the decision. He secured a quick win by winning the right to appeal to another court.