The Microsoft Edge: Inside Strategies for Building Success [Hardcover]

Julie Bick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 1999

How did the team at Microsoft pioneer, build, and shepherd the company through exponential growth in a constantly changing market? Microsoft veteran and bestselling author Julie Bick reveals all the insider strategies in this invaluable book packed with on-the-job insights and practical techniques. From vice presidents to front-line managers, Bick interviews Microsofties to learn how they launch new products and get the most out of not-so-new products, design Web sites and do business on the Internet, work with service agencies, dealers, and coworkers, and much more.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Microsoft Edge, by former Microsoft manager Julie Bick, outlines approximately five dozen business tactics that are successfully used within the company. Based upon her own experiences and those of 40 other managers, it presents them in short lessons that focus on hiring and retaining top employees, introducing new products and maintaining their momentum, conducting business online, and developing positive relationships with both internal and external partners. Some lessons (such as "On the Web you can alter your product or promotion daily by measuring responses and tweaking as you go") may seem obvious, but Bick's supplementary details (explaining, for example, exactly how the CarPoint site's option-pricing feature was reconfigured when logs showed few visitors were using it) are truly instructive. And while the book definitely shows Microsoft in the best possible light, some of its most illuminating material concerns the handling of notable problems--such as the total failure of the highly publicized Bob software, and the inability to debug a consumer tax-preparation program in time for its intended launch. --Howard Rothman

From Library Journal

What are the secrets of Microsoft's success? Bick, who has worked at Microsoft as marketer, new-product planner, and manager, has written a follow-up to her All I Really Need To Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft. The earlier work stressed the "personal side of business," including how to be a good supervisor and do well on the job. The new book focuses on the "business side of business," discussing successful strategies for doing business on the web, hiring (and keeping) the best employees, launching new products, and working with partners (e.g., co-workers, the press, dealers, service agencies). Bick has also drawn on case studies of her colleagues, 40 company managers. This practical guide to proven management and marketing techniques also provides insight into the inner workings of Microsoft and is an important addition to collections on that company and on management and marketing. Recommended for public and academic library business collections.ALucy T. Heckman, St. John's Univ. Lib., Jamaica, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Atria (November 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671034138
• ISBN-13: 978-0671034139
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,606,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent follow-up. Not just more of the same., November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Microsoft Edge: Inside Strategies for Building Success (Hardcover)

I found Bick's first Microsoft book extremely useful. When I saw The Microsoft Edge, I was afraid that she would exploit her success by giving the reader more of the same. Far from it. New perspectives, new stories and new management techniques make this book immediately applicable to any manager in any business.

One thing does remain the same in The Microsoft Edge: an accessible, humorous writing style that makes the lessons in the book easy to absorb.

Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invigorating and Insightful, May 22, 2000

By 

sophs (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Microsoft Edge: Inside Strategies for Building Success (Hardcover)

ah, a business book that reads well and has take-aways you can actually use.

Julie Bick's insights on how MS has become - and sustained - its excellence in hiring and developing staff and projects are invigorating, thoughtful and intriguing gems.

Well worth looking carefully at Microsoft's own managers' words at the end of each chapter - my personal favs were:

"3 things I learned about delighting customers on the web" [p.49]

"Lessons I've learned about presenting a new idea" [p.78]

and "3 lessons I've learned about getting a new product out of the door" [p.102] - particularly good when you're stuck in development hell and can't see when this product you're working on will actually ship but still need to keep your eye on the ball.

And finally, when times are really tough in the office, Julie's Bick's "Ten things I wanted to say in the office but didn't", is a page I return to for a gentle reminder of essential dignity at work.

If you are working with Microsoft as a partner, this book is a valuable tool but its lessons can have a far wider impact if used throughout organisations at all levels.

an invigorating and insightful read :-)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Power Read For Executive Travelers!, June 16, 2001

By 

"midotech" (charleston, sc United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Microsoft Edge: Insider Strategies for Building Success (Paperback)

Julie Bick provides a powerful insight into the inner dwellings of one of the world's most dynamic companies. Executives of small and large companies alike will enjoy this as a perfect power read while travelling. I liked it so much, I ordered the first book as soon as I got off the plane!