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Harvard
Business Review It could have been just another dry description of software industry trends and the Microsoft antitrust trial. Instead, Breaking Windows peeks into the In-box at one of corporate America's most fascinating companies. With thorough reporting that draws heavily on internal e-mails, Wall Street Journal reporter Bank offers a personalized account of the strategic battles waged inside Microsoft between 1997 and 2000. He details the bitter jockeying between the "Windows/PC-based hawks" and the "Internet/open-standards doves"-- both vying for CEO Bill Gates's attention. Breaking Windows stands apart from other books on the subject because it works on several levels simultaneously; as a case study, as a complex critique of Gates, as a sociological study of workplace culture, and as a compelling narrative. Business
Week To the outside world, and especially to Microsoft Corp.'s archrivals, William H. Gates III is as cold-blooded as he is hard-charging. Almost on his own, the mythology goes, he sparked the PC revolution and managed to steamroll any competitors that got in Microsoft's way. That steely demeanor rarely softens. But for a brief moment in 1998, it crumbled. Microsoft (MSFT ) was being fiercely challenged by contenders such as Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW ) and Oracle Corp. (ORCL ) In addition, the federal government was beginning to slip its antitrust noose around the company's neck. Internally, Microsoft executives were sparring as never before over the future of the company. During a January board meeting that year, the usually unflappable Gates broke down, according to a new book by David Bank, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. The most powerful man in technology descended into self-pity, telling the board he was losing sleep and suffering stomach aches. Gates lost his composure and took several minutes to recover. "It was a plea for help," board member David Marquardt told Bank. Six months later, Gates handed off his responsibilities as company president to Steven A. Ballmer. Scores of such previously untold anecdotes make Breaking Windows the most definitive account yet of Microsoft's step into the Internet Age. Sifting through thousands of internal e-mail messages released during the company's legal battles with trustbusters and competitors, and adding provocative reporting, Bank details the battles that raged inside Microsoft from 1997 to 2000. He argues persuasively that those internal fights destabilized Microsoft far more than the wars the company fought in various courtrooms across the country. Along the way, he shatters any notion that Microsoft is a monolith marching in lockstep with Gates. <snip> The book lays out in vivid detail the infighting at Microsoft as never before. And unlike most other such books, Breaking Windows shows true insight into how the company works. Credit Bank's four years on the Microsoft beat. It's easy to find holes in his arguments, but if you're interested in understanding the workings of one of the most important companies of the past generation, Breaking Windows is an eye-opening read. link
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Times Last Friday, Microsoft launched its Windows XP operating system in Seattle. Alongside Bill Gates in front of the cameras was James Allchin, one of the company's senior managers. If Breaking Windows,a recent book on Microsoft, is correct, Mr
Allchin's presence there is almost as significant as the product
itself. David Bank, The Wall Street Journal's Microsoft correspondent,
describes in his book an epic struggle for the company's strategy,
with Mr Allchin as the victor. Mr Bank draws on thousands of internal
Microsoft e-mails, made available This is the issue at the heart of the lawsuit, of course. But the law was only one of the considerations at issue in Microsoft's internal debate. The business argument ranged far more widely, with the two sides using strong language. Indeed, Mr Bank says, the intemperately phrased internal e-mails that persuaded the court of Microsoft's illegal intentions were advocacy in the internal debate, not settled corporate intentions. The argument was a simple one: should Microsoft retain Windows
as its highest priority, as Mr Allchin argued, or should it attempt
to build an alternative platform for developers, one based on the
internet? From 1995 onwards, Microsoft had recognised that the internet
had an important role to play in its strategy. But in 1996-98 the
debate raged over how central that link
to full article Newsweek For a provocative view on how (Microsoft) got into this mess—and
perhaps the most detailed look yet at the inner workings in Redmond,
Wash.—check out “Breaking Windows” (Free Press. $25),
author David Bank’s account of the inside struggles of the
company’s efforts to remain vital in the 21st century. Wall
Street Journal reporter Bank’s most fascinating portrait depicts
Bill Gates as an ultracautious skeptic who has to be cajoled into
adopting risky but essential new approaches like the current .Net
initiative. link to full
article Salon Bill Gates has never been portrayed in as poor a light as in "Breaking Windows." To pick just a few phrases: "Gates was losing control of Microsoft ... Gates had lost the technical respect of many of Microsoft's key managers ... Gates was slowly being marginalized ... The conventional wisdom was that the more deeply Gates was involved the more likely a project was to fail." It's a courageous act by Bank -- as it becomes increasingly hard to imagine that he will be getting as many one-on-one interviews with Gates after the publication of his book as before. link
to full article Business
Week Online Why did Gates & Co. seem so hamstrung during the antitrust trial? A new book, Breaking Windows, blames an internal feud between the Windows and Internet camps. This solidly reported and smart book explains how Microsoft went, in a few short years, from a behemoth bent on world domination -- and one likely to have achieved it -- to a troubled, albeit very profitable, company uncertain about its role and future. Along the way, Bank captures the human drama of the struggle. link
to full article Miami
Herald Nixon should have burned the tape. Gates should have deleted the e-mails.
link
to full article
If Microsoft Corp. is in trouble, co-founder Bill Gates got it there, by vacillating between a focus on Windows and the Internet. But Gates can and will rescue the company through a new emphasis on open interfaces and competition on the merits. That's the thesis of Wall Street Journal reporter David Bank's new book, "Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates Fumbled the Future of Microsoft." Due out Monday -- the 20th anniversary of the IBM personal computer -- the book offers detailed views into an unusually monolithic company between 1996 and 2000. link
to full article Columbus
Dispatch On June 28, the U.S. Court of Appeals handed Microsoft a reprieve
in the government's antitrust action against it. The company's future
seems more secure, while still hanging in the balance. But suppose
that, all along, the most serious link to full article Slashdot This is one of the best-written books about Microsoft that I have read, and as a former employee I have read most of them. Focusing on the internal battles gives a new perspective on the company. It hopefully shatters, once and for all, the myth that Microsoft is a hive community marching in line behind Bill Gates. Executives and regular employees are shown battling over issues large and small, with a consistent public story emerging only at the end, if at all. Bank also shows how Microsoft's legal strategy in the Justice Department case was affected by the political and technical battles that were simultaneously going on within the company. link
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This is another book about the Microsoft antitrust case. But before
your eyes glaze over, David Bank's Breaking Windows: How Bill Gates
Fumbled the Future of Microsoft ($25, The Free Press) is different
than two other recent books about the trial. Bank traces the foibles
of Microsoft from inside Microsoft, using U.S. Department of Justice
trial evidence and his own link
to full article
Part
I (link to audio file) Part
II (link to audio file)
David Bank of the Wall Street Journal has created what could be a top-notch business school case study of Microsoft Corporation. The key to understanding the value of this book is to not let yourself get too distracted by the government's case against Microsoft. It's an ever-present situation. But, Bank uses corporate emails and insider interviews to show how Microsoft began to unravel in the late 1990's, right at the point when it was at its greatest power. Bank shows the battle inside Microsoft over whether the company would move away from Windows and Office and embrace the Internet, with its promise of new technologies and ways of delivering software and services; or whether it would tie itself more strongly to the Windows franchise. Under Bill Gates, Microsoft hung in the balance but then moved decisively toward protecting the Windows and Office cash-cow… to the detriment of the company, Bank writes. Bank has done a remarkable job with this book. I recommend it highly. link
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Edventure Recommended: Wall Street Journal reporter David Bank's new book Breaking Windows, about Microsoft's struggles to respond to the Internet. Based on interviews with the principals and reams of Microsoft email made public through the antitrust trial, Bank pieces together the internal storylines that often paralleled battles in the marketplace and in court. The book is important for what it reveals about the personal and strategic dynamics inside Microsoft. Beyond that, though, it provides valuable insight into the nascent battle over the future of the computer industry. As Microsoft's leaders gradually realized, the Net is bigger than Windows, and therefore even Microsoft must adopt some of the Net's loosely-coupled, open architecture. link
to full article Eastside
Journal An ``insider'' book about Hollywood is often called a ``kiss-and-tell.'' A new insider book on Microsoft Corp. is just as juicy. But it's a tale of ``fight-and-make-up.'' If only the boys who run Microsoft could. Since 1996, before the U.S. government sued Microsoft for monopoly practices, the company's executives have been locked in a bitter feud over whether Windows or the Internet would rule the future of Microsoft. Stuck in a deep mire of antitrust and indecision, many took their mega-millions in stock options and left the Redmond software maker, which is not news. The surprise is that author David Bank pins the corporate paralysis squarely on Microsoft's then-CEO and Chairman Bill Gates. link to full articlehttp://www.eastsidejournal.com/sited/story/html/62464
I consider David Bank's book about Microsoft, Breaking Windows, one of the must-read volumes if you care about technology. It's based on excellent reporting and is written with great expertise. link
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ben: David Bank wrote about Microsoft for the Wall Street Journal.
In this book he covers the period 1997-2000 at Microsoft as it coped
with the success of Windows and Office and the threat of the Internet
to the continuation of Microsoft's dominance. From e-mail snippets
and interviews with many current and former Microsoft employees,
he presents the "protect Windows" perspective of bill
gates and jim allchin and contrasts that with the "do the new
internet thing" perspective of people like brad silverberg
and myself and others. Obviously Bill Gates prevailed and so a lot
of people left. Overall I think a very balanced presentation --
you at least understand why Bill did what he did, even if link to the full
article
Breaking Windows tells an extraordinary story about the struggle within Microsoft for the company's soul. It turns out that Microsoft is more complicated than the government made it seem. No doubt there is a part keen on preserving and protecting "Windows" - through techniques that the court of appeals found illegal. But there is a part as well that believes the future is best captured through a strategy of neutrality - through products built with neutral code that doesn't strive at every step to tilt the world to Windows. link
to full article Publishers
Weekly (Starred Review) Wall Street Journal reporter Bank charts the downward spiral of Microsoft's public image: over the past five years, the company went from fearless New Economy pioneer to a predator vilified by its competitors and brought to trial in a landmark antitrust action. For those hungry to know how golden boy Bill Gates could end up looking like a defensive old-school monopolist, Bank has provided a hard-hitting yet evenhanded account. Interviews with all the major players from Gates on down (along with texts of flaming e-mails that singed the wings of such loyal allies as Ben Slivka and Brad Silverberg) lend support to Bank's argument that the debate within Microsoft over competing Windows and Internet strategies set the stage for the public spectacle of the trial and the mass exodus of talented employees. Rich and juicy details of internal company squabbles cast an unnerving dysfunctional-family pall over the Microsoft story at times. (Gates, unable to get his usual way with someone, once mused, "Something happens to a guy when his net worth passes $100 million.") Yet Bank's broad industry knowledge leads him to provocative conclusions that resonate beyond the story of a single company. Pointing out that Intel and Cisco also faced antitrust challenges but were able, through savvy negotiation, to escape the public relations disaster that come with a trial, he argues that although Gates understood the value of interoperability imposed by the Internet, he held on too long to his determination to maintain a long-term lock over his customers. (Aug.) Copyright 2001 Gale Group Inc. All rights reserved.
-- Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll., La Crosse Booklist Since its rise to dominance, Microsoft has been examined from every possible facet and angle. Few, though, have been able to afford a view from inside the company. That changed after lawyers subpoenaed internal company e-mail for the federal civil lawsuit against Microsoft by Sun Microsystems. Those with access to this correspondence focused on evidence supporting Sun's claims. Bank, a Wall Street Journal reporter, saw something else, though, in the e-mail threads that circulated among Microsoft's key executives. By matching screen names with an organization chart and buttressing his account with interviews (often off-the-record) of Microsoft insiders, Bank uncovers the pattern of "Microsoft's internal debates and personal rivalries." He characterizes these internecine disputes as a battle between "Windows hawks" and "Internet doves." This dispiriting dissension as well as the "courtroom debacle" in Microsoft's antitrust trial and the "exodus" of the company's "most talented employees" all point, argues Bank, to "Gates' own fall from grace as a corporate leader and technology visionary." -- David Rouse The U.S. v. Microsoft trial decided in 1999 was incontestably the most significant American antitrust case in more than quarter of a century. To this day, legal experts wrangle over the strategies and implications of this behemoth contest. Yet a far more interesting story bubbled beneath the mounds of transcripts and depositions, a story that Wall Street Journal correspondent David Bank here narrates with startling force. He argues that Microsoft went to court defending a flawed technology strategy that many of its own executives believed was unsound. He describes how fierce turf wars had already created an environment of distrust and bad communication inside the Seattle industry leader; explains how Bill Gates lost management control of the company he founded and what role Gates's old friend, Steve Ballmer, played in this takeover. Utilizing hundreds of interviews, Breaking Windows presents the evolution of a high-tech giant and the strong and stubborn personalities that shaped it with the vividness of a well-turned novel. David Bank's Breaking Windows offers a scathing inside look at the past few tumultuous years at the Microsoft Corporation. Bank, who covers the company for The Wall Street Journal, bases this well-written tale on interviews he has conducted with most major players (including Bill Gates), along with boxes of e-mails and other documents that "provided an unprecedented glimpse into strategic debates and internal decision-making processes of a company that had long restricted outside access to its insular corporate culture." Through them he shows how Microsoft, which always put software above everything--and in more recent years made Windows its number-one priority--has scrambled and squabbled as first the Internet and then the U.S. government forced major directional changes and significant internal reevaluations. Bank's story crackles with immediacy as he brings readers directly
into the action with central characters like Gates, who "created
a company that remained uniquely a projection of himself";
Steve Ballmer, the close friend of Gates and former sales-force
leader elevated to CEO; Jim Allchin, a senior vice president who
heads the Windows division and remains a staunch advocate for its
dominance; and Brad Silverberg, another VP who launched Windows
3.1 and 95 before forming the Internet division and fervently trying
to turn the company in its direction. Those who can't get enough
on the behemoth from Redmond will find this an illuminating addition
to their bookshelf. --Howard Rothman Advance Praise "I thought I had seen every possible account of the Microsoft
drama, but David Bank's reporting adds a new and fascinating perspective.
Connecting the internal struggles over Microsoft's direction to
the company's external legal and market battles, he convincingly
explains why Microsoft has run into difficulties -- but may well
return stronger than ever." "This is the best book I've read on Microsoft as it exists
today. It goes far beyond the well-worn accounts of the company's
battles with the government to provide a fascinating tale of Microsoft's
battles with itself -- and with the future." "This is not just another Microsoft book. It is an extraordinary
account of the struggle for the soul of perhaps the greatest company
in American history. If Bank is right -- and his argument is meticulous
and powerful -- then it also shows why the government can safely
take its antitrust case and go home." "Combining bold writing, clear-headed analysis, and the keen
insight that comes only from many years of reporting, Breaking Windows
finally makes sense of the company that many have written about
but few have understood. If you can read only one book about Microsoft,
this is the one to pick." "David Bank has broken new ground in uncovering the fault
lines within the seemingly monolithic and golden Windows franchise.
This is a fast-paced, enlightening read that exposes the inner workings
of Microsoft. I recommend it for investors as a must-read." "A truly riveting account, based on volumes of confidential
e-mails and personal interviews, of one of the great internal corporate
struggles in business history: the debate within Microsoft over
how to deal with the Windows legacy in the face of the challenge
presented by Internet technology. A must-read for anyone interested
in how high-tech companies make strategy and deal with disruptive
change." "Microsoft has long appeared to be a well-oiled machine, moving
in lock-step toward goals set by Bill Gates. In Breaking Windows,
however, a different picture emerges. The agony inside and around
Microsoft is the theme of Bank's fantastic book." "Laced with formidable reporting and probing
analysis, Breaking Windows dares to defy Gates, Ballmer & Co.
with the proposition that a post-Windows Microsoft might be better
for everyone -- including Microsoft |
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