In this age of false hero worship, glad to see a more balanced treatment. Nice to see the point of view of those with the "other side of the story". You used to be able to read about that all the time, not so much these days. This is good for those who haven't been around long enough to remember how Microsoft actually managed to do what they did.

It is remarkable that so many people seem to think that MS was always a monopoly, and ignore the fact that before that, Apple was the big dog, and Microsoft was the puny upstart.

And that, in point of fact, it was that Apple refused MS the permission to write software for the Mac that originally motivated MS to get in the OS business at all.

Summary:

(1) People, people, people

"Most of our competitors were very poorly run," he tells Fiona Bruce, for The Money Programme.

"They did not understand how to bring in people with business experience and people with engineering experience and put them together."

Klunder says it was Mr Gates' ability to understand the business as well as the technical side that gave Microsoft the edge.

(2) Importance of product iteration

"Most of our competitors were one-product wonders"

(3) Making your venture relevant

"She says of Microsoft that "because they were the operating system, everyone else in the industry had to deal with them".

"Microsoft's clout was, by this argument, unavoidable."

I might not like Bill Gates, but i do respect some of his qualities. Microsoft is going to die even faster with out him. But the dieing beast is even more dangerous.