Microsoft First Generation: The Success Secrets of the Visionaries Who Launched a Technology Empire (Hardcover)

by Cheryl Tsang (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
If a company's soul is defined by its employees, Cheryl Tsang's Microsoft First Generation offers the definitive look at the way one of the world's top corporations has really been shaped. In straightforward but perceptive profiles, Tsang introduces a dozen key individuals hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen before 1990--when the primary focus was creation and development, rather than growth and maintenance. They are mathematician-programmer Bob O'Rear (hired two years before Microsoft relocated from Albuquerque to Seattle), technical writer Russell Borland, programmer Richard Brodie, senior vice president Scott Oki, chief information officer Neil Evans, CPA Dave Neir, Ida Cole (the first female VP), CD-ROM author Min Yee, technical manager Ron Harding, publishing-systems manager Russell Steele, Asian-business-development manager Paul Sribhibhadh, and senior diversity administrator Trish Millines Dziko. "The people who comprised Microsoft's first generation were exactly right for their time. They were the pioneers," Tsang writes. "The founders of Microsoft were shrewd to have hired them, for the company's monumental and continuing success would not have been possible without [their] exceptional work and passion." --Howard Rothman

From Library Journal
How has mighty Microsoft, begun 25 years ago as a two-man (Bill Gates and Paul Allen) partnership of extremely bright "twentysomethings," amassed an estimated market value of nearly $500 billion and become the predominant computer company in the world? This is the focus of business journalist Tsang's collection of personal stories from 12 former "softies" and their fond reminiscences about their work in the very early days of the firm. Among the alums interviewed are Bob O'Rear, the original programmer of the first MS DOS program for the IBM machine, and Trish Maline, an early beta tester who became the advocate for the ethnic diversity movement inside the company. From these tales, Tsang summarizes keys to the unprecedented success of Microsoft, including its famous maniacal work ethic, an emphasis on risk taking, an unwavering drive to success, and the unique internal culture mainly influenced by the even more unique personality of CEO Gates. Throughout these fascinating inside scoops, listeners will be continually intrigued by the always crisp narration by Mary Woods, which reveals some of the truth about what it was really like to work for Microsoft in the beginning. While this is not a historical analysis of the company, a story yet to be told, these nostalgic recollections are important to the growing computer history genre and are essential for all university libraries supporting an information systems curriculum.ADale Farris, Groves, TX
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 1 edition (October 4, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471332062
• ISBN-13: 978-0471332060
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #891,423 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Interviews Capture The Experience Well, November 2, 1999

By	TwainAgain (Redmond) - See all my reviews

The experience these people described is eerily familiar. Ms. Tsang does an excellent job of staying out of the way to let them tell their stories in their own words. Much of what I read about Microsoft comes from people who haven't experienced the reality of it or who guessed at the motives of people involved. I'd love to see about twenty more people profiled. There are a huge number of stories from the early years that should be told.

The book is like entering a time warp for me, and reentering a very special time. Realize that almost EVERYONE was working longer, harder, and more effectively than they ever thought possible, almost from day one. The result is one amazing company. The force of Steve Ballmer with individuals is underscored in the various profiles: He's a force for good, but often brutal. The importance of the committed Microsoft experience to the profiled individuals' lives is clear. The consumptive fire of the early years burned out many, which many divorced spouses and alienated families will testify. This experience was very much like going off to war. Few people even knew what stock options were. Few had high starting salaries. Most were there for the love of software, the pc, the early mac; for the love of a growing underdog industry; for the love of competition, going up against IBM, Novell, Borland, Wordperfect, Ashton-Tate; for the love of their team, their project. All good people who did good work.

Microsoft made work pure and unadulterated. Meetings were rare. Get a contract, set a deadline. Do the work. Stay up night and day until it's done. Do the best you really can. Don't whine. Ship it. A simple life really, but extraordinarily demanding. It seemed like half the people were from Harvard, half from MIT, and half from Xerox Parc. Smart people who worked hard. That's the simple secret. Get enough of them together and you've got critical mass.

As things grew they became different. Easier, but more indirect, more bureaucratic, more social, more market-driven. The spoils of war get fought over. Eventually Bill, who is obviously very smart (but a lot more like one of the three smartest guys in high school than God) became **BILL GATES, THE RICHEST SMARTEST MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE, LET US ALL BOW AND PRAISE CAESAR**. Then came the stories that read like this: "With $90 billion dollars, Bill Gates could buy the entire continent of Africa, and still have money left over to fill up the Grand Canyon with silver dollars." So the measurement in dollars became the thing, and not the thing itself.

Microsoft is a nice wonderfully pure monopoly. The early hard work has paid off big time for stockholders. And the VAST amount of high-quality, professionally produced software is a MONSTROUS good for society. Some companies were crushed by Microsoft in the business arena. They're the business victims. The human victims are the families of those who worked so hard. When you're at war, you're not home with the wife and kids. Better to have been single at the time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Does what it says, December 10, 2001

By	blank "blank" - See all my reviews

I picked this book up and I think that it is very good. I started reading it right after finishing up a book on Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux. Thus this is almost the flip side of that coin, showing how Microsoft became. One thing that surprised me was that Bill Gates was not one of the main focuses of this particular book, though he is mentioned quite frequently. Rather it shows some of the others responsible for possibly the most successful computer company ever. This is not all just programmers either, but a good selection of people from various different aspects of the microsoft realm.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First Generation: A wonderful example to today's society., January 12, 2000

By	Josh (Bellingham, WA) - See all my reviews

Tsang's book, Microsoft: First Generation, display's a great example to today's society, and generation. The book focuses on 12 key members of Microsoft in it's earliest stages, which, in a way, helped create the infrastructure of the company. The interviews show how all 12 ex-ms employees ended up where they were, and what it took to be successful. I applaud Mrs. Tsang for her hard work. I recommend this book to anyone interested in business, or Microsoft itself.