11 ms·
Curious how Bill Gates is still main cced? Does he still play a significant role in the control of Microsoft?
by kd913 2y ago
Curious how Bill Gates is still main cced? Does he still play a significant role in the control of Microsoft?
- scrlk 2y agoHe's still influential behind the scenes - there was a recent article published about it: https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-still-pulling-strings-microsoft-ai-copilot-chatgpt-2024-4 https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-still-pulling-str... (https://archive.ph/VmtON https://archive.ph/VmtON) > Current and former executives say Gates remains intimately involved in the company's operations — advising on strategy, reviewing products, recruiting high-level executives, and nurturing Microsoft's crucial relationship with Sam Altman, the cofounder and CEO of OpenAI. > "What you read is not what's happening in reality," another Microsoft executive said. "Satya and the entire senior leadership team lean on Gates very significantly. His opinion is sought every time we make a major change."
- godzillabrennus 2y agoIf true it would explain why Microsoft keeps getting better while Google management seems to ignore the founders and keeps getting worse.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoI don't think it's so much that Google ignores the founders, so much as the founders are ignoring Google. I was at G when L&S stepped away, and it really just felt that leading up to that, they'd become completely disinterested. S, especially, seemed completely out of touch. And L just tired.
- foobarian 2y agoBG is a shrewd, cutthroat businessman on top of having a tech background. I think he's far different from L&S in that respect. But yeah it helps he hasn't disengaged as well.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoGoogle would have probably been better off if Eric Schmidt had stayed engaged. I don't like the guy's opinions on many things, but he was pretty good at keeping the ship headed in generally the right direction.
- actionfromafar 2y agoOr any direction? I couldn't tell what the direction of Google was if I had to.
- esafak 2y agoWhat's the direction of Microsoft, Amazon, or Apple? They're too big to have one direction.
- cmrdporcupine 2y agoGoogle does have one direction, the same direction it's had since IPO, really. Maximize ad revenue, to maximize share value. Just all the other window dressing is going away.
- VelesDude 2y agoNever liked Eric, but Google had such a clear direction and vision under his leadership. Pichai, feels like the accountants are running the business. It is ONLY about the next quarters results.
- anyfactor 2y agoI don't think Larry and Sergey is on the same level as Bill Gates. Solo founders who have raised to and led a big tech company is a different breed. I would pick Jeff Bezos, Zuck and Larry Ellison on the same level of Bill Gates. They don't manage day 2 day but big strategies don't go through without their blessing. Even though you can say Bill does not manage, the top level executives will always think "what would Bill do" or "what would Bill think about this".
- shuckles 2y agoBill Gates co-founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. If anything, Paul Allen was the instigator.
- saulpw 2y agoYeah and Jobs co-founded Apple with Wozniak. Wozniak was instrumental to Apple's initial success but clearly it was Jobs who took it to the mat. Same with Gates/Allen, by their IPO in 1986 it was billg at the helm and Paul Allen doing something else.
- shuckles 2y agoI don't dispute Bill Gates might have been the business mind that drove Microsoft to its status today as the biggest software vendor to businesses on the planet. However, it's not because he was some sort of solo founder sigma grindset.
- ioblomov 2y agoAllen clued Gates in on the upcoming microcomputing revolution when the Altair made the cover of Popular Electronics in 1975. And there are stories about both writing code on planes while on their way to sales meetings. So Gates arguably combined Woz’s technical chops with Jobs’ business acumen (even though I always admired the latter’s sensibility and vision more).
- anyfactor 2y ago
- lionkor 2y agoWhich of their products is getting better?
- kranke155 2y agoThey’re executing better. Microsoft has never made great products with some exceptions.
- jiggawatts 2y agoMicrosoft makes “good enough” products that integrate smoothly. That’s what enterprises want and smaller vendors can’t provide by their very nature.
- dist-epoch 2y agoSome exceptions like Windows, Office and Xbox?
- AnthonyMouse 2y agoYou're listing widely used products, not great products. Fast food is not great just because it's popular.
- Sebb767 2y ago> Fast food is not great just because it's popular. It's not good for you, as a consumer. As a company, it's a trillion dollar market, nurturing some of the largest companies in the world.
- VelesDude 2y agoEven Bill Gates has admitted that a big part of their success was just sheer luck. There were many competitors that were pushing far better technology than they had but simply could not get a foot hold in the market. Just the other day on here I mentioned BeOS/Haiku OS, the tech vision on that thing is astounding but it simply did not pan out into any sort of market success. Same with parts of Commodore, IBM, NeXT. MS did capitalize and manipulate the market to assist themselves and keep competitors out, but just becaused they won doesn't mean they had the best technology.
- probably_jesus 2y ago[dead]
- paxys 2y agoThis was sent in 2019, when Gates was still chairman of the board at Microsoft and involved day to day as technical advisor to the CEO. Post 2021 he has no official role at the company.
- omega3 2y agoI found it curious he wasn't cc'd on the response from Satya.
- laurels-marts 2y agoI think Satya knows better than to waste Bill's time. His reply added no value to Bill and was done just to loop in Amy.