Customer Reviews

The Microsoft Way: The Real Story of How the Company Outsmarts Its Competition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've enjoyed reading most of this book and have taken a lot of interesting lessons away with me. The first 150 pages are especially good at illustrating how the company favored technical intelligence over business acumen and why some of the decisions made have paid off so well. This type of information readily applies to any work being done today and I would highly recommend it.

What I found odd was the amount of personal opinion included in the book rather than making this a more objective look at Microsoft. I'm not a Microsoft basher by any means - I use the products every day, program in VB, Microsoft's proprietary language, and genuinely like many of their products. I was just surprised to see the author include many personal opinions, blatantly claiming unfairness towards Microsoft when the context of the discussion already showed his point.

This personalization led me to reduce 4 stars to three. After a while it's just distracting and I had an urge to yell "Shut up and tell the story!" The story is very interesting, and I do recommend reading it. Just don't be surprised if you want to tell the author to shut up once in a while.

This is a `must-read' book for several different categories of people- businessmen, scholars, students and even philosophers- simply because it has a relevant message for just about everyone. However, it is scarcely what one would call a `conventional commentary', which may help explain why its central conclusion is so much at odds with conventional wisdom- that Microsoft (the software behemoth whose meteoric success in the brave new world of software technology is comparable only to the equally meteoric rise in the numbers of its detractors, who have accused the company of every conceivable unfair trade practice) did not acquire its dominant position through any illegal subterfuge or monopolistic bulldozing; rather, its success can be attributed to certain well-defined fundamentals, which, if understood and implemented properly (as Microsoft has obviously done), could well serve as the business model for other software companies, and perhaps for other companies that are likely to bloom in the uncertain economic future being shaped by rapidly emerging technologies.

As a social commentary, the biggest contribution of this book is that it offers a window to our lop-sided value system when we deal with fuzzy notions like `intelligence' and `smart'. As Mr. Stross, the author, points out, society's unfavorable perception of Microsoft is inextricably linked with the rampant anti-intellectualism pervasive in American society. This is not so far-fetched! After all, we accept without question that Michael Jordan should make hundreds of millions of dollars because he has the extraordinary athleticism to jump and shoot a basket ball better than anyone else, yet the American public has never quite come to grips with the notion that a group of `eggheads' and `nerds' (a description oft used for Microsoft employees) can rake in billions of dollars simply because they can think better than others. Perhaps the most telling conclusion of this book is also one we would do well to remember -that ``Microsoft's principal assets, in fact, are the collective craniums of (Bill) Gates and his employees".

However intelligence and smarts are by themselves no guarantee of success. And this is where the book becomes an invaluable resource as a business guide on ``How to manage smart people" and "How to look ahead and plan for tomorrow". The detailed account of how Microsoft dealt with the CD-ROM technology- investing millions of dollars into research and development for the production of its multimedia encyclopedia, MS Encarta and pushing for standards at a time when the fledgling technology was so new that there was no certainty it would even survive, - is a valuable case-study for the business student and historian on the challenges and risks (and subsequently the huge payoffs, if successful) involved in bringing new technology into the consumer marketplace.

In addition to these valuable insights into how and why Microsoft is successful, the book is a fascinating historical document, with riveting case studies. The battle for financial software market that Microsoft fought (and mostly lost) to a smaller, but nimble and quick-thinking Intuit, reads like a story. There are equally interesting accounts of how Microsoft tries to deal with the PC-TV merger and how it prepares itself for the uncertain future awaiting all in ``The Era of the Internet". We may, of course, choose to agree or disagree with Mr. Stross on whether to `convict' or `acquit' Microsoft of the charges often leveled against it- but we cannot help but accept his advice on what we should learn from Microsoft:

".....(we must) overcome our instinctive antipathy toward smarts.....We can see in their (Microsoft's) experience the attention they devote to thinking.....They act with provisional answers, knowing that experience will feed back to provide new input into an unending process of reevaluation and revision."

A simple lesson that could serve not only as a recipe for running a successful business but could well form the cornerstone of a personal philosophy in our daily life

After the distorted and hateful stories we have seen, this book is a relief. It seems that at the present time Microsoft stands for all that is evil. The unholy alliance surrounding the Axis Powers of Sun Micro and Netscape paints a picture of world domination by Microsoft which is utterly absurd and totally false. It is unfortunate that Joel Klein of the DOJ is being educated by such an obscure economist as Arthur, formerly of Stanford and a Palo Alto law firm, whose members are writing briefs for the DOJ.. As a taxpayer I regret that we have to pay for these pointless investigations which are sponsored by competitors who would do better improving their products so that they could compete with Microsoft. Unable to compete however, they run to the DOJ. It is good to have a book that points out some of the mischief emanating from Silicon Valley and Redwood City. The book is recommneded readingfor all who do not despise Microsoft for its intellectual excellence.

A breath of fresh air was delivered into the Microsoft Wars with this book. While some may say that it was a little one sided in favor of MS, it simply offsets the anti-MS books that are all too easy to find on here.

Although the book has certain flaws, I heartily recommend it because the author defends Microsoft on the basis of its virtues: that Mr. Gates hires intelligent individuals and employs them for their rational capacity to create. Part one, titled "Microsoft Basics," is in three sections: "Sitting and Thinking," "Smarts," and "The Model in Their Head," where Mr. Stross argues that Microsoft is founded on "old logic skills," which is the reason he names for Microsoft's dominance in the marketplace. The author ties the attacks against Microsoft to an anti-intellectual mentality in America and he demonstrates that the attacks are ridiculous because they are baseless. Mr. Stross indicates that Mr. Gates and Microsoft are hugely successful because they reject this disdain for rationality and use their smarts as the key to their success. For these reasons the book is worth reading. The flaws in the book bare their ugly head whenever the author strays from his own field, which is history, into economic analysis--Mr. Stross' economics are thoroughly socialist. Fortunately, he mostly stays on topic in the main part of the book, but the afterword "Legacies" contains nearly every major fallacy of economics spouted by the collectivists. The author believes that good products, if they are too good, are bad products: "For example, the technological success of radial tires had become a business disaster because radials lasted so long that customers purchased replacements much less frequently" and that what Henry Ford did "was establish the principle that workers should be paid high wages because mass production requires mass consumption--the two cannot be separated. ... For all to prosper, other employers also had to let go of the notion of paying their own workers the bare minimum." In the end, he concludes that "even a fair-playing winner may need to be restrained [by anti-trust legislation]--and ultimately Microsoft may indeed turn out to be precisely such a winner" and so, he calls on Mr. Gates to "help persuade others to adopt a course that would improve the lives of others in ways that could never be achieved by even the wisest disposal of his own personal wealth." If it was not for his principled defense of Microsoft on rational grounds, I would ignore this book. But as it stands, if you will pass by his economic comments and skip the afterwards completely, then you will be treated to a clear picture of Microsoft and why it should be admired for its success.

After having read this book I must say that Stross gives a trueaccount on how Microsoft beats its competitors in the marketplace andbecame the market leader in several product categories, contrary to what Microsoft critics want us to believe.

However, a few important points are missing from the text:

1) Windows NT and the BackOffice suite are not mentioned. This server suite will allow Microsoft to conquer the enterprise market - a new domain for Microsoft;

2) Open Financial Connectivity (OFC) standards are not mentioned. These standards (or more recently OFX) allow a consumer using a personal finance package to connect to a bank bypassing a third-party processor. If Microsoft establishes OFC as a de facto industry standard it will be in a strong position to secure a dominant position in electronic banking;

3) Three key people at Microsoft are not mentioned. These were instrumental in convincing Gates to embrace the Internet. These are:

Steven Sinofsky dashed e-mail messages to Gates while he was on a recruiting trip to Cornell University, informing him that the Net is no longer a tool for technical people - but a tool used by students and faculty to communicate with colleagues on campus and around the world;

J. Allard recommended that Windows 95 should include a web browser and TCP/IP to promote Win 95 as the user interface to the World Wide Web

Benjamin Slivka insisted that Microsoft develops a web browser

Stross tells the truth!! A complete and unbiased history of legend/ genious Bill "Ioniare" Gates. The story is told of his three basic principals on which the mega-conglomerate giant bases his fortune. He tells the truth about the long heard myth of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates homosexual love affair that caused Steve Jobs to leave Apple and start neXT. How Gates and his mother dealt with Aids and herion addiction during the strenous Windows '95 Roll Out!! Highly reccomende

This was a very well-researched & documented book. Well-written, but sometimes difficult to follow the author's writing style. If one is looking for a technical overview/history of Microsoft, this is not the book for you. The book does offer an interesting look at other aspects of the company (its hiring practices, for example). I thought many of the recent Microsoft issues considered so important to the public (antitrust suits, extremely bug-ridden code, initial denial in early 90's of the Internet) glossed over or not covered at all.

Good book. I wanted to learn how Microsoft became the leader that they are. At a high-level it validated what I assumed to be the case and at a low-level it fuels my frustrations with corporate America. If you're in any type of leadership role, I dare you to read this book. Or if you don't like Microsoft, then read "Good to Great". It has dozens of case studies on what separates great companies from the rest. I dare ya!

Breathtakingly explicit. Personal anyalysis based on his research and first-hand experience, Mr. Stross has weaved yet another amazingly unbiased research story!