Chapter 8 Microsoft's formula for success

introduction As Jim Collins said in "Built to Last", the most important thing about a company's success is not how many products the company has or how many excellent marketing strategies it has , but in whether the company has a sustainable culture.With the development of the times, the company's products, goals and even missions will change, but what should not be changed is the corporate culture and values ​​that the company relies on for sustainable development. The formula for a company's success. A few years ago, as a senior executive of Microsoft Corporation, I had face-to-face exchanges with managers of many Chinese companies.In the communication, I found that many managers did not realize the real reason for Microsoft's success.They either think that Microsoft has achieved success because it has developed excellent products, or that Microsoft has achieved success because it has invested a lot of money and built a huge R&D team.In fact, these are only one-sided understanding of the reasons for Microsoft's success.

In order to let more people clearly understand the real "secret" behind Microsoft's success, and to make more Chinese business managers pay attention to the construction of corporate culture and talent strategy, I specially wrote this long article.Just as I later published the article "GOOGLE's Way to Success--New Innovations Leading "Network Survival"" (this article is also included in this book) on the innovation and culture of Internet companies represented by Google, writing this The original intention of such articles is not to proclaim to the world how great some successful companies are, or to simply recommend similar innovation models, but to try to discover those who have played a key role in the success of companies such as Microsoft and Google. The elements that can be learned and used for reference by Chinese enterprises, especially those ideas and methods related to corporate culture and innovative ideas - because these ideas and methods are the most useful for Chinese high-tech enterprises to improve their own strength meaningful.Therefore, I specially added a section "A Message to China's Software Industry" at the end of this article, and put forward my own ideas and suggestions to colleagues in the Chinese software industry in an outline way.

I sincerely hope that all high-tech enterprises in China can reach a higher level in enterprise management, enterprise culture construction and talent strategy, and hope that more and more Chinese enterprises can rank among the world's first-class. As one of the most successful companies in the world, Microsoft has provided hundreds of millions of users around the world with many excellent software products in the past 20 years, and revealed the exuberance hidden in the software industry with its own practical experience. Vitality and great commercial value.Microsoft's current market cap is $310 billion.In the 2005 fiscal year, Microsoft's sales revenue will reach about 40 billion US dollars, and the profit will be 16.5 billion US dollars.After paying a $33 billion dividend last year, Microsoft still has a $35 billion cash pile.

In my opinion, there are four main reasons for Microsoft's continuous success: (1) Technology: grasp the pulse of technological development with an innovative spirit, ensure the efficiency of the enterprise with a reasonable R&D system, and focus on the development of the software industry with a persistent attitude; (2) Leadership art: the top decision-maker has excellent knowledge, clear division of labor and perfect cooperation; (3) Talent: multi-channel discovery and employment of talents, effective talent screening mechanism, continuous training of talents and good use of talents; (4) Corporate culture: The attitude of not being afraid of challenges, self-criticism, flexibility and equality, and being responsible to customers has formed a tradition in Microsoft and has been institutionalized.Next, I will start from these four aspects and introduce Microsoft's operation and management experience, hoping to be helpful to China's high-tech enterprises.

Technology: A ray of hope for Microsoft (1) Advancing with the times and constantly innovating Three or four hundred years ago, knowledge was slowly accumulated over a long period of time.But since the industrial revolution, the progress of science and technology has no longer relied on the accumulation of history, but more importantly, it relies on continuous innovation.After the information revolution, the growth of technology tends to show an exponential growth trend.In terms of information technology, the knowledge and experience gained by mankind in the past ten years has undoubtedly far exceeded the accumulation of the past hundred years.

Microsoft deeply understands the importance of grasping the technical direction in such a big environment.When Microsoft was successful in the early Basic products, it began to invest in the development of DOS. After the success of DOS, Microsoft immediately invested funds and manpower in the research and development of new technologies, and successfully launched the Office series of software products.Subsequently, Microsoft used the accumulation of Office and other software to start the research and development of new generation operating systems such as Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.When the Internet wave came, Microsoft lost no time in the field of network research and development, and constantly launched new products.Today, Microsoft has invested a lot of resources in the core direction of "seamless computing", and has continued to innovate in the development of MSN, mobile software, digital TV, XBOX, high reliability computing, and natural user interface.

Driven by the wave of technology, Microsoft always puts technology research and development in a key position, and regards technology as the company's only wealth and advantage that can last for a long time.For example, Microsoft invested approximately US$8.5 billion in research and development in fiscal year 2005, accounting for more than one-fifth of its turnover, and this ratio ranks first among the "Fortune 500" companies. (2) "Chief Architect" who plans strategies To pay attention to technology, an enterprise must have a top technology decision maker.Now, the decision maker at Microsoft is Bill Gates, Microsoft's "Chief Architect."This special position was created because, whether in Microsoft or other companies, the CEO has no time to manage technology, and many so-called "chief technology officers" are scientists without real power and cannot decide the direction of technological development.However, in a technology-dominated industry, it is impossible for an enterprise to have no top decision-maker in technology direction.

As Chief Architect, Bill Gates' job is to develop the company's long-term technology roadmap and to confirm that the research initiatives of each of the company's executive departments are complementary rather than overlapping.Therefore, he asked every product and technical department of the company to make technical reports to him, and most of these reports were "brainstorming" discussion meetings.Doing such a report, in addition to getting feedback from Bill Gates, each project team can also benefit a lot in the preparation process.Because, in order to prepare to answer various questions that Bill may ask, the project team must thoroughly research the market, technology, competitors and other information before the report, thus avoiding the risk of working behind closed doors.

In addition, Bill Gates takes two periods of time every year to think about problems alone in a "retreat" way, which is called Bill Gates' "Thinking Week".Before Think Week, Gates will ask the elites of each department to provide him with a lot of reading materials and technical advice in their individual areas of expertise.In the "Thinking Week", Gates usually works by reading the selected materials and technical suggestions, writing down his thoughts, thinking quietly, and finally making some important decisions that have a greater impact on the company's technology strategy.

(3) Constantly improving R&D mechanism In order to turn future technologies into real software products faster and better, Microsoft has not only invested a lot of resources in technology research and development, but also established a sound technology management system.Bill Gates established the "Engineering Excellence" department, which is responsible for confirming that the company's R&D mechanism is dynamic, that the development process is the most efficient, that the software developed is safe and reliable, and that overlapping development between different departments is avoided.This department has the real power to manage the company's engineering process, so that it can lead the entire company to the forefront of the software industry.

Microsoft's investment in technology research and development is unswerving.Microsoft established its famous basic research institutions (such as Microsoft Research Asia) very early on, and fully realized that there is a huge difference between scientific research and product development work.Research work encourages risk-taking without fear of failure, encourages researchers to have long-term goals and plans, and make long-term investments; while product development work pays more attention to immediate interests, and its only purpose is to meet customer needs.Research institutions develop technology, and production departments manufacture products. Researchers are usually "thinkers", while product developers are more "doctors".The difference between these two types of work and two types of technicians is very obvious. If we want to better promote the transfer of research results to actual products, we must create a good environment for their collaboration on the basis of maintaining their respective characteristics and conditions. In order to promote the transfer of research results, Microsoft encourages researchers to act as new technology promoters and promote scientific and technological achievements to product departments. At the same time, it also encourages product departments to provide timely feedback to research departments on user needs and industry development trends.Bill Gates said in a speech recently that Microsoft has to do two things, one is to meet the current needs of users, and the other is to meet the needs of users in the future.This shows that Microsoft has regarded scientific research and development as the two main lines of the company's development.In fact, Microsoft not only set common goals for the two different types of organizations, established communication channels, but also strictly drew the boundaries between the two, and formulated different evaluation systems for different types of organizations.At the same time, Microsoft also allows and encourages the transfer and flow of talents between the two types of institutions.Now, Microsoft Research outputs a large number of scientific research results to the product department every year, and most of these results have been applied to various successful software products of Microsoft Corporation. (4) Focus on the best software business Microsoft Corporation is a company that focuses on software technology and software product development.Although Microsoft also invests in content services such as MSN and hardware products such as XBOX, the ultimate purpose of these products is to advance software and software platforms.The main body of Microsoft has always been software, and most of Microsoft's sales revenue is also created by software.Microsoft's positioning for itself is to focus on playing the role of a pure software provider in the entire ecosystem of the information industry, and other roles are played by companies such as Dell, HP, and Accenture.Only in this way can Microsoft do its best to maintain its leading position in the software field. "Focus" is very important to a company, because the success of a company also comes from the attention of managers or leaders.The leaders of many companies may have taken the company in many different directions because of their eagerness to grow.For example, after some large IT companies have accumulated a certain amount of wealth, they will invest funds in hardware, services, or even real estate, media and other industries.To do so would distract the attention of the company, and the leader of the company it would not have the ability or passion to manage these new ventures.But Microsoft's leadership always puts its attention on the software business of the seven basic business sectors.These seven departments all take the development of software as their own responsibility, with the software platform as the core, and Bill Gates as the chief architect.In this way, the leaders of the seven departments can have a common language, a common management style, and a common focus and enthusiasm for software. They don't have to be distracted by things they are not good at or have no interest in. Leadership: The Root of Microsoft's Success The success of Microsoft is largely due to the fact that Microsoft has two outstanding leaders: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.Before 2000, the only leader at Microsoft was Bill. In January 2000, in order to better grasp the technical direction, Bill handed over the job of CEO to Steve, and became the "chairman and chief architect" himself.Later, Steve divided the company into seven major business divisions, each of which is responsible for a series of products and users (for example: the large enterprise division is responsible for server software and tools such as Windows and SQL Server; the home entertainment division is responsible for XBOX, TV software, etc. platform and game software, etc.).Since 2000, Bill and Steve have been the best partners. The two have led seven departments to grow steadily in the economic storm, which is one of the biggest reasons for the company's success. (1) Chief Architect Bill Gates Bill Gates is the technical leader of Microsoft Corporation.He is good at grasping the company's development direction technically through his foresight, and constantly formulating strategic goals for the company's new product research and development.Through the "thinking week" and "brainstorming meetings" introduced earlier, Bill Gates brainstormed across the company and collected the latest information to ensure the correctness and forward-looking of technical decisions. Another of Bill's jobs is coordinating the company's software investments and avoiding overlapping investments among the seven business divisions.He will have an in-depth understanding of each important technology, assign development tasks to a certain department, and ask the department to treat the other six departments as important customers, and also ask the other six departments not to overlap investment.For example, while all seven departments needed speech technology, Bill delegated the development of that technology to my department.This arrangement frees me from worrying about competition within the company, and the employees in my team will feel more fulfilled because their products can affect the products of other departments. Bill Gates is also responsible for determining the allocation of technical resources in various R&D directions for the company's seven major business departments.Most companies will probably allocate the most resources to the most profitable departments.But that's not what Microsoft does.For example, Microsoft's department responsible for Office product development does not have a large number of people. On the contrary, the server and tools department has the largest number of technical employees.This is mainly because Microsoft is facing more intense market competition in the field of background services, and needs to invest more resources to develop heavyweight products ahead of competitors such as IBM and Sun as soon as possible.Microsoft has invested a lot of resources in the mobile product department because Bill Gates is optimistic about the huge market prospects in the field of mobile communications.Because the seven business departments within Microsoft are not completely independent, Bill Gates can allocate limited resources to the technical fields with the most development potential or the most intense competition according to his own judgment on the direction of technology. (2) CEO Steve Ballmer Steve Ballmer is Microsoft's number one cheerleader.He is a very passionate person, very loud, very powerful, and very emotional and penetrating.He is an all-around leader who is business-minded, strategic, morale-inspiring, passionate and technically savvy.People in Microsoft often say that when Steve evaluates subordinates, it is like in the "Olympiad class", where the requirements are very high and no mistakes are allowed.When the superior submits the summary report, Steve can pick out a few or even a dozen inappropriate places just by looking at it.Through such evaluation, junior employees can gain a lot of experience and knowledge, and can do better in future work. When Microsoft integrated the entire company into seven business divisions, Steve Ballmer stepped back from the front desk to the background in due course.He is no longer a specific manager, but has transformed into a supporter behind the heads of the seven major departments.He is no longer the final decision-maker for every major event, but supports the growth of seven department heads.Instead of being the most provocative cheerleader, he became a behind-the-scenes coach.Steve supports the heads of the seven major departments to let go of their management talents, while he himself spends more time on the company's values ​​and talent building. (3) Best partner Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are two of the most important people at Microsoft.In the high-tech companies I have experienced, employees always love to complain about the top leaders of the company, but at Microsoft, almost all employees have great admiration for Bill and Steve.Having worked with them for many years, I think both of them are very talented, with a combination of humility, courage and perseverance, and the courage to learn from failure.The three most special advantages of the two of them are: * Courage to change and strong adaptability: Both Bill and Steve are highly adaptable people, able to adjust their job roles and working methods in a timely manner according to changes in the situation.Both of them are constantly learning and improving their work.For example, after Bill failed in his speech, he had the courage to learn speech skills from a teacher; in 2000, for the better development of the company, Bill handed over the position of CEO to Steve; Long transformation into a behind-the-scenes coach...these are examples that Microsoft employees relish. * Full of love and passion for the company: Bill and Steve no longer work for making money, but for the company, for users, and for enjoying passion and happiness.They didn't take stocks and stock options for many years, and gave hundreds of millions of wealth to employees.It is precisely because their enthusiasm for the company has infected all employees that Microsoft can pool the wisdom of everyone in the company to jointly create the greatest value for the company. * Mutual trust and mutual support: The most rare thing for Microsoft is that Bill and Steve have 100% trust in each other, and jointly promote the development of Microsoft. Create the future of your company.There has never been a power struggle or political dispute between them.This is the most commendable thing in today's realistic and selfish society, and it is also a good story on the road to Microsoft's success. Although Bill and Steve are still young and energetic, they are still early to retire, but they have already started to cultivate their successors.In this way, even after they retire, Microsoft can continue their management style and management philosophy, and continue to achieve success. Talent: The Foundation of Microsoft Microsoft regards the management concept of emphasizing talents as the core wealth of the company.In the information age, the value of talents is particularly important.In the industrial age, the efficiency difference between an excellent technician and an ordinary technician may be 30%, but in the information age, the efficiency difference between a senior programmer and an ordinary programmer may be as high as 10 times or more.For example, Microsoft has a programming master. Once, he told a manager that an important function is still missing in your product.The manager said, I also want to do this function, but it will take at least 50 people for half a year, and it is too late now.The programming expert left without saying anything. During the meeting in the second week, he told the manager, I have finished the function you want for you.Because such a programming master may know many shortcuts to solve problems that other programmers do not know, he can complete the work of 50 people for half a year in one week.It can be seen that such talents are of special significance to the company. The company must be good at tracking, digging, interviewing, hiring, evaluating, cultivating, valuing and retaining such talents, and should regard the work related to talents as the most important work of the company. one of the tasks. (1) Thirst for talent: track and excavate talents One of the most direct manifestations of emphasizing talents is that managers must be good at hiring high-level talents, and managers at all levels of Microsoft are very good at discovering and hiring talents, no matter whether they are masters, fresh graduates or already People who leave the company. For example, Jim Allchin, the most important leader and guru of Microsoft Corporation, is currently in charge of platform product development at Microsoft Corporation.Back then, when Bill Gates wanted to invite him to join Microsoft, he contacted him many times through his friends, but Jim Allchin ignored them.Later, after repeated invitations from Bill, Jim finally agreed to come to the interview.As a result, as soon as Jim saw Bill, he said directly that Microsoft's software was the worst in the world, and he really didn't understand what Bill asked him to do.Not only didn't Bill Gates mind, but he told him that it was precisely because of various defects in Microsoft's software that Microsoft needed talents like you.Bill Gates' open-mindedness moved Jim Allchin, and finally invited him to Microsoft.As another example, Dr. Xu Fengxiong, the designer of IBM's famous Deep Blue computer, also joined Microsoft before.Dr. Xu Fengxiong is a good friend of mine, and I have followed him for at least five years.During holidays, I always call Dr. Xu Fengxiong to chat about his recent situation and ask his thoughts.Year after year, I finally moved Dr. Xu Fengxiong, and I was honored to invite him to work at Microsoft.Although he didn't join my team in the end, I'm just as proud.Many people at Microsoft are as proactive as I am in finding, tracking and attracting talent. In addition to working hard to dig out and track masters like Xu Fengxiong and Jim Allchin, Microsoft is also very good at hiring fresh graduates directly from schools.Every year I go to two or three colleges and personally interview the top fresh graduates.We once made a statistic that the talents hired directly from the school performed better than the more experienced talents hired from the society in general.We also found that most of Microsoft's vice presidents today entered Microsoft directly after graduating from college.There are many advantages to hiring and training talents directly from the school: talents are highly malleable, have higher loyalty to the company, are most willing to go all out to do things, are not afraid of risks, and are willing to accumulate experience in multiple departments. In addition, Microsoft has been tracking good employees who leave the company.We don't think employee hopping is a bad thing.For outstanding employees who leave the company, Microsoft will carefully analyze the reasons why the employee left the company in order to further improve the work.At the same time, Microsoft will also track their work after leaving, and prepare to invite them back to Microsoft at the right time.This mechanism of encouraging the flow of talents can better stimulate the enthusiasm of talents, and can truly gain the trust and support of employees. (2) Merit-based: interviewing and hiring talent Microsoft's interview mechanism is well known.Microsoft has adopted a rigorous attitude towards interviews and adopted a well-designed interview process.Each applicant's interview is attended by multiple Microsoft employees, and each employee who participates in the interview is assigned a task during the interview in advance.In addition to confirming professional knowledge and experience, we will also ask a lot of questions to test the applicant's independent thinking ability and performance in the face of difficulties.We should not only hire those technical experts, but also people who are smart, capable of learning, and have team spirit.Therefore, these aspects should also be asked in depth during the interview.After each interview, the interviewer will give his opinion and the following questions that should be assessed to subsequent interviewers.In the end, Microsoft will only hire an applicant if the overwhelming majority of those who participated in the interview agree and we are satisfied with the results of the investigation. Appointing people on their merits is the philosophy of employing people that Microsoft has always followed.We firmly believe in two sentences: (1) First-rate people hire first-rate people, and second-rate people hire third-rate people.So when a team hires its first second-rate guy, that's when it goes downhill. (2) Employing talents should be based on improving the current overall quality of the organization.We must require that the quality of each new employee exceeds the average level of the entire team, so as to improve the average quality of the team, not reduce the quality of the team.Therefore, managers of Microsoft always hope to hire talents who are better than themselves.If the person you hire turns out to be your boss, you should not be ashamed, but extremely proud. (3) Making the best use of talents: evaluating and cultivating talents After employees are hired, the company regularly evaluates and analyzes the talent situation.Every year, Steve Ballmer will ask the managers of the seven major business departments to report the details of the most outstanding 50 to 150 talents in their departments. Steve binds the information of a total of about 600 people into a unique book. "Talent Report", and then spend a full two weeks to evaluate the development prospects of these talents, and invite 20 of these people to dinner every day to learn more about these talents.This kind of work can design the best path for the development of senior talents in the company, and can also quickly find suitable candidates when the company has vacancies.Steve expected to know every one of those 600 people.He keeps this book by his bed and reads a few pages carefully every night before going to bed. Microsoft firmly believes that "people make the best use of their talents", so they designed a "dual track" mechanism, which allows excellent employees to develop on the management track and also allows them to develop on the technical track according to their own wishes.On each track, Microsoft provides employees with equal opportunities, and employees do not necessarily have to do management work to promote personal career development.At Microsoft, a top engineer may be more senior than a vice president.Such a "dual-track" policy institutionally ensures the diversity of talent development paths, which is conducive to attracting and retaining talents. Microsoft encourages the flow and development of talent within the company.Managers at all levels follow the method of making the best use of their talents to give every outstanding talent room for development.Managers at all levels also deeply understand that "the best people do not belong to me, but belong to the company". They will not take talents as their own, but give the best talents better development opportunities, no matter whether this opportunity is Provided by the organization you manage.Under such a system, most outstanding talents can find a development path that suits them. In addition to cultivating excellent talents, the company must also discover and supervise those employees who perform poorly, and give them opportunities to improve, otherwise they will only be asked to leave.In order to achieve this goal, Microsoft has established a comprehensive grading evaluation system and regularly assesses the performance of employees.In each annual appraisal, each vice president must classify all employees in his department into four grades: (1) exceeded expectations, (2) met expectations, (3) met most expectations, and (4) did not meet expectations .Each grade must have a reasonable proportion, and there will always be a considerable number of employees who are rated third or fourth.Among them, the employees who get the fourth grade (about 5%) are tantamount to getting the message "If you don't improve, you have to leave". Steve? Ballmer deeply understands that if such a system does not lead by example, it will not be able to get the support and conviction of employees.Therefore, even at the level of vice president or general manager, Microsoft also implements a strict elimination system.At one point, Steve called a meeting of the 100 most senior people in the company and told us, "I'm asking you to find the bottom 5 percent of your employees, no matter what their seniority, and give them an improvement or leave. 'Regardless of seniority' means that if you have 100 senior managers meeting here today, there should be only 95 people when you meet next year." As a result, at the next meeting, there were indeed more than 5 senior managers already left the job. (4) Make the best use of talents: attach importance to and retain talents Many people believe that the key to retaining talents is treatment.Indeed, everyone should be treated appropriately, but for a software practitioner, what he values ​​more is the working environment.Compared with improving employee benefits, Microsoft pays more attention to providing an environment that can attract and retain people, including: * There are many products that allow employees to develop their talents and potentials and make the greatest contribution; * Sufficient resource support, so that everyone has no worries; * The best team and an open and equal environment allow everyone to have the opportunity to compete and learn from each other; * Attractive scientific research work, so that everyone loves their work; * Leaders understand and support employees' research, so that everyone can follow the general direction of the company while still having enough space and freedom to develop their talents and pursue their dreams. Culture: The Microsoft Way of Doing Business The culture and values ​​of an enterprise are its spirit, way of thinking and behavior, and a code of conduct and values ​​formed by all members of the enterprise in the process of production and operation. Microsoft's values ​​are not only the spiritual wealth accumulated by the company in the actual work practice for more than 20 years from the development process, but also the result of the company's continuous adjustment and continuous improvement according to the needs of the competitive environment.Microsoft's values ​​today mainly include: honesty and trustworthiness; open communication, respect for others, and common progress with others; courage to face major challenges; passion for customers, partners and technology; commitment to customers, investors, partners and employees Commitment, responsible for results; good at self-criticism and self-improvement, never complacent, etc. The above values ​​are not just words on paper, Microsoft also always pays attention to remind employees to abide by these basic work principles in their daily work, and requires employees to convert these values ​​into specific goals that can be put into practice.With the help of these values, Microsoft employees can further enhance their identity with Microsoft's corporate culture and can develop greater potential in their work. In Microsoft's culture and values, I think the following five points are most helpful to Microsoft's success: (1) be full of passion and meet challenges, (2) be free and equal, and serve people with virtue, (3) be self-critical and pursue excellence, (4) Responsibility first, start well and end well, (5) Serve customers with humility. (1) Full of passion and meeting challenges Microsoft's business purpose is constantly changing with the development of the times.By the same token, Microsoft's corporate culture is constantly improving and developing.But what best embodies the essence of Microsoft's corporate culture is a sentence from Bill Gates, which is still so apt after many years: "Every morning when you wake up, there will be a great contribution to technological progress and the development it brings to human life." Excited to improve and improve.” It is this kind of ambition that makes Microsoft challenge the most difficult goals time and time again.When DOS first became successful, Microsoft decisively decided to replace its own successful product and began to develop Windows.When Windows was far from being formed, Microsoft decided to spend a lot of resources on making Windows versions of Word and Excel.At that time, the DOS versions of Word and Excel were far behind the competition, and Microsoft put a greater investment in the Windows version, which was tantamount to doubling the bet on Windows.Looking back on such great efforts and challenges, a manager said: "If Windows fails, there will be no Microsoft as a company." After Windows®, when opportunities such as Office, Windows NT, Internet, and . "Take the company as a bet" again and again, and bring new vitality to the company under many challenges again and again. The company's undaunted spirit of challenge can be seen in the evolution of Microsoft's vision. Twenty-eight years ago, Microsoft's vision was to "put a personal computer on every desk."Now it seems that this goal is not uncommon; but 28 years ago, it was an unimaginable thing.Today, when the above goals have basically become a reality, Microsoft has a new prospect, which is to "help people realize their potential through excellent software (at any time, any place, and through any device)."Microsoft believes that people's potential needs to be fully realized with the help of effective tools, and computers and excellent software products, which represent the informationization process of modern society, are such tools that can help people fully demonstrate their creativity and enthusiasm for work. The company faced major challenges again and again, launched successful products time after time, and changed human life time after time.All these have greatly boosted the morale of the company's employees, brought them a high sense of satisfaction, and made every employee excited about "bringing development and improvement to human life" and "helping people realize their potential". (2) Freedom and equality, convincing people with virtue Microsoft is the least bureaucratic company I have ever seen.The company empowers everyone to take charge of their own work.The company does not have a "punching card" system, and everyone's commute time is basically determined by himself. The company supports equality for everyone, and senior employees basically have no "privileges". They still have to answer emails, pour their own coffee, find their own parking spaces, and everyone's office is basically the same size.Once, when some professors visiting Microsoft from China were waiting to hear a speech by Jim Gray (the famous scientist who invented the database, the winner of the Turing Award, and the dean of the California Research Institute), they saw an old man with full hair lying on the ground. Connecting the wires, I thought he was just an old worker.When he stood up, everyone was surprised to find that he was the speaker Jim Gray.These professors were all shocked. They didn't expect that even someone like Jim would wire and install computers by himself.Microsoft is such a company that advocates technology and everyone is equal. The company advocates an "open door policy," meaning anyone can talk to anyone about anything, and of course anyone can email anyone.Once, a new employee drove to work and hit Bill Gates' new parked car.She was so scared that she asked her boss what to do, and the boss said, "Just send an e-mail to apologize." After she sent the e-mail, within an hour, Bill not only wrote back to tell her, don't worry, as long as no one is hurt, he will be fine.好，还对她加入公司表示欢迎。 一个平等的公司可以降低公司内部的信息阻塞，增加所有员工的主人翁精神，还能更早地发现公司在发展中遇到的问题。平等的公司可以说是微软发展的必备平台。 （3）自我批评、追求卓越 微软文化的一大特色就是自我批评。在科技呈指数趋势飞跃发展的今天，不愿意批评自己，不承认自己的错误，不追求卓越的公司将面临灭亡。 我认识一个刚加入微软的市场经理，他代表我们的产品去参加一个商品展。回来后，他兴高采烈地发了一封电子邮件给整个产品小组。他说：“我很高兴地告诉大家，我们在这个展览获得了令人振奋的成绩。十项大奖中我们囊括了九项。让我们去庆祝吧！”但是，他没想到，在一个小时内，他收到了十多封回信。大家问他：“没得到的是哪一个奖？为什么不告诉我们？为什么没得到那个奖？我们得到什么教训？明年怎么样才能得到这第十个奖？”他告诉我，在那一刻，他才理解了微软为什么会成功。 自我批评在公司早已被系统化。每一个产品推出后，会有一段特别时间空出来给产品团队做“post-mortem”，也就是系统化的“自我批评”。所有小组成员都会被询问，什么地方可以做得更好，每一个动作和决定都会被分析，结果将在公司公布，以帮助别的小组避免同样的问题，让公司的项目能越做越好。 比尔·盖茨鼓励员工畅所欲言，对公司的发展、存在的问题，甚至上司的缺点，毫无保留地提出批评、建议或提案。他说：“如果人人都能提出建议，就说明人人都在关心公司，公司才会有前途。”微软开发了满意度调查软件，每年至少做一次员工满意度调查，让员工以匿名的方式对公司、领导、老板等各方面作回馈。其中有选择题（例如：“我对我的副总裁有信心。以下选一： 非常同意、同意、无意见、不同意、非常不同意），也有问答题（例如：你对公司战略有什么建议？）。每个经理都会得到多方面的回馈和客观的打分。比尔、史蒂夫、其他高层领导和人事室都会仔细地研究每个组和经理的结果，计划如何改进。 除了自我批评，还要有能接受别人批评的胸怀，和改变自己的魄力。1995年，当比尔·盖茨宣布不涉足Internet领域产品的时候，很多员工提出了反对意见。其中，有几位员工直接发信给比尔说，你这是一个错误的决定。当比尔·盖茨发现有许多他尊敬的人持反对的意见时，又花了更多的时间与这些员工见面，最后写出了《互联网浪潮》这篇文章，承认了自己的过错，扭转了公司的发展方向。同时，他把许多优秀的员工调到Internet部门，并取消或削减了许多产品，以便把资源调入Internet部门。当时，有些员工在某一天上班时，老板会告诉他：“我们的产品被取消了，因为公司需要我们做更重要的IE浏览器。明天起，我们整个部门将加入Internet部门。”那些批评比尔·盖茨的人不但没有受处分，而且得到重用，今天都成了公司重要部门的领导。在软件这个市场变化迅速的领域，调整企业方向对微软无比重要。从这个例子里我们看到的是：平等的环境、直接的沟通、宽大的胸怀、宏大的魄力拯救了公司。 （4）责任至上、善始善终 公司和领导者有了关注的目标之后，还要有足够的责任心，才能把事情做好。微软公司要求每一个部门、每一个员工都要有自己明确的目标，同时，这些目标必须是“SMART”的，也就是： * S – Specific （特定的、范围明确的，而不是宽泛的） * M – Measurable （可以度量的，不是模糊的） * A – Attainable （可实现的，不是理想化的） * R – Result-based （基于结果而非行为或过程） * T – Time-based （有时间限制，而不是遥遥无期的） 只有每个人都拥有了明确的目标，并可以随时检查自己是否达到了预先设定的目标，公司员工才能在工作中体现出强烈的责任感和工作热情。 微软公司要求部门和员工制定的目标必须是可分享的，即，每个人都应当通过某种渠道，如公司的内部网站等将自己的目标公布出来（当然，某些需要保密的工作目标除外）。这样，当某位员工对领导或其他员工的工作方式不理解的时候，就可以去查看对方的工作目标，以寻求最好的沟通和理解。 除了针对目标、结果的负责，公司更需要在决策方面有负责的框架。微软的“决策制定框架”下，每一项重要决策都有一定的制定流程和人员角色划分。每一个决策流程的推动人很自然地就是决策的责任人。对该决策有支持和认可权利的人是决策的审批者。对该决策进行核查、提出支持或反对意见的人是决策的复核者。在整个决策流程中，虽然复核者可提出反对意见，但审批者仍拥有决策的最终决定权。有了这样的框架，公司的决策流程更加清晰，人员责任更加明确，决策不会被轻易拖延或推翻，决策的效率也大大提高了。 （5）虚怀若谷、服务客户 微软公司对技术相当重视，对合作伙伴和客户也同样重视。作为软件平台公司，合作伙伴和客户都是公司的命脉。微软公司在价值观中强调，所有员工都要信守对客户和合作伙伴的承诺，而且在产品研发过程中，不仅要考虑到产品的技术特性，还更要关注客户和合作伙伴最需要的功能。 微软的大企业产品部鼓励每一个员工在加入公司的前几个星期到技术支持中心工作，帮助客户解决问题。无论一位员工的资历有多深，公司都希望他经过最基层技术支持工作的锻炼，能理解客户的困难。在大企业产品部的近一万名员工如果以前没有做过技术支持工作，在公司就没有晋升过某一级别的机会。 除了要求员工悉心聆听客户意见之外，微软的软件也会自动收集客户的反馈意见。多年前，当Office开发者无法决定该把哪些功能放进常用工具栏时，Office的程序员制作了一套特别的Office软件。这套Office在用户允许的情况下，记录用户最常用的功能，传送到微软。最后，借助这些统计数据，开发者就可以决定什么样的用户界面才会对大多数用户有利。今天，微软把这个技术做进了所有的产品。任何微软的软件碰到问题（如宕机）时会搜集数据，并在用户的允许下经过网络把这些数据传到总部的服务器，以帮助开发人员诊断和测试软件。有了这样的技术，Windows?XP推出一个月后，微软就把用户碰到的一半问题都解决了，然后再通过网络自动帮助所有合法用户升级软件。此类工作集中体现了公司的创新精神以及借助软件技术解决问题的目标，当然也体现了公司悉心聆听客户意见的决心。 寄语中国软件业 本文谈到的内容，大都是我个人对微软成功经验的理解以及对软件企业管理者的建议。微软公司是一家成功的企业，其成功的背后隐藏着许许多多有价值的东西。虽然微软公司的企业文化和管理方式不一定适合其他企业，但至少是一个可供参考的优秀范例。下面是本文中提炼出来的，我个人对中国高新技术企业的建议： * 管理方面： * 积极为公司长远目标投资，悉心地学习研究、开发的机制。理解把握技术的重要性，而不是只注重眼前利益，重复低级劳动。同时也要认识到，市场和用户的需求决定技术和产品的开发， 而不是反之。 * 不做能力以外的工作，不为了“面子”做没有用的研究。切实研究和找到在产业价值链的最有利的位置，以增强自身长远商业实力和股东利益为根本出发点。 * 作专注的公司，不要急于发展而分散了管理者的注意力。唯有足够大的规模才能达到较高的效率， 但规模并不等于无协同性业务的简单合并。中国的软件业公司太多(近万家)，需要整合。中国的软件公司的总裁需要放弃“宁为鸡首”的想法，积极合并。 * 用SMART的目标来衡量每个人负责的工作；把这些目标量化并公开出来。定下决策的框架和流程，每个人都要理解自己在一个决策过程中扮演的角色。 * 要求产品的开发人员直接接触客户，才能真的理解客户的困难和痛苦。用最新的技术进一步地理解客户的需求和满意度。 * 最高领导层方面： * 理解领军人物的重要性。中国需要更多虚心的、勇于改变的、对公司充满热情的、彼此信任的、相互支持的领军人物。 * 有“希望雇佣到比自己强的人才”的胸怀，有“最优秀的人属于公司,支持他们离开自己的麾下”的无私作风。 * 提倡以身作则的管理方式，不让领导拥有“特殊”待遇，不让领导游离于公司的法规和措施之外。 * 有足够的自觉。如果公司的管理工作超出了自己的能力范围，要有让贤的胸怀。 * 要认识到中国软件企业在管理上与跨国公司的巨大差距，要大胆引进海外人才和职业经理人，并积极营造使他们充分发挥作用的环境。 * 人才方面： * 真正做到以人为本，以三顾茅庐的精神去挖掘人才，用长远的眼光培养人才。能够理解“一流的人雇佣一流的人，二流的人雇佣三流的人”。 * 引入人才管理、评估，培养的制度。追踪、提拔最优秀的人才。积极提高人才对企业的忠诚度。 * 引入职业管理人才机制，在公司战略，营销等领域使用受过正规企业管理培训的专业人才。 * 真正重视技术人才。用“双轨道”机制让技术人才受到重视和提升。 * 提供良好的环境、支持和培训，让优秀的人才没有后顾之忧。 * 实施真正意义上的员工优胜劣汰机制。 * 建立人才激励机制。利用股票期权等机制将员工与公司的长期利益联系在一起。 * 文化和价值观方面： * 发展良好的文化与价值观，并将其灌输到企业的每一部分，要求员工用企业文化和价值观来引导各项工作。 * 以令人振奋的前景目标和巨大挑战激发员工的热情和斗志。让每一个员工因为自己的产品为人类生活带来的发展和改进而激动不已。 * 杜绝官僚作风，创立灵活、平等的文化。让公司的信息自由流通，让每一个员工都有主人翁责任感。 * 公司、领导和员工都自觉追寻卓越的文化；有接受批评的胸怀、承认错误的勇气和扭转劣势的魄力。 * 从上到下树立诚信至上的观念，对上市公司财务报表做到诚实准确。 我希望国内的软件企业可以从微软公司的成功经验中汲取营养，并创造出真正属于自己的优秀企业文化和管理模式，实现最大的商业价值。