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A few minutes with Bill Gates
A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code. This isn't true at all."
- By Scott Shuey, Chief Business Reporter
- Published: 23:33 January 26, 2008
- Bill Gates and his wife Melinda head the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which aims to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty worldwide.
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
If innovation is what the Middle East is looking for, then today it will have a chance to hear from a man who defines it. Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, the world's largest and most influential software company, will speak to audiences in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Gates isn't just the chairman of Microsoft, which he co-founded in 1975 with his friend Paul Allen. He has directed the company from its humble start in New Mexico into the Redmond-based giant that it is today. Gates help created several of Microsoft's earliest creations and reportedly worked on products until the early 1990s.
Today Microsoft dominates the operating system market, and its collections of applications from Word to Excel have become industry standards. The company last year reported revenue of over $51 billion.
There have been problems along the way, too. Microsoft has been successfully sued for monopolistic practices both in the US and Europe, and the man at the helm has often been associated with the company's marketing tactics. The company was fined over 497 million euros by the European Union in 2004. The fine was upheld in a 2007 ruling.
Since 2000, Gates, along with his wife Melinda, has focused heavily on philanthropy. Today they head the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, which aims to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty world-wide.
The foundation has an endowment of $37.6 billion. Gates himself is worth an estimated over $56 billion, and was ranked as the world's richest person from 1995 until 2007.
Last year, Gates announced that he would remove himself from the daily business of Microsoft in June of this year. He said he will focus mainly on philanthropy, although he will remain as the company's chairman.
The following Q&A was conducted with local media via e-mail prior to Gates' arrival in Dubai.
How much more can technology advance in the next decade - will it be at the same pace as the past 10 years?
People often ask me if we're nearing the end of the digital revolution - if technology progress is at a point of diminishing returns and the personal computer has reached the apex of its development.
I believe the opposite is true. In many ways, the incredible advances of the past few decades have really just laid the foundation for much more profound change. In the years to come, hardware will continue to improve, often in dramatic and surprising ways.
Software will continue to advance as we develop new approaches to take advantage of multi-core processors, thread-level parallelism, expanded data storage and more pervasive broadband access. Together, hardware and software will be the catalyst for advances during the next 10 years that will far exceed the changes of the last 30 years.
Technology is increasingly changing the way people live - the way we share experiences and communicate with the people we care about; the way we preserve memories of past events; the way we access entertainment; the way we learn; and how we utilise healthcare. Simply put, technology is transforming the way we interact with each other and understand the world we live in.
More and more emphasis is being placed on developing emerging markets. What role will Microsoft play in the development of these regions?
When Paul Allen and I founded Microsoft more than 30 years ago, our dream was to put a computer on every desk and in every home. Today, about one billion people have a PC. That's a large number, but it's just a fraction of the world's 6.6 billion people.
As we make technology more affordable and simpler to use, we will be able to extend the social and economic opportunities that come with better access to education, information, healthcare and global marketplaces.
As more and more of the world's people participate in the knowledge economy, the result will be new innovations that make everyone's lives richer, more connected, more productive and more fulfilling.
Because information technology and education are so critical to creating economic opportunities, Microsoft is deeply committed to improving technology access and fostering innovative teaching and learning methods.
In developing countries and in less prosperous communities where we do business, we believe in helping governments, schools and non-profit organisations equip students with the practical skills they need to thrive in today's knowledge economy.
Through our citizenship programmes such as Unlimited Potential and Partners in Learning, Microsoft has provided software, training and curriculum to more than seven million teachers and 75 million students in over 100 countries.
Lately Microsoft has faced competition from companies like Apple, Google and Cisco, among others. How do you see the future of the market, and where do you think the line is for reaching sustainable and positive competition?
Software and high-tech has always been extremely competitive, which is what makes this industry so dynamic, fun and interesting. We've always faced tough competitors. In the early days it was Ashton-Tate and WordPerfect, later on it was Netscape and Novell, then IBM, Sun, Oracle, and now Google, Apple, and Cisco. In another five years the names will be different but the competition will be just as intense.
Our competitors do a lot of smart things, and that means that we have to constantly think about how to innovate beyond them. All of this innovation leads to incredible value being created for our customers - for businesses, governments, schools and consumers.
How do you see Arab countries playing a role in the development of technology?
The Gulf region plays a critical role in the global economy and it has great potential to contribute to the development of software and technology. To thrive in today's global knowledge economy, developed and developing countries alike need to focus on building the productive capacities of their workforce. One way to boost productivity is through investments in information and communications technology.
Even greater competitive advantage can come from strengthening workforce skills through investments in education. In an increasingly globalised economy, knowledge and skills are the key differentiators of nations as well as individuals.
In the US, we've been fortunate to benefit from access to a deep pool of scientists and engineers trained in US universities. Our economic leadership has always been driven by the ability of American companies to turn breakthrough innovations - the internet, fibre optics, genomics, and much more - into thriving businesses that create high-paying jobs for millions of people.
The success of high-tech regions such as Silicon Valley has been driven by their connection and proximity to great research universities. Now we see this being replicated in places like China and India.
I commend the many Gulf leaders who have had the foresight to invest in the education of their citizens. Focus on the needs, interests and dreams of young people because they hold the keys to the economic and social future of every nation.
What advice would you give to the millions of people who want to be the next Bill Gates?
One of the most important changes of the last 30 years is that digital technology has transformed almost everyone into an information worker. That's true for everyone from the retail store worker who uses a handheld scanner to track inventory to the CEO who uses business intelligence software to analyse critical market trends.
So, if you look at how progress is made and where competitive advantage is created, there's no doubt that the ability to use software tools effectively is critical to succeeding in today's global knowledge economy.
Beyond that, however, I don't think you can overemphasise the importance of having a good background in math and science. If you look at the most interesting things that have emerged in the last decade - whether it's cool things like portable music devices and video game, or more practical things like smart phones and medical technology - they all come from the realm of science and engineering.
Communication skills and the ability to work well with different types of people are very important too. A lot of people assume that creating software is purely a solitary activity where you sit in an office with the door closed all day and write lots of code.
This isn't true at all. Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.
I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books. It's great to read widely about a broad range of subjects. Of course today, it's far easier to go online and find information about any topic that interests you. Having that kind of curiosity about the world helps anyone succeed, no matter what kind of work they decide to pursue.
A brief timeline: Bill Gates and Microsoft
- 1955 - October 28. William Henry Gates III is born to William and Mary Gates in Seattle, Washington.
- 1973 - Gates enrols in Harvard with the intention of studying for a pre-law degree.
- 1974 - After taking a leave of absence from Harvard to focus on a business venture in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Gates and partner Paul Allen found Micro-soft. The hyphen was dropped six years later.
- 1975 - Gates and Allen write a version of Basic for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. It is the first computer language program written for a personal computer.
- 1978 - Microsoft reports sales of over $1 million of their Basic and other programming languages.
- 1980 - In a deal that will make it a major player in the software industry, Microsoft agrees to license the PC-DOS operating system on IBM computers.
- 1981 - Microsoft becomes Microsoft Inc. Gates becomes the company's chairman and CEO.
- 1983 - Microsoft Word is introduced.
- 1984 - The company begins developing software for the Apple Macintosh, including Microsoft Basic and Word.
- 1985 - Microsoft introduces the world to Windows with the first commercial release of the software.
- 1986 - Gates becomes a billionaire at the age of 31. Microsoft moves to Redmond and goes public. The IPO raises $61 million.
- 1987 - Excel hits the markets, and the first sequel to Windows, ver. 2.0, is released. Microsoft follows up with releases of Windows 3.0 in 1990, Windows 3.1 in 1992, Windows 98 in 1998, and finally with Windows ME in 2000.
- 1990 - The company reports sales of over $1 billion for the first time.
- 1994 - Gates marries Melinda French.
- 1995 - Gates is ranked number one on the Forbes list on "The World's Richest People."
- 1996 - With the advent of the internet, Microsoft and Netscape fight for dominance in the browser market. Netscape sues Microsoft for monopolistic practices.
- 2000 -Gates and his wife found the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.
- 2001 - Microsoft releases the Windows XP operating system.
- 2005 - Gates was named Time Magazine's person of the year along with his wife and Bono, the lead singer of U2.
- 2007 - Microsoft releases the Vista operating system. Gates announces that he will step down from his daily role at Microsoft, although he will remain the chairman.
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