The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

The 5 Strategy Rules of Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs


20 Apr 2015


by Michael Blanding

If there were a Mount Rushmore for technological innovation, Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs would be the faces looking outward. The longtime CEOs of Microsoft, Intel, and Apple have done more than anyone to popularize the modern-day personal computer, and in doing so, also created three of the most highly valued companies in the world.

But how were they able to steer their companies through the volatile ups and downs of decades of changing technologies? What did they have in common? And what can we learn from them about successful strategy?

“The notion that you could brand a product that no one had ever seen and that no one understood what it did was brilliant”

Those are the questions David B. Yoffie and Michael A. Cusumano address in their new book, Strategy Rules: Five Timeless Lessons from Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs "I have known all three of these individuals," says Yoffie, the Max and Doris Starr Professor of International Business Administration at Harvard Business School. "By looking at what they had in common, I thought there was a great opportunity to understand what distinguishes a  really great strategist from your average CEO."

Yoffie has had access to all three men—having served on Intel's board since 1989 and written numerous business cases on Apple and Microsoft. He first started talking about the idea for the book more than six years ago with Cusumano, the Sloan Management Review Distinguished Professor of Management at MIT Sloan School of Management. But, Yoffie says, they wanted to wait until all three had finished their tenures. "The idea was to wait until Steve's departure, which unfortunately came with his death. Literally a week after Steve's death, we had lunch and agreed we would do the book."

The result is a look into the minds of three tech pioneers who, to outside appearances, don't share much in common.

"When I mention I wrote the book, the first response I get is, 'I can't imagine three more different people,'" says Yoffie. Besides their contrasting personalities—Gates the pragmatic technocrat; Grove the disciplined engineer; and Jobs the visionary perfectionist—their companies had unique business models and filled very different niches in the technology value chain.


5 W + 1 H :

1. Who is the pioneer of technological innovation?
     The pioneer of technological innovation is Bill Gates, Andy Grove, and Steve Jobs

2. What is the article talking about ?
     The article talking about leadership lessons from the tech titans of Microsoft, Intel, and          Apple in the new  book, Strategy Rules.

3. When Yoffie first put the idea to write a variety of business cases apple and microsoft ?
     He first started talking about the idea for the book since 1983

4. Where Doris Starr Professor work ?
     He work at Harvard Business School

5. Why he chose to research business case in technology companies ?
     Because he thought there was a great opportunity to understand what distinguishes a            really great strategist from the CEO

6. How were they able to steer their companies through the volatile ups and downs of                 decades of changing technologies ?
    Because their companies had unique business models and filled very different niches in         the technology value chain

Sumber :

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7704.html