Microsoft Secrets: How the World's Most Powerful Software Company Creates Technology, Shapes Markets, and Manages People
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Today, Microsoft commands the high ground of the information superhighway by owning the operating systems and basic applications programs that run on the world's 170 million computers. Beyond the unquestioned genius and vision of Bill Gates, what accounts for Microsofts astounding success?Drawing on almost two years of on-site observation at Microsoft headquarters, eminent scientists Michael A. Cusumano and Richard W. Selby reveal many of Microsoft's innermost secrets. This inside report, based on forty in-depth interviews by authors who had access to confidential documents and project data, outlines the seven complementary strategies that characterize exactly how Microsoft competes and operates, including the "Brain Trust" of talented employees and exceptional management; "bang for the buck" competitive strategies and clear organizational goals that produce self-critiquing, learning, and improving; a flexible, incremental approach to product development; and a relentless pursuit of future markets.Cusumano and Selby's masterful analysis successfully uncovers the distinctive way in which Microsoft has combined all of the elements necessary to get to the top of an enormously important industry — and stay there.
Preface to the Paperback EditionPrefaceIntroduction11Organizing and Managing the Company: Find "Smart" People Who Know the Technology and the Business212Managing Creative People and Technical Skills: Organize Small Teams of Overlapping Functional Specialists733Competing with Products and Standards: Pioneer and Orchestrate Evolving Mass Markets1274Defining Products and Development Processes: Focus Creativity by Evolving Features and "Fixing" Resources1875Developing and Shipping Products: Do Everything in Parallel, with Frequent Synchronizations2616Building a Learning Organization: Improve Through Continuous Self-Critiquing, Feedback, and Sharing3277Attack the Future399App. 1Microsoft Chronology451App. 2Main Microsoft Desktop and Business Applications457App. 3Microsoft Operating Systems461App. 4Applications Division Employee Survey465App. 5Selected Chronology of Microsoft Agreements for the Information Highway469Interviews473Notes477Acknowledgments493Index499
