Pitch #8

Pg. 211 – 240

• Bill Gates always wants to win
• Gates calculates every move he and his company take
• he calculates every move his opponents take
• long lines and a packed house welcomed Bill Gates as he opened the Comdex trade show in Las Vegas with a keynote speech on the future of the information superhighway, where, he predicted, virtual money from wallet computers would replace cash, and wall-size screens would bring interactive television into the home
• although his oratorical skills will never rival those of a fiery southern preacher, Gates can always hold the attention of an audience of the faithful, and so, accompanied by a Microsoft interactive video, he had the techie crowd of 5,000 entertained with his vision of the future
• Gates and Microsoft’s worst-kept secret: Microsoft would launch its own on-line service, to be called the Microsoft Network, MSN for short
• although Microsoft had discussed its plans with industry executives and had been negotiating to line up content for the service, the company had never before publicly acknowledged its plans
• Gates promised that MSN would be available in 35 countries that had telephone access to the network
• Gates proposed that MSN would be bundled with Windows 95
• contrast to what others in the industry thought, Gates said he thought MSN with Windows 95 isn’t anticompetitive at all and that if this is about splitting up the market, it’s a poor market for all of them
• when Gates wanted a live demo to determine whether it would be included in Windows 95 depending on how well MSN worked in the demo, he took part in an online chat with someone in France and Australia
• Bill Gates: is brilliant technically, understands the big picture, loves strategy, loves think strategy, wants to know your strategy, wants to know everybody’s strategy, is a tough negotiators, doesn’t waste time, and gets things done