Microsoft Secrets

Beyond the unquestioned genius and vision of CEO Bill Gates, what accounts for Microsoft's astounding success? Microsoft commands the high ground of the information superhighway by owning the operating systems and basic programs that run on the world's 170 million computers. Drawing on confidential documents and data, this work reveals many of Microsoft's innermost secrets. In-depth interviews with 40 employees enabled the authors to identify seven key strategies which demonstrate exactly how Microsoft competes and operates. They reveal a style of leadership, organization, competition and product development which is both consistent with the company's loosely structured programmer culture and remarkably effective for mass-market production of software.