Share This
Two days ago Bill Gates showed up for the second time ever on Reddit for an AMA. Why? Although his recent work with the Gates foundation has been remarkable and several people want to know how philanthropy works and how you feel when you give back, this AMA came straight after the new Microsoft’s CEO was announced.
After stepping down as chairman, Bill Gates will have a new role on the board as founder and technology adviser. During the AMA, Gates answered just a few questions regarding his new role at Microsoft, which we are reporting below.
Q: Can you describe your new role at Microsoft?
I am excited about how the cloud and new devices can help us communicate and collaborate in new ways. The OS won’t just be on one device and the information won’t just be files – it will be your history including being able to review memories of things like kids growing up. I was thrilled Satya asked me to pitch in to make sure Microsoft is ambitious with its innovation. Even in Office there is a lot more than can be done.
Q:Bill, I gotta ask you, what would you say you do there?
I make sure we pick ambitious scenarios and that we have a strong architecture to deliver on them. I encourage good work (hopefully).
As we said when Satya Nadella’s role was announced, Gates and Ballmer should oversee this critical transition within the company. Even though Bill Gates has been away for years and Ballmer had enough, they are the only two guys who really know the company. Bill Gates, in one sentence, expressed what we are all expecting from his new role.
“I was thrilled Satya asked me to pitch in to make sure Microsoft is ambitious with its innovation.”
Innovation. This is probably the first time Microsoft has used this word after years of non sense products, which have tried to compete in already existing markets. Innovation is the only thing that can make Microsoft cooler again and technical people, such as Nadella, with the aid of the Founders can achieve this.
It will be interesting to analyse how two people can impact a company such Microsoft that was becoming something like an almost dead man, lying on his bed and sucking money from assets that were built years before. This is probably a drastic vision of the tech giant, which has certainly done something in the last few years, but it’s an incentive to do more.
As Bill Gates has recalled, Microsoft will focus on its OS and try to make it available on more than one single device, as they have already tried with windows phone. Further, the cloud is where Nadella wants to have a huge impact. “Information will be our history.”
Although Gates doesn’t seem to be a gamer, Microsoft will have to focus on one of its big assets, the xbox. In particular, the Kinect from a technology point of view. It’s remarkable to see how many companies are building products on top of the Kinect and how much innovation they are creating without letting us know. It’s time to bring it on the market and show us the true power of it.
Bill Gates has also added that there is still a lot to do with Office, which is one of those assets that Microsoft has had for decades; however, when you don’t innovate or expand your software, you tend to lose momentum and even users. It seemed Microsoft was just updating all these twenty years old assets without adding any “magic”.
I think Microsoft has now a huge opportunity to really come back as the company it used to be. The model they need to follow is the Marissa Mayer’s one without less acquisitions and more home made products. There is a lot of work to do, but I think Nadella knows it. This is really the last train for Microsoft, so they better hurry up and get on it.
