Customer Reviews

The 12 Simple Secrets of Microsoft Management: How to Think and Act Like a Microsoft Manager and Take Your Company to the Top

5 star:		(9)
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3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This excellent book gives a good view of what makes Microsoft Microsoft. It is a startup that kept acting like one. World Domination requires Performance, everything else falls by the wayside. Microsoft is not about Frat guys/good old boys in managment. It isn't about dreesed for success, politics, presentation, being nice, perks, family values. It is about being the best through using intelligence in cuthroat debate to achieve understanding - then using that understanding to execute, execute, execute. While this perfomance driven environment cuts the b.s., it is a harsh reality. Microsoft has managed to stay lean, even through fat years. If the author is right, companies following this philosophy will destroy or incorporate everything else. The problem is that most companies and people can't handle success. Once they're rich, people get slack, they're not as hungry or aggressive.

Read this book.

As indicated in The Empire Strikes Back, the Yoda would agree with one of the 12 ("Perform, Perform, Perform"), advising Luke Skywalke:, "Do or do not. There is no try." Paradoxically, Microsoft's emphasis on performance (eg dominance of a market) co-exists with Microsoft's requirement of calculated risks because, as Thielen explains, "Fast failure is acceptable; slow failure is not. But even more unacceptable is no failure. If people never fail, then they are not trying hard enough. They are not pushing the envelope....There is no penalty for understandable failures on the road to success (aside from exceedingly stupid things), and there are substantial rewards for success. So employees at Microsoft will make attempt after attempt for success without worrying about the failures the unsuccessful attempts led to." But not indefinitely....

Throughout The 12 Simple Secrets of Microsoft Management, Thielen provides hundreds of specific examples of HOW these so-called "secrets" are consistently applied each and every day throughout the entire company. At least in theory, the Microsoft management strategies (with appropriate modifications) can be effective for any other organization, regardless of size or nature. For example, a family-owned dry cleaner experiments with several different coupon promotions until it finally comes up with one that substantially increases business. Past "failures" are often a necessary cost of eventual success. However, I caution those interested in this book to keep in mind that listing and then explaining 7-75 "secrets" is relatively easy; implementing them effectively and then remaining committed to them is (obviously) much more difficult. My own experience suggests that such a commitment should continue unless and until certain realities require the modification or even the replacement of a strategy. The corporate juggernaut we know as Microsoft is in a process of constant self-transformation. The same should also be true of that hypothetical family-owned dry cleaner.

This book seems to be written in an extremely objective fashion, neither gushing or slamming to Microsoft. It reports the observations of someone who has spent time "On the inside" and appears to have no agenda or axe to grind. It is far more informative than anything written by Gates or his ghost writers. It discusses agressive Microsoft business practices that may not be palatable or ethical, but are certainly effective. In the final analysis, it is primarily a book of common sense business wisdom in a short and enjoyable read.

The 12 Simple Secrets of Microsoft Management David Thielen presents Microsoft's management principles, which are the secrets to its marketplace dominance. He includes ample examples of what Microsoft does right and what most other corporations do wrong. You will learn why Microsoft's focus makes it the hardest company in the world to compete against. Yet, you will also find nuggets of management information that can be applied to your own workplace environment. Thielen has written a direct, refreshing, and sometimes brutal book. We [...] recommend this book to any business person who would like a quick review of the management principles that have guided Microsoft's success.

This book was a reasonable summary of some of the truths of Microsoft's business policies, written or otherwise. However, there are a couple things that buyers should keep in mind:

1) This is largely a description of the Microsoft of 2 or more years ago -- the company is changing substantially, as huge amounts of talent leave to go elsewhere and as politics and bureacracy creep in.

2) The book takes itself a little too seriously, with comments such as predictions that any business not organized along the principles of a "Microsoft-like" company is destined to failure.

3) The book is organized as a series of short "cookbook" vignettes, anecdotes and trite phrases. There are about 3 such "recipes" per two pages. This obviously caused much energy to be spent thinking up clever headings for each little segment. This energy certainly could have been better spent actually spending more than 4 sentences on any particular topic.

Overall, it's a quick read and a reasonable set of ideas.

If this book truly describes Microsoft, and the author's background at Microsoft makes that likely, this is an incredibly valuable book. I've read other books that talk about Microsoft but this one explains their entire system. This book lays out a management culture that is very different from what I have seen at most companies. I think I now really understand why Microsoft is able to do so well. I plan to read this book again in 3 months.

This book puts forward a convincing case for the competitive advantage that exists in the Microsoft's management style: a Big company resources with a small company's agility and focus. Where other books talk about Microsoft's success and what they have done, this book show you how Microsoft became successful.

Written in a racy manner, the author's style may remind you of a cookbook...eg: Tip#4: Require Failure Quickly -- recounts how Microsoft execs are denoted if they play it too safe and never fail. Tip#2: The Top 5 Percent: suggests ignoring the human resources department and hiring smart people, regardless of college degree and personal hygiene.

Can Microsoft recipe for success really be this simple? Now that Microsoft's success is unraveling in the US Federal Court, perhaps the writer might add Tip#13: Using Market Dominance to Crush Rivals. After all, its big fish eat small fish world. What's wrong with that? Nothing, unless you are the fish!

The book is written primarily for business managers seeking to emulate Microsoft's success, but I think investors can learn a lot of useful information. It's one thing investing in an IT company with good products and services, management style is important too. Its an eye opener, a mangement thriller and I must say much better than some boring management styles books ...and oh, as Tip#9 states: Bill IS "watching."

This book should be required reading for anyone entering the management field in this new era we all find ourselves in. If half of what is in this book is actually practiced at Microsoft it's no wonder that they do quite well, thank you. Probably the only reader who might find this book disturbing would be the typical CEO or VP of one of this country's huge lumbering corporations. As an employee of one of these at present I find much that hits home.

This book treats the eminently fertile soil of Microsoft's management style, and its obvious success. From hiring to project management and from office design to esprit d' corps, Microsoft is distinguishes itself by pushing its employees to their creative limits in achieving total domination of their chosen markets. This is accomplished through a zero-crap management style, individual authority and a stringent requirement to back up proposed courses of action with facts. While readable and terse, the text does tend to confuse the distinctive Microsoft traits and those of technology companies in general. Still, the book accomplishes the objective of communicating the formula for how Microsoft went about building its empire.

As a Microsoft insider for over 10 years, this is the only "Microsoft Management Secrets" book I've read that reads true. Yes, it really works this way and these techniques can work in any environment (although, perhaps easier in high tech)