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Articles - Publication Date 12.16.1996
1996 Tech Leader
Bill Gates: How He Envisions The Enterprise
Microsoft's founder and chairman continues to place his bets -- and win -- on the adaptability of the personal computer.
By Doug Bartholomew
Whether you like him, envy him, or detest him, the war is over, and Bill Gates has won -- at least for the near term.
From the CEO to the CFO, from the human-resources representative to the production manager, from the salesman in the field to the shipping clerk, Microsoft Corp. software is used at all levels in the farthest reaches of industry. In fact, few brands of any kind of product have achieved the near-total dominance of a market as Microsoft has in the lucrative business of telling computers how to run. "Microsoft has figured a way to insinuate itself right into the DNA of the enterprise," observes Bruce Richardson, vice president at Advanced Manufacturing Research (AMR), a Boston-based research firm.
Gates' savvy steerage as the commander-in-chief -- the visionary who sees his way clearly through an increasingly murky technology landscape -- is legendary. His calling the shots and directing the next moves of his product teams while maintaining a flat organizational structure has, over the years, not only put Microsoft on top, but kept it there. The Redmond, Wash.-based company's shares continue to hit new highs in the $150 range, its market capitalization flirts with $90 billion, and analysts expect sales this year of about $10 billion, up 15% from last year. Gates' personal holdings are worth more than $20 billion. "I think he's got to be the world's best visionary businessman," offers Dave Duffield, CEO of PeopleSoft Inc., Pleasanton, Calif., a leading maker of enterprise-applications software.
In recognition of his corporate guidance -- and an uncanny skill for making a large organization adapt swiftly to a maelstrom of change in its industry -- the editors of IndustryWeek have named Bill Gates the Technology Leader of the Year.
Gates, 41, Harvard University dropout and the founder of the world's largest software company, insists to this day that luck played a key part in his rise to chief lion in the technology kingdom. Luck, and the influence of Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen.
"When we were teenagers, Paul Allen taught me a lot about computer hardware and encouraged me to believe in -- and bet on -- the microprocessor," Gates tells IW. "I was lucky enough, at a young age, to discover something that I loved and that fascinated me -- and still fascinates me. And I was lucky to have parents who motivated and encouraged me.
"My parents weren't all that excited about their son announcing he was dropping out of a fine university to start a business in something almost nobody had heard of called 'microcomputers.' But they were always very supportive."
Through it all, Gates clung to his vision of the personal computer and the microprocessor as a tool to streamline business and achieve greater productivity. But beyond vision, he displayed a knack as a capable senior executive who knew a thing or two about managing a large enterprise.
Under his leadership, the corporation he founded 21 years ago has successfully navigated numerous competitive threats. It survived a Justice Dept. antitrust investigation into its business practices. And under Gates' steady hand and guidance, the company has displayed a remarkable ability to ride wave after wave of change through an often turbulent technology sea that has left many a competitor becalmed or shipwrecked.
Perhaps his biggest single act as CEO to ensure Microsoft's success was the arrangement Gates swung with IBM Corp. to adopt Microsoft's DOS PC operating system for its PC. Later Gates successfully weaned the DOS user base over to the Windows platform. To accomplish this was anything but an afternoon swim in the pool, considering there were two hostile barracudas -- in the form of Apple Computer Inc. (Macintosh) and IBM (OS/2) with their rival operating systems -- angling to take a piece out of Microsoft's hide.
Microsoft won out by smartly packaging its software at economical prices and ensuring that it was loaded on most manufacturers' PCs. As a<
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