Management and Change, Essay on Bill Gates Management Style
Uploaded by rabbit on May 06, 2006
Management and change
--Bill Gates (The richest man in the world)
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William (Bill) H. Gates is chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal and business computing. Microsoft had revenues of US$32.19 billion for the fiscal year ending June 2002, and employs more than 50,000 people in 72 countries and regions.
Born on Oct. 28, 1955, Gates grew up in Seattle with his two sisters. Their father, William H. Gates II, is a Seattle attorney. Their late mother, Mary Gates, was a schoolteacher, University of Washington regent, and chairwoman of United Way International.
The birth of Microsoft
A. The idea
During December of 1974, his partner Allen was on his way to visit Gates when along the way he stopped to browse a magazine. After he saw that, it changed his and Bill Gates's lives forever. On the cover of Popular Electronics was a picture of the Altair 8080 and the headline "World's First Microcomputer Kit to Rival Commercial Models." He bought the issue and rushed to Gates's room. They both recognized it was a great opportunity for business and their business brain started to work. They knew that the home computer market was about to explode and that someone would need to make software for the new machines.
Within a few days, Gates had called MITS (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems), the makers of the Altair. He told the company that he and Allen had developed a BASIC that could be used on the Altair [Teamgates.com, 9/29/96]. They had not even written a line of code. They had neither an Altair nor the chip that ran the computer. The MITS company was very interested in seeing their BASIC since they never seen such thing before. Gates and Allen began to work feverishly on the BASIC they had promised. The code for the program was left mostly up to Bill Gates while Paul Allen began working on a way to simulate the Altair with the schools PDP-10.
When they both felt their program was ready. Allen was to fly to MITS and show off their creation. The day after Allen arrived at MITS, it was time to test their BASIC. Entering the program into the company's Altair was the first time Allen had ever touched one. If the Altair simulation he designed or any of Gates's code was faulty, the demonstration would most...