CALLATIS HIGH SCHOOL, MANGALIA

CERTIFICATE OF COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH

Coordinator: Prof. Oana Gherghisan

Student: Ana-Maria Nagy

MAY 2012

CALLATIS HIGH SCHOOL, MANGALIA

CERTIFICATE OF COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH

Coordinator: Prof. Oana Gherghisan

Student: Ana-Maria Nagy

MAY 2012

Table of contents
l. Argument.1 2 Introduction..2 3. The life and times of Bill Gates.3 3.1. Early life of William Henry "Bill" Gates III..........4 3.2 Early career.....5 3.3 The Gates Phenomenon.......7 4. The rise of Microsoft.................9 4.1The invention of Microsoft Windows .........10 4.2Bill`s big idea: A computer on every desk and in every home 12 5. How to get rich the bill gates way .....14 6.Philanthropic efforts ..18 7.Conclusion.....21 Bibliography....22 Annexes.23

1. Argument
The reason why I chose this theme is mainly, the fact that it isn`t about a fact, a thing or a theory, it is about a person who managed to change our lives, who influenced the whole world through his work, who exists in every home through his creations, who in my opinion is a visionary and beside his wealth, beside the fact that he is one of the richest man in the world, he understood that he has to share a part of his fortune, to help those who need help, to contribute in changing the world to a better one with less disasters, poverty and disease. His name is Bill Gates, in many ways, the richest man in the world: rich because he didn't just talk about the future, he helped to shape it, rich because he didn't just understand how technology works, he also understand how markets work, not least by outsmarting IBM, and rich, finally, because his heart is where his voice is, he is genuinely passionate about the new world he can see emerging and the benefits it can bring. I wanted Bill Gates because of his views on the future, which he can talk about with more authority than most, but partly because hes an outstanding example of another sort of guru, the guru who preaches more by deeds than by words, and lives the theories he comes up with. I heard that computers were huge machines that had to be kept in special temperaturecontrolled rooms with their own special languages that you had to learn before you could interact with them. So the second lesson that we can learn from Bill Gates, before we even get on to his ideas, is that it is always possible to dream the impossible and make it happen. That, I think, is what great leaders always do, in every field, but of course they then have to communicate their dream so that others can get involved and excited. No one can do much on their own.

Finally I think Bill Gates would be the first to admit that hes no technological genius, he needs others for that. What he has is the thirst for social invention. He reveals in change and draws inspiration from a crisis. This fact, in my opinion, can make us all realize how important is to believe in our dreams, to do everything with devotion and hope, to learn from our mistakes and to never give up.

2. Introduction
More than a hundred and fifty years ago, a British man named Charles Babbage had an idea about a machine that could work with numbers. He wanted to make a machine that could follow different orders to do different jobs. Today, we call this sort of machine a computer, and we call the orders software. Software is a group of rules that you can give to a machine to tell it how to do something. Computer programs are software1. Bill Gates wrote his first program for a computer when he was thirteen years old. A program tells a computer to do something. His program told the computer to play a game. This computer was very big and very slow. It didn't even have a computer screen. But he thought it was wonderful. He was just a kid, but the computer did everything he told it to do. And even today, that's what he loves about computers. When he writes a good program, it always works perfectly, every time. William Henry Gates III cofounded the Microsoft Corporation in 1975, built his software company into the one of the most successful businesses in the world, and established himself in the process as the world's richest man. Although Bill Gates started Microsoft as a small business based on a single innovative software program that he had helped to develop, his real genius was his business acumen. As the long-time CEO of Microsoft, Gates was able to borrow and integrate other computer programmers' innovations and sell them to a new and rapidly expanding home computer market. In 1985, 10 years after Microsoft was founded, it had $140 million in revenue, which grew to $28 billion by 2002. One of the pioneers of home computing, Gates proved himself to be a technological visionary and software applications guru. According to industry analysts, he also demonstrated that he was a shrewd marketing strategist as well as an aggressive corporate leader.

written programs or procedures or rules and associated documentation pertaining to the operation of a computer system and that are stored in read/write memory.

3. The life and times of Bill Gates

William Henry "Bill" Gates III (born October 28, 1955 in Seattle, Washington) is an American business magnate, computer programmer and philanthropist 2 . Gates is the former chief executive officer (CEO) and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he co-founded with Paul Allen. He is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people and was the wealthiest overall from 1995 to 2009, excluding 2008, when he was ranked third; in 2011 he was the wealthiest American and the second wealthiest person. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and remains the largest individual shareholder, with 6.4 percent of the common stock. He has also authored or co-authored several books. Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Gates has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anticompetitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts. In the later stages of his career, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000. Gates stepped down as chief executive officer of Microsoft in January 2000. He remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect. In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to parttime work, and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie, chief software architect, and Craig Mundie, chief research and strategy officer. Gates's last full-time day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. He remains at Microsoft as non-executive chairman.

someone who makes charitable donations intended to increase human well-being.

3.1. Early life of William Henry "Bill" Gates III

Gates was born in Seattle, Washington, to William H. Gates, Sr. and Mary Maxwell Gates. His parents are of English, German, and Scots-Irish descent. His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank System and the United Way. Gates's maternal grandfather was J. W. Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has one elder sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had the "II" suffix. Early on in his life, Gates's parents had a law career in mind for him. When Gates was young, his family regularly attended a Congregational church. At 13 he enrolled in the Lakeside School, an exclusive preparatory school. When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the school's students. Gates took an interest in programming3 the GE system in BASIC, and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine: an implementation of tic-tactoe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly. When he reflected back on that moment, he said, "There was just something neat about the machine." After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, he and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC), which banned four Lakeside studentsGates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evansfor the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time. At the end of the ban, the four students offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for computer time. Rather than use the system via Teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including programs in FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC
3

creating a sequence of instructions to enable the computer to do something.

continued until 1970, when the company went out of business. The following year, Information Sciences, Inc. hired the four Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them computer time and royalties. After his administrators became aware of his programming abilities, Gates wrote the school's computer program to schedule students in classes. He modified the code so that he was placed in classes with mostly female students. He later stated that "it was hard to tear myself away from a machine at which I could so unambiguously demonstrate success." At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel

8008 processor. In early 1973, Bill Gates served as a congressional page in the U.S. House of Representatives. Gates graduated from Lakeside School in 1973. He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973. While at Harvard, he met Steve Ballmer, who later succeeded Gates as CEO of Microsoft. In his sophomore4 year, Gates devised an algorithm for pancake sorting as a solution to one of a series of unsolved problems presented in a combinatorics class by Harry Lewis, one of his professors. Gates's solution held the record as the fastest version for over thirty years; its successor is faster by only one percent. His solution was later formalized in a published paper in collaboration with Harvard computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou. Gates did not have a definite study plan while a student at Harvard and spent a lot of time using the school's computers. Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen, and he joined him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974. The following year saw the release of the MITS Altair 8800 based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw this as the opportunity to start their own computer software company. He had talked this decision over with his parents, who were supportive of him after seeing how much Gates wanted to start a company.

a second-year undergraduate.

3.2 Early career

Gates enrolled at Harvard University in the fall, originally thinking of a career in law. But his freshman year saw him spend more of his time in the computer lab than in class. Gates did not really have a study regimen. Instead, he could get by on a few hours of sleep, cram for a test, and pass with a reasonable grade. Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen who, after attending Washington State University for two years, dropped out and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, to work for Honeywell. In the summer of 1974, Gates joined Allen at Honeywell. During this time, Allen showed Gates an edition of Popular Electronics magazine featuring an article on the Altair 8800 mini-computer kit. Both boys were fascinated with the possibilities this computer could make toward personal computing. The Altair was made by a small company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, called Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS). Gates and Allen contacted the company proclaiming they were working on a BASIC software program that would run the Altair computer. In reality, they didn't have an Altair to work with or the code to run it. But they wanted to know if MITS was interested in someone developing such software. MITS was, and its president Ed Roberts asked the boys for a demonstration. Gates and Allen scrambled, and spent the next two months writing the software at Harvard's computer lab. Allen traveled to Albuquerque for a test run at MITS, never having tried it out on an Altair computer. It worked perfectly. Allen was hired at MITS and Gates soon left Harvard to work with him, much to his parents' dismay. In 1975, Gates and Allen formed a partnership they called Micro-Soft, a blend of "micro-computer" and "software." Microsoft (Gates and Allen dropped the hyphen5 in less than a year) started off on shaky footing. Though their BASIC software program for the Altair computer netted the company a fee and royalties, it wasn't meeting their overhead. Microsoft's BASIC software was popular with computer hobbyists who obtained pre-market copies and were reproducing and distributing them for free. According to Gates' later account, only about 10 percent of the people using BASIC in the Altair computer had actually paid for it. At this time, much of the
5

a punctuation mark (-) used between parts of a compound word or between the syllables of a word when the word is divided at the end of a line of text.

personal computer enthusiasts were people not in it for the money. They felt the ease of reproduction and distribution allowed them to share software with friends and fellow computer enthusiasts. Bill Gates thought differently. He saw the free distribution of software as stealing, especially when it involved software that was created to be sold. In February of 1976, Gates wrote an open letter to computer hobbyists saying that continued distribution and use of software without paying for it would "prevent good software from being written." In essence, pirating 6 software would discourage developers from investing time and money into creating quality software. The letter was unpopular with computer enthusiasts, but Gates stuck to his beliefs and would use the threat of innovation as a defense when faced with charges of unfair business practices. Gates had a more acrimonious relationship with MITS president Ed Roberts, often resulting in shouting matches. The combative Gates clashed with Roberts on software development and the direction of the business. Roberts considered Gates spoiled and obnoxious. In 1977, Roberts sold MITS to another computer company, and went back to Georgia to enter medical school and become a country doctor. Gates and Allen were on their own. The pair had to sue the new owner of MITS to retain the software rights they had developed for Altair. Microsoft wrote software in different formats for other computer companies and, at the end of 1978, Gates moved the company's operations to Bellevue Washington, just east of Seattle. Bill Gates was glad to be home again in the Pacific Northwest, and threw himself into his work. All 25 employees of the young company had broad responsibilities for all aspects of the operation, product development, business development, and marketing. With his acumen for software development and a keen business sense, Gates placed himself as the head of Microsoft, which grossed $2.5 million in 1978. Gates was only 23.

copy illegally of published material.

3.3 The Gates Phenomenon

At 43, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. He has headed Microsoft since he was 20. Believed to be worth something in the region of $60 billion (although Gates himself insists that much of his money is tied up in Microsoft shares), his is wealth of a magnitude that is beyond the comprehension of most people. For this he attracts both our envy and our curiosity. Gates is a 20th century phenomenon: the greatest of the cyber-ycoons. It has become a popular pastime in bars and restaurants to astound friends and acquaintances with calculations of his spending power. It is tempting to believe that there has never been another business leader so loaded. In fact, there have been other mega-rich businessmen, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie to name just two. But Gates wealth is only part of his fascination. His meteoric rise to fame and fortune confirms the creation of a new business world order: one that is dominated by a different class of entrepreneur and business leader. We may like to label them nerds, but they know things that most of us dont. They understand the potential of the new technology in a way that the traditional generalist manager and bean counting accountant cant hope to. They are smart; very, very smart about stuff we dont really understand, and it makes the rest of us uncomfortable. When it come to the future, they get it, and we dont. Technically literate and intellectually elitist7, Gates is a sign of the leaders to come. Although Microsoft is based outside at Redmond, Washington, he is probably the greatest of what we can term the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. To some in Microsoft, he is a mystical, almost religious figure, while to others in the industry he is the Antichrist. Both views are outrageous, but underline just how powerful his influence is. But you wont find many clues to the Gates management technique or leadership style in business schools. In fact, the management professors and gurus are strangely silent on what makes the Microsoft chairman and CEO so successful. Perhaps they feel slighted.
7

someone who believes in rule by an elite group.

Gates, after all, dropped out of Harvard where he was majoring in law. The academics prefer more conventional business leadersthe traditional company men.

This is not simply a story of technical brilliance and enormous wealth. It is one of remarkable business vision and an obsessive desire to win. It is also about a radically different leadership style to anything the business world has seen before. What Bill Gates offers business leaders of the future is a new template, one that brings together characteristics and skills that are much more suited to the challenges of the 21st Century. With all his faults, Bill Gates has much to teach the next generation of entrepreneurs and executives.

4. The rise of Microsoft

Gates' acumen for not only software development but also business operations put him in the position of leading the company and working as its spokesperson8. He personally reviewed every line of code the company shipped, often rewriting code when he saw it necessary. As the computer industry began to grow with companies like Apple, Intel, and IBM developing hardware and components, Bill was continuously out on the road touting the merits of Microsoft software applications. He often took his mother with him. Mary was highly respected and well connected with her membership on several corporate boards including IBM. It was through Mary that Bill Gates met the CEO of IBM. In November 1980, IBM was looking for software that would operate their upcoming personal computer (PC) and approached Microsoft. Legend has it that at the first meeting with Bill Gates someone at IBM mistook him for an office assistant and asked him to serve coffee. Gates did look very young, but he quickly impressed IBM, convincing them that he and his company could meet their needs. The only problem was that Microsoft had not developed the basic operating system that would run IBM's new computers. Not to be stopped, Gates bought an operating system that was developed to run on computers similar to IBM's PC. He made a deal with the software's developer, making Microsoft the exclusive licensing agent and later

an advocate who represents someone else's policy or purpose.

full owner of the software but not telling them of the IBM deal. The company later sued Microsoft and Gates for withholding important information. Microsoft settled out of court for an undisclosed amount, but neither Gates nor Microsoft admitted to any wrong doing. Gates had to adapt the newly purchased software to work for the IBM PC. He delivered it for a $50,000 fee, the same price he had paid for the software in its original form. IBM wanted to buy the source code, which would have given them the information to the operating system. Gates refused, instead proposing that IBM pay a licensing fee for copies of the software sold with their computers. Doing this allowed Microsoft to license the software they called MS-DOS to any other PC manufacturer, should other computer companies clone the IBM PC, which they soon did. Microsoft also released software called Softcard, which allowed Microsoft BASIC to operate on Apple II machines.

Between 1978 and 1981, Microsoft's growth exploded, and staff increased from 25 to 128. Revenue also shot up from $4 million to $16 million. In mid-1981 Gates and Allen incorporated Microsoft, and Gates was appointed president and chairman of the board. Allen was named executive vice-president. By 1983, Microsoft was going global with offices in Great Britain and Japan, and with 30 percent of the world's computers running on its software. But 1983 also brought news that rocked Microsoft to its very foundation. Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. Though his cancer went into remission a year later with intensive treatment, Allen resigned from company that same year. Rumors abound as to why Allen left Microsoft. Some say Bill Gates pushed him out, but many say it was a lifechanging experience for Allen and he saw there were other opportunities that he could invest his time in.

4.1The invention of Microsoft Windows

In early 1984, a computer company called VisiCorp developed a mouse-driven computer system that used a graphic interface to display text and images on the screen. This differed greatly from the text and keyboard driven MS-DOS system where all text formatting showed on the screen as code and not what actually would be printed. Bill Gates quickly recognized the threat this kind of software might pose for MS-DOS and Microsoft overall. For the unsophisticated userwhich was most of the buying publicthe graphic imagery of

10

the VisiCorp software would be so much easier to use. Gates announced in an advertising campaign that a new Microsoft operating system was about to be developed that would use a graphic interface9. It was to be called "Windows," and would be compatible with all PC software products developed on the MS-DOS system. The announcement was a bluff, in that Microsoft had no such program under development. But as a marketing tactic it was sheer genius as nearly 30 percent of the computer market was using the MS-DOS system and would wait for Windows software rather than change to a new system. Without people willing to change formats, software developers were unwilling to write programs for the VisiCorp system and it lost momentum by early 1985. In November 1985, Bill Gates and Microsoft launched Windows; nearly two years after his announcement. Visually the Windows system looked very similar to the Macintosh system Apple Computer Corporation had introduced nearly two years earlier. Apple had earlier given Microsoft full access to their technology while it was working on making Microsoft products compatible for Apple computers. Gates had advised Apple to license10 their software but they ignored the advice, being more interested in selling computers. Once again, Gates took full advantage of the situation and created a software format that was strikingly similar to the Macintosh. Apple threatened to sue and Microsoft retaliated, saying it would delay shipment of its Microsoft compatible software for Macintosh users. In the end, Microsoft prevailed in the courts because it could prove that while there were similarities in how the two software systems operated, each individual function was distinctly different. In 1986, Bill Gates took Microsoft public with an initial public offering (IPO) of $21 per share. Gates held 45 percent of the company's 24.7 million shares and became an instant millionaire at age 31. Gates' stake at that time was $234 million of Microsoft's $520 million. Over time, the company's stock increased in value and split numerous times. In 1987, Bill Gates became a billionaire when the stock raised to $90.75 a share. Since then, Gates has been on the top or near the top of Forbes' 400 list of the world's wealthiest people. In 1999, with stock prices at an all time high and the stock splitting eight-fold since its IPO, Gates' wealth briefly topped $101 billion. Yet, Bill Gates never felt totally secure about the status of

a program that controls a display for the user (usually on a computer monitor) and that allows the user to interact with the system. 10 a legal document giving official permission to do something.

11

his company. Always having to look over his shoulder to see where the competition was, he developed a white hot drive and competitive spirit. Gates expected everyone in the company to have the same drive and dedication. One story goes that one of Gates' assistants had come to work early to find someone sleeping under a desk. She considered calling security or the police when she discovered it was Gates. Outside the company, Bill Gates was gaining a reputation as a ruthless competitor. Several tech companies led by IBM began to develop their own operating system called OS/2 to replace MS-DOS. Rather than give into the pressure, Gates pushed ahead with the Windows software, improving its operation and expanding its uses. In 1989, Microsoft introduced Microsoft Office which bundled office productivity applications 11 such as Microsoft Word and Excel into one system that was compatible with all Microsoft products. The applications were not as easily compatible with OS/2. Microsoft's new version of Windows sold 100,000 copies in just two weeks and OS/2 soon faded away. This left Microsoft with a virtual monopoly on operating systems for PCs. Soon the Federal Trade Commission began to investigate Microsoft for unfair marketing practices. Microsoft faced a string of Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department investigations throughout the 1990s. Some related allegations that Microsoft made unfair deals with computer manufactures who installed the Windows operating system on their computers. Other charges involved Microsoft forcing computer manufactures to sell Microsoft's Internet Explorer as a condition for selling the Windows operating system with their computers. At one point, Microsoft faced a possible break up of its two divisionsoperating systems and software development. Microsoft defended itself, harking back to Bill Gates' earlier battles with software piracy, and proclaiming that such restrictions were a threat to innovation. Eventually, Microsoft was able to find a settlement with the federal government to avoid a breakup. Through it all, Gates found some inventive ways to deflect the pressure with light-hearted commercials and public appearances at computer trade shows posing as Star Trek's Mr. Spock. Gates continued to run the company and weather the federal investigations through the 1990s.
11

a program that gives a computer instructions that provide the user with tools to accomplish a task.

12

4.2 Bill`s big idea: a computer on every desk and in every home
Since the early days of Microsoft, Gates has pursued his vision of a computer on every desk and in every home. (Interestingly, the original slogan was a computer on every desk in every home, running Microsoft software, but the last part is often left off these days as it makes some people uncomfortable.) Looking back now, the spread of personal computers from the office into the home seems almost inevitable. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Foresight, however, is much more lucrative, as Gates has shown. It is important to remember, too, that the ubiquitous12 screens and keyboards that we all take for granted today were the stuff of science fiction just a couple of decades ago. Back in the 1960s when futurists in America tried to predict the trends that were likely to shape society in the rest of the century they completely missed the rise of the PC. It is no coincidence either that the young Gates devoured science fiction books. That Bill Gates alone was responsible for putting the PC in homes and offices all over the world is untrue, any more than Henry Ford was responsible for the rise of the automobile. What the two had in common, however, was the vision to see what was possible, and to play a pivotal role in making that vision a reality. Gates set about achieving his vision by transforming Microsoft into a major player in the computer industry and using its dominant position to create a platform for the huge growth in applications. What Gates realized very early on was that, in order for his vision to succeed, it was essential that an industry standard be created. He knew, too, that whoever got there first would have a major opportunity to stamp their own authority on the computing industry. Several years before IBM approached Gates to find an operating system for its new PC, Gates was lamenting the lack of a common platform, and predicting that without one the potential of PCs would not be realized. Articles he penned at that time suggest that he has no more idea of the role destiny had in mind for him than anyone else. The fact is, however, when the opportunity presented itself, Gates saw it for what it was and grabbed it
12

being present everywhere at once.

13

with both hands. Hes been doing much the same ever since.
In the early 1980s, Gates masterminded Microsofts movement from a developer of programming languages to a diversified software company, producing everything from operating systems such as Windows to applications like Word and Excel, as well as programming tools. In the process he transformed the computer industry.

Those who like to criticize him, and accuse him of monopolistic tendencies, might pause once in a while to reflect on where the PC revolution would be right now without the timely, if self-interested, intervention of Bill Gates. In the end, its hard to argue with the claim that Bill Gates played a major role in ushering in a new technological era. Its worth remembering, too, that unlike many of the worlds seriously rich people he still works for a living.

5. How to get rich the Bill Gates way

With a net worth estimated at close to $60 billion, Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. While this book was being written, the value of Microsoft surpassed even that of GE, making it the most valuable US corporation. Spectacularly successful for more than two decades now, Bill Gates is the most powerful of the new entrepreneurs, the King of the Nerds. Asked by the American journalist Connie Chung if he regarded himself as a nerd, Gates replied: If nerd means you can enjoy understanding the insides of a computer and sit in front of it for hours and play with it and enjoy it. What he didnt say, but could have, is that his nerdish hobbies have also made him the richest man in the world. How does he do it? A careful analysis of the way Bill Gates runs Microsoft points to ten secrets of his success. For those who want to follow in his footsteps, here they are.

1. Be in the right place at the right time

In the era of the knowledge worker, technical know-how and creativity are the new corporate assets. Combine these with business acumen13 and a highly competitive nature
13

shrewdness shown by keen insight.

14

and you have a rare bird indeed. Bill Gates is that rare bird. But a remarkable piece of good fortune carried him to an altitude where his special talents could flourish. Its easy to put Microsofts success down to one extraordinary piece of good luck securing the contract to supply IBM with the operating system for its first PC. But there is more to his luck than meets the eye. Gates recognized the significance of the IBM deal. He knew that it could change the history of personal computing, and worked tirelessly for more than six months to maximize his chance of being lucky.

2. Fall in love with the technology

Bill Gates has had a lifelong love affair with the personal computer. From the very beginning, Gates and his partner Paul Allen could see that the PC would change everything. The two would talk late into the night about what the post-PC world would be like. They never truly doubted that the revolution would come. Its going to happen was an article of faith for the fledgling Microsoft, and they were going to write software for it when it did. One of the most important aspects of Microsofts continued success has been Gates technological knowledge. He retains control over key decisions in this area. On many occasions he has seen the future direction of technology more clearly than his rivals. He has also been prepared to lead the way.

3. Take no prisoners Gates is a fierce competitor. In everything he does, he is driven to win. This makes him an extremely tough adversary. He makes no bones about this and talks openly about crushing the competition. 4. Hire very smart people Gates has consistently sought out and hired the smartest individuals in the computer industry. This is a deliberate strategy and one that ensures the company attracts the highest

15

calibre14 staff in its industry. Some people have accused Gates of being elitist, but he is one of the first entrepreneurs to truly understand what intellectual capital is all about. High IQ people is a Microsoft term for the very brightest people. From the start, Gates has always insisted that the company required the very best minds. He does not suffer technological fools gladly. In some quarters this has been seen as elitist and has provoked criticism. But it has a number of positive effects. The company is able to recruit many brilliant students straight from college who are attracted by the prospect of working with the very best in their fields.

5. Learn to survive In Microsoft Bill Gates has created a voracious learning machine. It is, he believes, the sign of a smart organization, and the only way to avoid making the same mistake twice. His competitors arent so careful. By capitalizing on the mistakes of others, the company has prospered. 6. Dont expect any thanks If there is a lesson that Bill Gates has learned the hard way it is that fame and infamy are never far apart. You cant expect to become the richest man in the world without making some enemies-and in the computer industry, Gates has more than his share of those.

7. Assume the visionary position Bill Gates is a new type of business leader. Over the years, he has repeatedly shown that he is the closest thing the computer industry has to a seer. His in-depth understanding of technology and unique way of synthesizing15 data gives him a special ability to spot future trends and steer Microsofts strategy. This also inspires awe among Microsoft fans and intimidates its competitors.

14 15

a degree or grade of excellence or worth. combine so as to form a more complex, product.

16

8. Cover all the bases A key element of Microsofts success is its ability to manage a large number of projects simultaneously. Gates himself is the original multi-tasking man, and is said to be able to hold several different technical conversations simultaneously. He has also shown himself to be a master of hedging his bets. It means that it is constantly exploring new markets and new software applications. This protects it from missing the next big thing.

9. Build a byte-sized business Relative to its stock market valuation, Microsoft remains a small company. Internally, too, the company is constantly splitting into smaller units to maintain an entrepreneurial environment. At times, change is so rapid that Microsoft seems to be creating new divisions on an almost weekly basis. Gates also relies on maintaining a simple structure to enable him to keep his grip on the company. Whenever he feels that lines of communication are becoming stretched or fuzzy, he has no hesitation in simplifying the structure. 10. Never, ever, take your eye off the ball Gates has been at the top of his profession for more than two decades now. In that time he has become the richest man in the worldnot bad for someone still in his early 40s. Yet despite his enormous wealth and achievements, Gates shows no signs of slowing down. He says he is driven by a latent fear that he might miss the next big thing. He has no intention of repeating the mistakes of other dominant computer companies such as IBM and Apple.

But we can learn as much from Bill Gates by looking at what he does, as a manager and a leader, than by reading his books. Think first of Gates as a marketing16 guru. He has described his method as a six-part business strategy.

16

the commercial processes involved in promoting and selling and distributing a product or service.

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1. Concentrate your effort on a market with large potential but relatively few competitors. 2. Get in early and big. 3. Establish a proprietary position. 4. Protect that position in every way possible. 5. Aim for high gross margin 6. Make the customers an offer they can't refuse. Right from the beginning he practiced what he preached. In 1980 IBM approached the fledgling company that was Microsoft looking for software for its new secret product, the PC. At that stage all what Gates and his partner Allen had to offer was their version of the computer language called BASIC. But when IBM asked if they could also supply an operating system, Gates and Allen said yes. Actually they didn't have one at that moment, but they thought that the product of a local firm, Seattle Computer Products, could perhaps be used. When IBM went away, Gates and Allen bought this product for $50,000 and then agreed to give IBM a license to use it for ever for only $80,000 with no royalties. It was an offer IBM could not refuse and it knocked out two other competitors, but what IBM didn't notice, or didn't mind, was that Microsoft retained the right to license their system to anyone else. You see, IBM didn't think that the PC was going to be much more than a household toy, but Gates saw the huge market potential and wanted to get in early and first on the back of the biggest player in the business. As he says in his first book Getting in on the first stages of the PC revolution looked like the opportunity of a lifetime and we seized it. It's one thing to have the right idea. Creating the organization to deliver it is something else again. Here, too, Gates, with no previous experience, no MBA, and no mentors, set about creating a new sort of organization, what he called a knowledge company. The knowledge company's raw material is brainpower17. You hire the best and best trained brains, create an environment in which they can do their best work, and build systems so that the knowledge that results is woven into the fabric of the organization. Then it can be
17

mental ability.

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packaged and sold. The company headquarters at Redmond, near Seattle, has often been compared to a university campus, but if so, it is a very hard-nosed university indeed, with one overriding and very clear purpose - to put a PC on every desk and in every home (using Microsoft software, of course, even though Gates leaves this bit unsaid nowadays).

6. Philanthropic efforts
In 1989, a 28-year-old Microsoft executive named Melinda French caught the eye of Bill Gates, then 37. The very bright and organized Melinda was a perfect match for Gates. In time, their relationship grew as they discovered an intimate and intellectual connection. On January 1, 1994, Melinda and Bill were married in Hawaii. But only a few months later heartbreak struck Bill Gates as his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died in June 1994. Gates was devastated. Bill and Melinda took some time off in 1995 to travel to several countries and get a new perspective on life and the world. In 1996, their first daughter, Jennifer, was born. A year later, Gates moved his family into a 55,000 sq ft. $54 million house on the shore of Lake Washington. Though the house serves as a business center, it is said to be a very cozy home for the couple and their three children. With the influence of his wife Melinda, Gates took an interest in filling his mother's role as a civic leader. He began to realize that he had an obligation to give more of his wealth to charity. Being the consummate student he was, Gates studied the philanthropic work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, titans of the American industrial revolution. In 1994, Gates and his wife established the William H. Gates Foundation which was dedicated to supporting education, world health, and investment in low-income communities. In 2000, the couple combined several family foundations to form the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They started out by making a $28 billion contribution to set up the foundation. Bill Gates stepped down from the day-to-day operations of Microsoft in 2000, turning over the job of CEO to college friend Steve Ballmer who had been with Microsoft since 1980. He positioned himself as chief software architect so he could concentrate on what was for him the more passionate side of the business. He still remains chairman of the board. Over

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the next few years, his involvement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation occupied much of his time and even more of his interest. In 2006, Gates announced he was transitioning himself from full-time work at Microsoft, to devote more quality time to the Foundation. His last full day at Microsoft was June 27, 2008. In addition to all the accolades of being one of the most successful and richest businessmen18 in the history of the world, Bill Gates has also received numerous awards for philanthropic work. Time magazine named Gates one of the most influential people of the 20th century. The magazine also named Gates, his wife Melinda, and rock band U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year. Gates also holds several honorary doctorates19 from universities throughout the world and an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2006, Gates and his wife were awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government for their philanthropic work throughout the world in the areas of health and education. Imagine if you had more than $21 billion to give away. Who would you give it to? It's not such an easy question. But $21.3 billion is now the value of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Most of the biggest American philanthropists are dead and gone without knowing whether their choices were the right ones. Not Bill Gates. As Correspondent Vicki Mabrey reports, he wants to play a big part in deciding where his money will go. Each step of the way they've learned something new. Three years after the library program began, Gates said he was nave to think computers could solve all the problems; they don't do much for poor people with dying children. So he's tackling global health. Bill Gates and his wife Melinda are doing the giving. And when you ask Gates why he's giving away his wealth, he tells you that he's come to understand just how much good his money can do. "The programs we have in place today will save over a million children's lives per year," Gates says. "And it's a number that's almost so large it's hard to relate to, you know. I could say to you, 'We saved a child's life.' And you could say, 'Wow, that's great. You saved that child. Let's go look at that child.
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the body of individuals who manage businesses. one of the highest academic degrees conferred by a university.

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To Gates, that justifies giving away millions, even billions of dollars, sometimes in a single grant. "We have an opportunity to change the world, and if we ever forget it, Bill reminds us," says Patty Stonesifer, co-chair of the foundation. It's a tough lesson she's had to learn on the job. When Stonesifer retired from Microsoft - a multimillionaire at age 40 she planned to spend more time with her teen-age children and sit on some corporate boards, including that of CBS. But at her retirement party, her boss lured her back to a job for which she takes no salary, and for which she had absolutely no experience. The richest man in the world plans to give away almost his entire fortune in his lifetime and says that his being in the right place at the right time shouldn't benefit him alone. He says, "I certainly don't think it's good for a society when you have somebody whose skills just matched what the era required and who built something that got to be super popular, had this big - big positive impact. Those resources should go back to the people in society who haven't been as lucky."

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Conclusion
I think this is a fair analysis of why Bill Gates has been so successful over so many years. In the end, whether you see him as the Antichrist or the Messiah of the IT revolution it is impossible to escape the conclusion he is a remarkable individual. For two decades he has dominated the computer industry. He shows no sign of relenting. But more than just a computer whiz-kid, Gates also provides a model for business leadership in the 21st century. For this, he deserves acknowledgement20. For all the hype and all the accusations, one thing about Gates shines through: he is the greatest of all the computer entrepreneurs because he has both the technical smarts to understand what is just around the corner, and the commercial smarts to sell it to the rest of us. This makes Bill Gates a very rare bird indeed. But what makes him so powerful is that he was standing there on the threshold of the PC revolution, to usher in the new era. For this reason alone, there will never be another like him. Love him or hate him, admire him or loathe him, one thing for sure can be said about Bill Gates: he is a passionate entrepreneur who has been able to turn his love for all things computer into a multi-billion dollar fortune, and revolutionize the world in the process. He may be turning his back on the company to pursue more philanthropic causes, but the world has certainly not heard the last about Bill Gates. Bill Gates has played a major part in shaping our present lives. His desire to bring PC's to the homes of consumers has been realized. Partly owing to the advances in computer hardware, but mostly owing to his keen economic insight and gifted ability to create computer software. How history will ultimately cast Bill Gates is still undetermined. Despite all the criticisms of him and his company, I hope that Bill Gates will be recognized a genuine historical creator and have his name placed among the ranks Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Ghandi.

20

A statement acknowledging something or someone.

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Bibliography
1. Gates, Bill. (1996). The Road Ahead (2nd e.). New York: Penguin Books. 2. Rensin, David. (1994). The Bill Gates Interview 3 .Dess, Dearlove, Business the Bill Gates way (1999). Oxford: Capstone 4. Wallace, James and Erickson, Jim, Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire, John Wiley, New York, 1992. 5. Sulloway, Frank. (1993). Creating Minds. New York: Basic Books. 6. Bill Gates. (2011).Biography.com. http://www.biography.com/people/bill-gates 7. Bill Gates Net Worth Page. http://www.quuxuum.org/~evan/bgnw.html 8. Microsoft Corporation. http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/bio.asp 9. www.wikipedia.com 10. www.gatesfoundations.org

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Annexes

Bill Gates with his wife Melinda Gates

Microsoft Corporation logo

Windows 7 logo

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