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The recent history of technology has left countless samples that, being a reference in any sector is a double -edged sword. On the one hand, it allows you to act from a position of domination of the market, but on the other it makes you Diana of all your competition.
In 1996, Bill Gates, one of the most men influential and rich in the worldhe had a great concern about him advance of a new technology that took the dream: Java, a tool that, as Gates himself confessed in an email, threatened Microsoft’s dominance In the market.
Bill Gates’s great fear was not Apple
According to a conversation revealed by The X accountInternal Tech Emails, in September 1996, Gates admitted Nathan Myhrvold, then Microsoft technology director and Coinventor of more 800 patentswhich was “literally losing the dream” due to the impressive ability of Java.
In his mail, Gates was worried about not finding a Strategy to protect Microsoft of The huge possibilities that offered this new technology. “It seems that people could make people make competitive operating systems,” wrote the millionaire.
To deal with this threat, Myhrvold wanted to take some seriousness to the matter, and proposed A strategy based on “adopt and extend”.
A winning plan, although controversial
This tactic consisted of two main parts: first, Microsoft would announce its support for standardization and collaborate with other organizations to develop that technology among all.
Then, in the “extend” phase, Microsoft would implement the Java standard, but would add exclusive and differentiated features For Microsoft users. This would create one competitive advantage for your company and would motivate users of other brands that only offered the “basic standard”, to change the products of the Gates company.
Myhrvold’s strategy turned out to be very effective for Microsoft since it managed to consolidate the Windows leadership in the market, with functions that no other operating system offered. However, it was also considered abusive.
The United States Department of Justice came to “adopt, extend and extinguish” In one of your opinionsdue to the negative impact on the competition that this strategy proposed by Myhrvold had.
There is always a stalking risk
That a millionaire like Gates ensure that a new risk makes him “lose sleep” is no exception. Much less in the technological field, where innovation Makes the highest towers fall and makes David more insignificant into an untouchable Goliath overnight. Ask Nokia Oa Deepseek.
In fact, the fear that an enemy arises from nothing and ruin all work What your company has done is a recurring fear in the CEO of large companies called “CEO paranoia“
Jensen Huang, CEO of one of the world’s greatest technology, claims to be obsessed with making a mistake in your management and that your company is ruined. “I think that when you built a company from scratch, you have experienced real adversity and have been about to close several times, that feeling remains with you,” said Huang in a Interview at the New York Times Dealbook Summit.
For its part, Peter Beck, founder and executive director of the aerospace company Rocket Labhe was also very concerned about the decisions he made at the forefront of a company that participates in the current space race. “I can’t imagine getting home and sleeping deeply every night; that is simply tangible,” assured Beck a CNBC.
Jeff Bezos, after raising two empires from nowhere in two different sectors, also confessed that one of its main fears They were the garagesreferring precisely to Two students from a garage They could develop the next great technological idea that unbank their companies in the current domain position.
Image | Flickr (Billionaires Success)
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