Microsoft LO7811

levin@astral.magic.ca
Mon, 10 Jun 96 11:27:18 -0400

Replying to LO7793 --

Without any specific responses concerning Microsoft and the secrets of
their success I do have some thoughts on the general approach of revealing
the secrets of success of prosperous organizations that you may find
useful.

Looking at successes only is only looking at half of the data and forming
conclusions on less than all of the relevant information can be
problematic. One of the best examples of this is _In Search of Excellence_
by Peters and Waterman. Peters, sometime in the last few years, admitted
that the book was flawed. He had to. Just about all of the success stories
had suffered badly, having to reverse policies that, according to the
book, made them successful. One example comes from IBM's policy of
"respecting the individual" and "no layoffs." Look what happened! So this
policy that was supposedly responsible for their success still led them
into decline and once into decline the policy was reversed in order to
once again bring about success.

Many successful organizations are so due to a good deal of luck. This is
not to say that there was no hard work and risk and ingenuity involved.
Microsoft is a good example of this. There was a lot of hard work and risk
and ingenuity. They have been very successful (I, as a user of their
application software am grateful for their efforts). But a good deal of
luck is in there to; keep in mind that IBM chose them to write their PC
operating system. They deserved it, indeed but they were lucky that the
contract was not awarded to one of the many other worthy candidates. From
this lucky event Microsoft has built considerable presence and momentum.

Another company could adopt precisely the same practices and policies as
Microsoft (even if in another industry) and not realize near the success
that Microsoft has.

Wayne J. Levin, M.A.Sc., P.Eng
Process Improvements, Inc.
PO Box 77506
North York, Ontario CANADA
M3H 6A7

-- 

levin@astral.magic.ca

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>