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Needing help in a hurry, Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen agreed to pay Ballmer not just an annual base salary of about $50,000 but also 10% of al
by aqme28 11y ago
Needing help in a hurry, Microsoft cofounders Bill Gates and Paul Allen agreed to pay Ballmer not just an annual base salary of about $50,000 but also 10% of all the profit growth he could generate.
But how did he get such an insanely sweet deal?
- oldmanjay 11y agoWell there's the obvious fact that he is a top-notch businessman who, after negotiating that deal, was a key player in building one of the world's most valuable companies. It was just one of his skills.
- tgb 11y agoAnd they knew he was worth hiring since his credentials as a top notch business man were obvious the moment he negotiated a 10% deal! It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
- oldmanjay 11y agoPerhaps I wasn't clear - his ability to negotiate that deal foreshadowed his (clear with hindsight) exceptional business skills.
- exelius 11y agoBecause he's a very savvy politician. Ballmer is certainly not an idiot, but his main skill has always struck me as being an arrogant asshole who won't be intimidated by anyone. He's not a brilliant strategist; he's the unstoppable force that pushes to implement the strategy at all costs. You want a guy like Ballmer on your side because he gets deals done. Whether or not those deals were the right deals is another question. Contrast him with a guy like Steve Jobs -- Jobs was a brilliant strategist who understood the complex interaction between design, customer needs, technical capability and supply chain. He was also fired from the company he founded because he wasn't able to get what he wanted in a way that ensured the people above and beside him got what they wanted. Jobs had far more success when politics were removed from the picture -- he was a de facto dictator at Apple during their most successful period. He was an effective leader and a pragmatist, but he also had absolute power within Apple so he never had to negotiate internally from a position of weakness.
- erikb 11y agoYeah, it's like they left out the story and only presented the fluff around it.
- eschutte2 11y agoHe was buddies with Bill Gates at Harvard.
- xiaoma 11y agoHe was also a brilliant math student who edged out Gates on the Putnam. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/business/yourmoney/28ballmer.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2& http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/28/business/yourmoney/28ballm...