Bill Gates

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.

Yeah. I'm very amenable to arguments of like, yeah, but they didn't make anything good.

Yeah. I'm very amenable to arguments of like, yeah, but they didn't make anything good.

And they did make some good, you know, Xbox is good. I actually thought Windows Phone, particularly Windows Phone 8, was a beautiful new crack at what does a phone look like. I thought it worked well. But I guess what I'm saying is the products that ended up being their big profit drivers were never their good products.

And they did make some good, you know, Xbox is good. I actually thought Windows Phone, particularly Windows Phone 8, was a beautiful new crack at what does a phone look like. I thought it worked well. But I guess what I'm saying is the products that ended up being their big profit drivers were never their good products.

Right. They weren't good for me as a user. They met the needs of customers.

Right. They weren't good for me as a user. They met the needs of customers.

All right. Moving to analysis.

All right. Moving to analysis.

Seven powers. So listeners, this is the part of the show analysis broadly, where we analyze the business sort of after we've completed the story. And the first one is a section called seven powers, which is named after Hamilton Helmer's book.

Seven powers. So listeners, this is the part of the show analysis broadly, where we analyze the business sort of after we've completed the story. And the first one is a section called seven powers, which is named after Hamilton Helmer's book.

And the question that he sort of poses is, what is it that enables the business to achieve persistent differential returns, or put it another way, to be more profitable than their closest competitor and do so sustainably? And there are seven different powers, sort of categories that it can fall into.

And the question that he sort of poses is, what is it that enables the business to achieve persistent differential returns, or put it another way, to be more profitable than their closest competitor and do so sustainably? And there are seven different powers, sort of categories that it can fall into.

There's counter-positioning, scale economies, switching costs, network economies, process power, branding, and cornered resource.

There's counter-positioning, scale economies, switching costs, network economies, process power, branding, and cornered resource.

I feel like there were one or two that I was shaky on, but most, yeah.