I assumed you meant "egghead" to mean just someone of a technical background, as opposed to a "suit". But you call it a "mentality". Based upon this, I am not one. What I meant is just because someone is technical does not mean that they don't "get it" on the business side. They might not be the best to be the corporate leader. But these companies need technical leadership as well has business leadership, otherwise, they won't have the products to compete. Style can only win over substance for so long. After a while, you have to deliver. The only exception to this is companies such as MSFT that gain such a dominant mindshare that they can afford to lag technically... at least for a while. The rest can ill afford even one major mistake.
While I think that MSFT has excellent marketing, I still think that they gained most of their success from riding IBM's coattails. Most of corporate America would not consider alternatives, except maybe Apple for desktop publishing, because MSFT did not even have a GUI to support desktop publishing. This success was primarily due to IBM. Remember how long it took for the PC clone market to take off in the Corporate Market? Even when IBM had the crappiest, slowest, most expensive hardware on the market, Corporate America steadfastly refused to buy anything else. Even when the clone market was accepted by Corporate America, usually the most adventurous they got was to buy from Compaq.
>>> I also disagree with your opinion on Gates' "immortality." Bill Gates has quickly
become among the most famous people in the world. The man is a cultural icon of
legendary status, and will be remembered in the history books because he's not
merely known in the techie circle, but in the general population (contrast Bill Gates
to Gordon Moore, for instance).
He is famous *today*. But will he be so in future generations? There were many industry titans that were very well known in their own time. Many from just a couple of generations ago have already slipped from memory. Ask most 20 somethings, and I'll bet most of them can't name any non-living industry titans. Of course, most would not be able to identify Germany on a map. Perhaps Gates will be one name that remains. Hard to tell right now. |
