The Microsoft Way

Stross, an academic business historian, was given unlimited access to interview Microsoft employees and managers and to rifle through most of Microsoft's corporate records. His main conclusion? That Microsoft's phenomenal success is due in large part to its consistent insistence on hiring the smartest people, and that much Microsoft bashing is reflective of an anti-intellectual strain in American culture. Whether you idolize or despise Microsoft, this book is well worth reading — especially if you are in any way responsible for hiring the best and the brightest for your company.

• Introduction: Camping with Henry and Bill
• Part One: Microsoft Basics
  1. Sitting and Thinking
  2. Smarts
  3. The Model in Their Head
• Part Two: The Home
  4. Big Files
  5. Britannica, Adieu
  6. Pitching Customers
  7. David and Goliath
• Part Three: The Highway
  8. Preparations
  9. PCs versus TVs
  10. Toll Road
• Part Four: The Monopoly Game
  11. The Last War Redux
  12. The Home Front
  13. Preemptive Attack
• Afterword: Legacies

An attempt to a balanced view of Microsoft, but ends in badly hidden idolising.