The primary advantage is not any kind of architectural wisdom or specific knowledge, although that may be the case in some instances. 1) Having the 'magic of t

The primary advantage is not any kind of architectural wisdom or specific knowledge, although that may be the case in some instances. 1) Having the 'magic of the founder' in place is worth a lot. Imagine young Engineers getting to sit on meetings with 'the World's Once Richest Man', world renowned, influential, 'powerful', and the 'creator' of their initiative. It's like a celebrity who is paying attention to you and is meaningfully participating in something you are doing. You'd never forget that meeting. It's exciting and inspiring, and adds meaning or resonance to what you do. It's like being a little bit a party of mythology and gives emotional impetus to the original 'raison d'etre' of the company. 2) Satya can use Bill (I don't mean negatively) to move the needle in areas where Satya couldn't alone. CEO's, surprisingly, don't always have a lot of power. They are like nervous feudal lords, always worried about popular revolts, public opinion, antagonism from the nobles (i.e. other execs). So having someone with the tremendous power of 'authenticity' is like gold. If Satya and Bill agree 'we need to move the company in this direction' ... Satya alone would have a lot of convincing ... but if 'Bill says it' and starts propagating this idea in all-hands and in meetings, then it's a done deal. It will happen for better or worse. Having the 'founders word' is such an amazing thing if it works in a situation. 3) Maybe he was always doing this, but having his 'extra organizational outreach' is powerful. Calling up big CEO's of customers, politicians, lobbyists, governmental people etc.. Who's going to turn down a call from Bill Gates? Nobody really :). So it's a big thing to have him create connections and pave the road ahead socially.