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Bill Gates' e-mail to employees

Posted by Steven Parker on 18 June 2006 - 11:49 · 34 comments & 88778 views

Bink has posted an email that Bill Gates sent out to all Microsoft employees and Subsidiaries.

From: MSBILLG
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:41 PM
To: Microsoft and Subsidiaries: All FTE
Subject: My Transition Plans

I wanted to take a moment to share some of my thoughts, as well.

As Steve's mail indicates, I've decided that two years from now, in July 2008, I want to devote more time to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Right now and for the next two years, my full-time job is here at Microsoft, and my part-time job remains the Foundation. Beginning in July 2008, I will switch that, to be full-time at the Foundation, while remaining involved with Microsoft as Chairman and an advisor on key development projects on a part-time basis.

To prepare for this change, we have a well-thought-out transition process. Again, I will continue at Microsoft full-time for the next two years, but over the course of those two years, my day-to-day responsibilities will shift to a team of incredible technical leaders who are already doing amazing things at the company.

I feel very lucky that we've got extraordinary technical leaders at the company, like Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, who can step up to assume the roles that I've played. I've known Ray for the last 20 years, and he has created some of the most important developments in the industry. Craig and I have worked together for nearly 14 years, and he's been a technical visionary and a leader on policy throughout his career. With Ray and Craig stepping up, I feel very confident that the technical stewardship of Microsoft is in very capable hands.
And I feel the same way about our business leadership. Our core businesses are strong and we have a clear vision for how we will meet new challenges and opportunities. We just had our first $12 billion quarter, and we continue to generate almost a billion dollars in profit every month. We are about to launch breakthrough versions of Windows, Office and Exchange, which are already generating a lot of excitement.

Six years ago, Steve and I made a major transition when he stepped up to be CEO. He's done a fantastic job by every measure, whether it's the people he's brought in, the new ways he's running the company, or just the objective results - like doubling our revenue in six years. Steve has driven us to make bold bets on things like Xbox, Real Time Communications, business applications, IPTV, and many others including the Live platform. Steve is the best CEO I could imagine for Microsoft - he is changing the company in ways it needs to be changed. He is bringing in new leadership at all levels. And, he is focused on the long-term - making Microsoft a great company not just today but for decades to come.

With Steve's organization of the company into three divisions led by our incredible presidents - Jeff Raikes, Robbie Bach, and Kevin Johnson - we've laid a solid foundation for greater autonomy, agility and entrepreneurial spirit in our product groups. And with the great addition of Kevin Turner as our COO, our leadership team has never been stronger.

Our deep technical strength is one of the key reasons I believe Microsoft is well-positioned for great success in the years ahead. I'm very pleased that in addition to Ray, Craig, David and Rick, Steve has asked J Allard, Bob Muglia, and Steven Sinofsky to play an expanded role in shaping the company's business and technology strategy. And when you consider all of our remarkable Technical Fellows, Distinguished Engineers, all of the brilliant researchers working at our MSR labs around the world, and all the technical people in the business groups, I can safely say that our technical talent has never been stronger or deeper.

Obviously, this has been a very hard decision for me. Microsoft will always be a huge part of my life, and I'm lucky to have two callings that are so important and so challenging.

On a personal note, I know that my work on global health and education issues at the Foundation would never have been possible without the enormous success of Microsoft, so I want to thank you and all of the employees past and present who have contributed so much to this company.

For these last 31 years, I've had the best job in the world. I've worked with some of the brightest and most passionate people in the world. Together, we've built a great company whose products have empowered people around the world.

We're only at the beginning of what software can do, and I'm excited about the impact that Microsoft can have. I'm going to take an extended vacation this summer with my family, but I'll be back in late August and I look forward to working with all of you for the next two years and beyond, to make those dreams a reality.

Thanks.

Bill

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(5 replies) #1 Posted by hotdog963al on 18 Jun 2006 - 12:01: Hugs and Kisses,
Bill xx

#2 Posted by PureLegend on 18 Jun 2006 - 12:04: Mah fellow Americans...

#3 Posted by ZombieFly on 18 Jun 2006 - 12:43: ahh, caring Bill.

The company i work for, the owner just sold up to the first person that came along. He's now sunning himself on a yacht somewhere while we outsource our programming to india.

sucks to work anywhere but microsoft it seems

(2 replies) #4 Posted by leesmithg on 18 Jun 2006 - 12:50: He has earnt it.

I think if we all were honest we would like to be in his big steal toe-capped boots.

Personally, I would have sold the business in 2000.

I would buy some real-estate in Cornwall and retired.

I am a dreamer.

#5 Posted by mohan_168 on 18 Jun 2006 - 13:00: Hopefully they meet the target this time and unlike vista dosent get delayed each year

(2 replies) #6 Posted by PsykX on 18 Jun 2006 - 14:25: There's an implicit message in that email : Vista will be out before July 2008, it won't be delayed after that.
Can you guys find any other implicit message?

#7 Posted by cool_guy6_06 on 18 Jun 2006 - 14:42: like they have met their other targets

(1 reply) #8 Posted by ThePitt on 18 Jun 2006 - 19:57: Quote -
From: MSBILLG

The sender was marked as spammer

(1 reply) #9 Posted by h3xis on 18 Jun 2006 - 22:14: ...not just today but for decades to come.

/me cries.

(1 reply) #10 Posted by n30w1n on 19 Jun 2006 - 00:45: Bill Gates is truly admirable, not only as a man but as a human. I wonder if any of the people who label him as the antichrist have ever took a close look at that Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.

#11 Posted by ruey on 19 Jun 2006 - 01:05: ^ i agree.

and thats one nicely-written letter.

#12 Posted by McG on 19 Jun 2006 - 01:29: I agree with ne30w1n. He's an amazing person when it comes to charity, and he doesn't let the money go to his head.

#13 Posted by _sphinx_ on 19 Jun 2006 - 08:53: People who think Bill Gates is a devil in a saint's veneer are truly ignorant idiots.
Ok, so the man is blessed, but who cares?
He has contributed greatly to humanity, of not through his brilliance and intelligence which brought MS to us, then through his extreme generosity.
The day I heard some guy threw a pie in his face, I was enraged. That man deserves as much respect as any other pioneer.

#14 Posted by Jugalator on 19 Jun 2006 - 09:15: Hmm, there's a lot of ass-kissing in that mail.

Anyway, as for the truth of how well they'll run the company, only time will tell.

Should be some interesting times ahead, and I can't wait to see how 2007-09 or so will go for Microsoft and sales of Vista and Office 2007. There's so many things changing right now, and with how quickly competitors have changed the online landscape just the past few years, one can only wonder what e.g Google will do these years. In a way, I think web applications will be increasingly competitive to operating systems, and for example online Office suites will only keep getting better. Obviously, they can't replace a kernel and so on, but probably a lot of bundled applications, thereby possibly reducing the value of a new OS. Actually, being a security aware user with the proper apps installed for that, basically only DirectX 10 makes me interested in Vista at the moment.

Last edited by Jugalator on 19 Jun 2006 - 09:25

#15 Posted by Orange on 19 Jun 2006 - 13:04: LOL i saw that video of pie, i watch it everyday lol

(1 reply) #16 Posted by Magallanes on 19 Jun 2006 - 13:20: While "open source fanboys" tell about Bill Gates is the devil, then Bill Gates send this *personal* email to their employed about how he think and fell..

For a while my vote is for Bill, while he's not related with "good and stable software", he can be called a good chief.

#17 Posted by The Teej on 19 Jun 2006 - 13:41: Bill Gates rocks

:3

(1 reply) #18 Posted by thugilex on 19 Jun 2006 - 13:56: did he type it him self or his sec did ?

#19 Posted by lammmetak on 19 Jun 2006 - 14:39: Is this the end of copieing apple software? because everything what vista is bringing is standard in osx...

#20 Posted by Xavien on 19 Jun 2006 - 17:21: lammetak, thats because vista introduced a lot of the ideas in which Apple eventually implemented into OSX. Because vista has been in development for such a long time.

even though the original idea came from Vista, Vista will be released after most of its ideas have been leeched by Apple onto OSX.

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