Notes on Strategy
... Gates has a strategy, he didn’t just want to sell software, but he wanted to be the leader in the information superhighway Ž his product Windows 95 was considered to be a basis for the network. He wanted to tap into this market and create opportunities for him to be: an intermediary, a facilitator to the banks and credit card companies. To this end, long before the Net took form, he was already forming alliances with bank’s and lending institutions, Co’s who would provide servers and IT infrastructure, so this end could be achieved. In this sense, he had a clear idea of where he wanted to go, and he knew that if he wanted to get there, he would need help. His strategy was focussed toward the branding of his product, with a strong focus on value for the user. Ž Brand marketing. Karl Van Clausewitz compares business to war saying “..it is also a conflict of human interests and human activities”. In a war, (strategy), there is no manual; you can’t just apply a series of recipes for this or for that. Here, inspiration is a key factor, due to the fact that we are dealing with living objectives that have the capacity to react. In this scenario, strength is almost useless. The author tells us, that to dedicate time to think is the most important thing we can do. According to Bob Garrat “an important amount of time should be dedicated to thinking about future possibilities instead of focussing solely on the present. The person Directing (el que dirige) is the one who marks out the path, tells us where we have to go, and what we must do in order to achieve certain things. In Strategy, one must be proactive. Gates started out with a vision: that every work desk would have a PC, and this would be a great opportunity to sell programs that would enable them to work Ž this was his objective. Windows was conceived as a strategy not as a product. All the actions that Gates took were directed toward the accomplishment of his strategy, including, his book “the road ahead”. In order to achieve this, amongst other things he: · Based his publicity camp...