Boston, MA 02/06/2014 (wallstreetpr) – Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has found the Chief Executive Officer it has been looking for in Satya Nadella and the founder of the largest software maker Bill Gates is to assume on the role of Nadella’s technology adviser.
Gates will act as the company’s director while devoting half of his time in philanthropic activities by staying connected to the foundation ‘Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’, he established with his wife. He will be stepping aside after serving as chairman for 33 long years while still being associated with the company and assisting in Nadella’s efforts of restricting the company. It is hoped that he helps the company evokes the trend it had set long back in 1975 which brought innovation and invention that transformed the world.
Founders’ comebacks
While previous instances of founders like Steve Jobs of Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) recall a story of revolutionizing inventions they gave us on their comeback, there are at the same time sad ones which suggest the corporation should have better been left alone. General Motors Company (NYSE:GE)’s founder Billy Durant was persuaded to leave the company twice after he founded it. In this context, a professor of sociology at the University of Michigan at Ross School of Business in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jerry Davis has to say that a founder infuses a sense of moral authority and charisma with his entry in the company and he holds the strength to bring about such changes in his company which his successors cannot. However, the same person might be responsible for decay in growth if he fails to realize that his ideas are obsolete and denies accepting the new.
Gates versus Jobs
Back in 2000, when Gates had left his duties as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s CEO, the software maker had captured 93% of the market of consumer computing devices, which were mainly personal computers then. He was the man responsible for changing Offices and the way they operate today. But in 2012, with the increasing boom of smartphones and other mobile devices like the tablets, the software maker was left with not even 20% of the market. Most of these devices did not employ Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s software and it was this point of time when Gates faced the most criticism. He had failed to seek the changing trend.
At the time, Gates was involved with the management working on small screen devices, much ahead of rival Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL). But nevertheless, he was beaten by competitor when the iPhone was launched in 2007. Gates was then Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s chief software architect.
In contrast, Jobs return in 1997 after a 12 year absence, marked a new reign for Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), whose technology is today the most valuable across globe. His iPhone, iPad and iPod have changed the way people communicate with each other their business styles as well as their personal lifestyle have left completely altered.
But Gates has credited himself highly as he foresaw the need for a unified operating system for PCs as early as in 1981. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) still sells more software than any other company.
