Retiring an Era !

Just found this email of just too great importance for you and i. Even if it doesn’t directly influences us.


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

Funnylifian & I

Yeah, Its been 3 days and 171 visitors, reasonable performance for a first time blogger, in fact 5^th time blogger. I rampantly search orkut for my old friends , friends whom I haven’t seen for a long long time..

I meet funnylifian, yeah I met around june of 2001, we’ve been reasonable friends if you could say that. But what I’d like to say about him is his few facts that makes him special.

I’ve been a thorough nerd during my school years, well no one can complain about that anymore. I remember those days when I used to sit in the last bench or the second last and listen to the drone of chemistry or physics on why hexane is made this way or why the sky is blue , why can’t it be red like the girl in the amity advert.

Money and I are like birds in a tree, they come they go. But funnylifian was sure of what he wanted, he used to save a lot of money, he used to always carry a big fat wad of 100’s or 500’s , always sure of what his future had for him. He used to study well. I don’t know about the present. Anyways I never used to study and I still don’t coz my exams are just 4 days away and I sit and write this. He used to have this sony’s tiniest walkman he used to bring to school and listen to music from it. He used to do pretty cool tricks and making it fall onto his shoes when teacher caught him.Sad I bought an ipod, its white wire shows up in whatever you’re wearing.

I remember those days when he taught me a subtle lesson in few things. I believe around October 2002 when we thought these days would never end. We used to make so much theory on thought.. machines and ideas. If you read his blog you’ll know about the a4 paper he keeps in his wallet. Well he used to do it in school as well. I remember when we used to write crazy theorems. Machines far efficient in mind than in practice.

The one thing that he did wrong to me was that he used to show around my work, whatever I’ve written to all others, I’m pretty protective of whatever I do. Atleast I consider it as personal. Unless of course it’s the next big thing since the internet kind of idea.

I used to believe in music , but not as much since Funnylifian taught me about Bryan Adams.(oh yeah he’s a big fan & so am I ) and Mettallica, I used to hate soft songs and hard metal. But he made me appreciate music as a person, an individual with a soul.

The second lesson he taught me is to be honest and own up whatever I’ve done. The lesson 2 was a very difficult one. The incident goes like this , another friend of mine provokes me to crack into his mail id for fun, yeah … yeah it’s fun when you are 17 nothing to worry about and above the law as a juvenile. Anyway I did it. The next thing I know is that funnylifian comes over to me and asks me why is it possible for someone to get into my id or something like that I guess someone have done that to me. I lied to coverup something nasty I did to him.

The truth surfaces, always it does. And it did. From his blog u can learn that he doesn’t like someone lying to him. That day onwards, we grew apart. Ideas became a mere piece of paper. Sitting there in the wallet, crumbling into the future.

So that’s the deal between funnylifian and I, I’d never forget him for what he’s taught me. For the whacky ideas we used to entertain.

Arbid Thoughts - Funnylifian

Coolest Answers

Often I feel that I am less capable of handling situations as smart as my friends do. Here is a splendid example of such a situation where my friend’s brilliant answer rescued me from making a fool of myself!

On a cool Friday evening at 5pm, three of my collegemates, Sachin, Nimil, Sujith and myself were having chaat (a sweet and spicy North Indian Dish) at a Mobile-Shop on the roadside of the heavy traffic-town named Kadavanthra.At that time there was a large crowd surrounding the shop to feast on the chaat. We four guys had to stand by the footpath and eat our chaat. The chaat was fresh, crisp and tasty. And we really enjoyed it.

Finally Nimil decided to pay for all of us. And on opening his black leather wallet Sachin got a glimpse of Nimil’s passport size photograph. On seeing this, Sachin jumps with astonishment and asks Nimil sarcastically, “Hey why don’t companies accept you as an employee inspite of you being very handsome? If I were to start a company I would definitely employ you as one of my esteemed staff. “

Sachin then seeks Sujith’s as well as my opinion on what would we both do if we were to start a company.

I was really hesitant to answer such a question and started to mumble, “umm, I think I would accept Nimil, I don’t have any justification as to why other companies have denied him. If I were to accept him in my hypothetical company I still don’t have any reason whatsoever…”

Luckily I didn’t have to answer as the quick-witted Sujith came to my rescue, he boldly said,” you know what, if I were to start a company, I WILL NOT take him however qualified he is. Do you know why I won’t take him? ”

Its simple replies Sujith ,” I don’t want all the females going goo goo gaga over this guy once I employ him. It would directly hinder the company’s growth and effective performance. And as it’s my company I don’t want that to happen. “

Edited By Dominic Antony