The 12 Simple Secrets of Microsoft Management
Book

The 12 Simple Secrets of Microsoft Management

How to Think and Act Like a Microsoft Manager and Take Your Company to the Top

David Thielen
McGraw-Hill, 1999
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Innovative

Recommendation

David Thielen presents Microsoft’s management principles, which are the secrets to its marketplace dominance. He includes ample examples of what Microsoft does right and what most other corporations do wrong. You will learn why Microsoft’s focus makes it the hardest company in the world to compete against. Yet, you will also find nuggets of management information that can be applied to your own workplace environment. Thielen has written a direct, refreshing, and sometimes brutal book. This book will intrigue any business person who would like a quick review of the management principles that have guided Microsoft’s success.

Summary

The First Secret: Total World Domination

Microsoft’s primary goal when it enters a market is to dominate it, in fact, to obtain a 100% share of that market. If you ask Microsoft employees what the corporate motto is, the response given without hesitation is, Total World Domination. You will receive this response even though no expressed statement exists that puts it forth as the company’s motto or mission statement. Microsoft employees recognize this motto as the primary goal of the company and of their work.

What is the psychological basis of this secret? In a word, it is conquest. When human beings reach a point beyond basic survival needs, their actions move toward the more advanced needs of security and conquest. Microsoft’s secret is that, as a management style, Total World Domination rewards conquest over security. The development of the Excel spreadsheet software is an example of this conquest culture. At the time Excel was developed, the Lotus spreadsheet software dominated the marketplace and Lotus was the largest software company. Microsoft’s head of Excel development explains, "We didn’t write Excel to make money; we wrote it for the sheer joy of putting...

About the Author

David Thielen has spent more than 20 years on the bleeding edge of technology, including working as a senior software developer on Windows 95 and several other projects. Currently he is working as the director of software development for a hi-tech company. Thielen is the author of No Bugs! and Writing Windows Virtual Device Drivers. He has written 22 articles for magazines including The New Republic, PC Magazine, and Microsoft Systems Journal.

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