Microsoft secrets
Subtitle: how the world's most powerful software company creates technology, shapes markets, and manages people
By: Michael A. Cusumano, Richard W. Selby.
Contributors: Selby, Richard W.
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 512
Subjects: Microsoft Corporation; Computer software industry -- United States
Description: Today, Microsoft commands the high ground of the information superhighway by owning the operating systems and basic applications programs that run on the world's 170 million computers. Beyond the unquestioned genius and vision of Bill Gates, what accounts for Microsoft's astounding success?

For the first time, drawing on almost two years of onsite observation at Microsoft headquarters, eminent scientists Michael A. Cusumano and Richard W. Selby reveal many of Microsoft's innermost secrets. From this inside report based on forty in-depth interviews by authors who had access to confidential documents and project data, Cusumano and Selby identify seven complementary strategies that characterize exactly how Microsoft competes and operates.

Bill Gates' "Brain Trust" of talented employees and exceptional management, "bang for the buck" competitive strategies, and clear organizational goals produce an orientation toward self-critiquing, learning, and improving; a flexible, incremental approach to product development; and a relentless pursuit of future markets.

Cusumano and Selby's masterful analysis successfully uncovers the distinctive way in which Microsoft has combined all of the elements necessary to get to the top of an enormously important industry - and stay there. Managers in many different industries, especially those concerned with rapidly evolving complex product features and high technical standards, will discover hundreds of invaluable lessons in this superbly readable book.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 477-491) and index.
Table of contents: title: Organizing and managing the company : find "smart" people who know the technology and the business; title: Managing creative people and technical skills : organize small teams of overlapping functional specialists; title: Competing with products and standards : pioneer and orchestrate evolving mass markets; title: Defining products and development processes : focus creativity by evolving features and "fixing" resources; title: Developing and shipping products : do everything in parallel with frequent synchronizations; title: Building a learning organization : improve through continuous self-critiquing, feedback, and sharing; title: Attack the future!