Bill Gates
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Sorry, what's Zune? Is it winning against iPod? Oh, it's losing. Oh, mobile, it's losing too? Huh.
Sorry, what's Zune? Is it winning against iPod? Oh, it's losing. Oh, mobile, it's losing too? Huh.
Anyone who's listening who's a leader at a company right now knows that the right amount of repeating yourself to do is about 10 times more than you think it is. You need to keep delivering the same message over and over and over again, and that wins. The other way to sort of look at Steve Ballmer's tenure is comparing against what else was going on in technology from 2000 to 2014.
Anyone who's listening who's a leader at a company right now knows that the right amount of repeating yourself to do is about 10 times more than you think it is. You need to keep delivering the same message over and over and over again, and that wins. The other way to sort of look at Steve Ballmer's tenure is comparing against what else was going on in technology from 2000 to 2014.
So on the one hand, like we've been talking about, you have the rise of Google and search and you have social networking with Facebook. And yes, you absolutely can compare a CEO to these category defining startups that are in adjacent fields. But that's a little bit of an odd way to evaluate a CEO. Like, how did you do against... They aren't even really competitors of yours in your exact market.
So on the one hand, like we've been talking about, you have the rise of Google and search and you have social networking with Facebook. And yes, you absolutely can compare a CEO to these category defining startups that are in adjacent fields. But that's a little bit of an odd way to evaluate a CEO. Like, how did you do against... They aren't even really competitors of yours in your exact market.
And by the way, they created the best businesses in history that were also the fastest growing and capital efficient. How did you do versus those two particular sort of related outliers? I think this is sort of a funny measure, even though this is the measure we kind of all use. But if you actually just look at the peer set, what other big companies were there in 2000 in tech? You had Yahoo, AOL.
And by the way, they created the best businesses in history that were also the fastest growing and capital efficient. How did you do versus those two particular sort of related outliers? I think this is sort of a funny measure, even though this is the measure we kind of all use. But if you actually just look at the peer set, what other big companies were there in 2000 in tech? You had Yahoo, AOL.
The whole cable and media sector, you had HP, Nortel. I mean, so many of the great companies of the previous era completely fell apart. The three who actually survived and potentially thrived were Microsoft, Dell, and only Apple after Microsoft bailed them out and Steve Jobs came back personally.
The whole cable and media sector, you had HP, Nortel. I mean, so many of the great companies of the previous era completely fell apart. The three who actually survived and potentially thrived were Microsoft, Dell, and only Apple after Microsoft bailed them out and Steve Jobs came back personally.
Yeah, Oracle. Yeah. But I mean, surviving puts you in the top 5% against the peer set of that era. So even if you overlook all the revenue and profit growth and you just look at pure enterprise value and relevance, there is actually a success in that the core asset was preserved.
Yeah, Oracle. Yeah. But I mean, surviving puts you in the top 5% against the peer set of that era. So even if you overlook all the revenue and profit growth and you just look at pure enterprise value and relevance, there is actually a success in that the core asset was preserved.
This whole notion you have, David, that Satya came in and we were great and then we sucked for a while and then we were great again. Even just setting up, we preserved the talent asset and that we had continuity in our businesses for another 15 years on what is already a 30-year-old business. I don't know. That's way better than anybody else does.
This whole notion you have, David, that Satya came in and we were great and then we sucked for a while and then we were great again. Even just setting up, we preserved the talent asset and that we had continuity in our businesses for another 15 years on what is already a 30-year-old business. I don't know. That's way better than anybody else does.
So anyway, this is all kind of analyzing the tenure from a business perspective. I am very amenable to the idea that products completely languished. Like I had no interest in using any Microsoft products during this period.
So anyway, this is all kind of analyzing the tenure from a business perspective. I am very amenable to the idea that products completely languished. Like I had no interest in using any Microsoft products during this period.