Bill Gates is one of the most powerful people in the world. It is not uncommon for the leaders of foreign governments to visit him before visiting the US President when they come to the United States! In many ways, particularly when you take into account the massive charitable trust he has created and will be taking more control of, he may be the most powerful person in this country.
However, as the leader of Microsoft he is under the same restrictions and subject to the same distractions as any top level executive. This position has actually limited not only his ability to make a difference on the world stage, but his ability to continue to make a difference at Microsoft. By stepping out of the Chief Architect?s job and delegating the responsibilities to others, he has freed himself up to use the power he has gained to correct the problems he sees in the world. Gates has focused much of his energies on world hunger and world disease, as he truly believes that the only way to improve our world is to eliminate these problems.
Impact on Microsoft
Bill Gates has been such a source of power in Microsoft that it can be said the company reflects his personality, specifically his strengths and weaknesses. Reflecting his strengths, the company has no fear of partnerships which allowed it to flourish when Apple floundered, it has reinvented itself on several occasions (so far avoiding the fate of an unchanging IBM), and it has embraced competing products (unlike Novell and Lotus who suffered due to their inability to do the same).
Conversely, Microsoft reflects his weaknesses as it has been viewed as blind to the needs of its customers and partners forming a fertile ground in which Linux and Open Source currently flourish. The company has also taken on too many projects at once, and under-funded them to a degree that has caused many to fail, damaging trust and building a ground swell of customers looking to move to competing platforms. Lastly, Microsoft has lacked subtlety which has often made conflicts, like the one with the US Department of Justice, vastly worse then they might have been otherwise. In short, Microsoft largely exists due to Bill Gate?s strengths but currently suffers due to his weaknesses.
Gate?s departure should allow Microsoft to better evolve into what it needs to become to once again flourish and, over time, restore the trust of those who are no longer patrons of the firm. However, this won?t be an easy or efficient process, as old habits are hard to change. Still, Ray Ozzie (who will replace Bill Gates) is vastly more capable of being a Chief Software Architect and while he lacks many of Gate?s strengths (which are not a requirement of this title) he also lacks virtually all of his weaknesses.
The end result should be a company that is better at meeting market needs and expectations, that is timelier with products, and that lives up to the promise that Microsoft products work well together.
Impact on Microsoft Products
While this change has come too late to have an impact on Windows Vista, it will have a dramatic impact on the products that come in the next wave. Expect an increasingly heavier focus on on-line services like Windows, Office, and Xbox live as well as vast improvements in secondary products. It is also likely that there will be fewer of these secondary products as Microsoft raises the bar and reduces its eclectic nature. The secondary products will probably be service oriented. If current trends continue, there may be a time when much of what you get from Microsoft is paid for through advertising or monthly fees rather than up front at purchase.
Expect improvements in collaboration both inside and outside of the company with increased ability to not only give feedback to Microsoft, but receive feedback from the company ensuring that your ideas have been heard. This will all take time to develop, and it may be as many as 3 years before the real impact of these changes makes it out the door and into products that consumers can see have evolved. The fact is that Microsoft is on the path to recovery, and given how many of us use Microsoft products, that has to be a good thing!
Long Term Effects
Strangely, the biggest impact Bill Gates will have on the world may be before him as he takes over the most powerful charitable trust that has ever existed, and wields it like a sword against some of the evils that currently plague the world. That is to say that Bill Gates? epitaph has yet to be written and, when it is, Microsoft may only be a footnote in the chapters of his accomplishments. His charitable work will probably have a bigger impact on all of us than any software product ever could.
