The Microsoft Story; Book Review

The Microsoft Story; Book Review

The subtitle to this book is ‘How the Tech Giant Rebooted Its Culture, Upgraded Its Strategy, and Found Success in the Cloud.’ That’s not how I’d describe this book. It definitely gives the timeline and history. Many of the facts are very interesting and the timeline is really amazing. When you consider the ground-breaking introduction of the personal PC, to the technology available through Microsoft right now, it’s almost a little scary to think about where we might be in another 40+years!

 The book is part of the Harper Collins Leadership series; it reads like a ‘what not to do in leadership’ when it comes to the behavior of the original founders and the tactics used to grow and ‘own’ their markets.

 It’s also interesting to reflect on changes during the maturity of leadership and the company’s growing responsibilities to the world. Only three (3) CEO’s along this tumultuous journey, each one bringing the change that was needed at that moment in time. As the Microsoft offerings became business-critical, they branched out to other technology areas, looking for new trends, trying to stay relevant and dominate new markets. Many times this was done ruthlessly, and they’ve had some pretty expensive brushes (fines) with government institutions.

 This is not a ’yeah MS’ book; it’s an assessment of the timeline and players, the tactics, the successes, some of the misses, and the ramifications of their decisions over the years. It’s a pretty fast read. It seems they’ve succeeded in spite of the personalities involved. – CMW