Microsoft First Generation: The Success Secrets of the Visionaries Who Launched a Technology Empire

by Cheryl Tsang

What began as a modest start-up partnership only twenty-five years ago has already surpassed all the giants of contemporary capitalism, including General Electric and IBM, and has achieved a value estimated at nearly $500 billion. How did Microsoft achieve all of this in so short a time? What was the true nature of the Microsoft environment in the beginning, and what are the secrets behind its triumph? Find the answers here. With \IMicrosoft First...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471332062
• ISBN13: 9780471332060
• Release Date: October 1999
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 253 Pages
• Weight: 10.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Does what it says

I picked this book up and I think that it is very good. I started reading it right after finishing up a book on Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux. Thus this is almost the flip side of that coin, showing how Microsoft became. One thing that surprised me was that Bill Gates was not one of the main focuses of this particular book, though he is mentioned quite frequently. Rather it shows some of the others responsible for possibly the most successful computer company ever. This is not all just programmers either, but a good selection of people from various different aspects of the microsoft realm.

First Generation: A wonderful example to today's society.

Tsang's book, Microsoft: First Generation, display's a great example to today's society, and generation. The book focuses on 12 key members of Microsoft in it's earliest stages, which, in a way, helped create the infrastructure of the company. The interviews show how all 12 ex-ms employees ended up where they were, and what it took to be successful. I applaud Mrs. Tsang for her hard work. I recommend this book to anyone interested in business, or Microsoft itself.

The Interviews Capture The Experience Well

The experience these people described is eerily familiar. Ms. Tsang does an excellent job of staying out of the way to let them tell their stories in their own words. Much of what I read about Microsoft comes from people who haven't experienced the reality of it or who guessed at the motives of people involved. I'd love to see about twenty more people profiled. There are a huge number of stories from the early years that should be told.The book is like entering a time warp for me, and reentering a very special time. Realize that almost EVERYONE was working longer, harder, and more effectively than they ever thought possible, almost from day one. The result is one amazing company. The force of Steve Ballmer with individuals is underscored in the various profiles: He's a force for good, but often brutal. The importance of the committed Microsoft experience to the profiled individuals' lives is clear. The consumptive fire of the early years burned out many, which many divorced spouses and alienated families will testify. This experience was very much like going off to war. Few people even knew what stock options were. Few had high starting salaries. Most were there for the love of software, the pc, the early mac; for the love of a growing underdog industry; for the love of competition, going up against IBM, Novell, Borland, Wordperfect, Ashton-Tate; for the love of their team, their project. All good people who did good work. Microsoft made work pure and unadulterated. Meetings were rare. Get a contract, set a deadline. Do the work. Stay up night and day until it's done. Do the best you really can. Don't whine. Ship it. A simple life really, but extraordinarily demanding. It seemed like half the people were from Harvard, half from MIT, and half from Xerox Parc. Smart people who worked hard. That's the simple secret. Get enough of them together and you've got critical mass.As things grew they became different. Easier, but more indirect, more bureaucratic, more social, more market-driven. The spoils of war get fought over. Eventually Bill, who is obviously very smart (but a lot more like one of the three smartest guys in high school than God) became **BILL GATES, THE RICHEST SMARTEST MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE, LET US ALL BOW AND PRAISE CAESAR**. Then came the stories that read like this: "With $90 billion dollars, Bill Gates could buy the entire continent of Africa, and still have money left over to fill up the Grand Canyon with silver dollars." So the measurement in dollars became the thing, and not the thing itself.Microsoft is a nice wonderfully pure monopoly. The early hard work has paid off big time for stockholders. And the VAST amount of high-quality, professionally produced software is a MONSTROUS good for society. Some companies were crushed by Microsoft in the business arena. They're the business victims. The human victims are the families of those who worked so hard