A long-time acquaintance of Bill Gates revealed the worst decisions of the former head of Microsoft, according to Business Insider.
Brad Silverberg, who's spent 9 years as Microsoft's SVP from 1990, said in the Q&A session of Quara that Bill Gates' lack of lobbying efforts and utilization of Internet early had a significantly negative influence on the company, the news report said.
He said, "Top of the list for me is that Bill did not engage – either himself or the company – in the political process early enough. When Microsoft’s competitors were effectively lobbying the government, Bill’s attitude was the government should just go away and leave Microsoft alone,"
Silverberg said the reason why Bill was not engaged in the government and politics was that the company was already competitive and created enough value for consumers. But, that approach was the "disaster" and became the cause for the U.S. government and the EU to wage a war on Microsoft, according to Business Insider.
The news report said in 2000, Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson ruled that Microsoft violated the antitrust law by unfairly bundling and selling Internet Explorer and Window. Although Microsoft settled the case with the Department of Justice in 2001, many viewed that the ruling weakened the dominance of Microsoft, Business Insider said.
Silverberg also said, Bill dismissed the threat of Internet because Microsoft at the time wanted to keep the system of Microsoft's Window at the time.
Business Insider reported, citing his saying as, "Bill also had a difficult time figuring out how to respond to the opportunity / threat of the Internet. It’s understandable. When you own Windows in the late 90’s, life is good and why would you want things to change Bill’s view was to protect Windows, and didn’t come up with an approach that kept Windows and Microsoft’s systems strategy at the forefront. The result is that Microsoft’s strategic position declined in the 2000’s. It’s now coming to grips with the new reality and making necessary, if belated, changes."
Still, Silverberg showed his respect on Bill Gates, calling him as one of the greatest CEOs.
In another session, he said, Bill had an early vision on the empire of software and platform business and also had dominant power on both consumers and enterprise which other tech companies are hard to have.
He said, "Bill is one of the greatest CEOs in American business history."
