Rating: Summary: Readable and Relevant Review: I did not like "The Road Ahead" but I truly enjoy this book. One may not agree with Microsoft's marketing tactics in certain situations, but this book reconfirms my perception that Microsoft is staffed with intelligent and energetic people, from the top down, who can make things happen quickly and analytically. True to their "eat your own dog food" philosophy, they make digital business practices happen in their own company first. Bill Gates' observations and strategies are relevant, at least for the next 10 years of Internet-based business transactions. What he writes may be trivial to some, but big profits have also been made with water alone. To maintain balance, I must add that predictions of timing are hard. The fact that this book is still in paper format indicates that not everything will be digital anytime soon.
Rating: Summary: A rate of the book, not the man. Review: I thought the book was pretty good. It's not the best piece of literature I've ever read, but it wasn't as bad as the "Bill Bashers" make it sound. Some of the people who claim this book is "poorly written", "horrible", or "a waste of money" need to upgrage their standards from "The Cat In The Hat" and take an English Literature class or two to appreciate an author's work. Like the man or not, the writing wasn't bad at all.
Rating: Summary: A tedious tome from a man without a single original thought. Review: I wish I could say there was some glimmer of insight here, but I can't. Mr. Gates has built his empire through luck, timing, and the acquisition of companies who had the misfortune of having good ideas and being ripe for takeover.
Rating: Summary: It is rather pathetic Review: The book is another example case and point of Bill Gates lack of foresite into actually usable material. The book is filled with knowledge that has been wide spread even before his hand hit the page to write it. Boring, and dry as all his books this one is definately a waste of hard earned money.
Rating: Summary: A fluff book Review: Once again Bill Gates has released an over-hyped book. Although there is quite an intelligence present throughout the book's structure and there can be much gained from reading this book, the overall is still yet another "celebrity" attempting to write.
Rating: Summary: Horrid Book Review: Really bad. No new ideas, much of it even outdated. Spend your money on something worthwhile, like O'Reilly books.
Rating: Summary: Read between the lines. Review: Excellent book if you learn to read between the lines for Bill's vision on the Digital Nervous System. I see this book as a prelude to his implimentation of the Digital Nervous System in the future of all busisnesses. Discalimer: I am no an employee of MSFT.
Rating: Summary: DIGITAL BUSINESS Review: Business @ the Speed of thought predicts an era where all businesses will use technology to accelerate the flow of information ??.. The book doesn't innovate in this area, see for example Cybercorp (Martin, Amacom), The Power of Corporate Kinetics (Fradette and Michaud, Deloitte and Touche Consulting) or Real Time (Regis Mc Kenna, HBS Press). So what is delicious is to understand the leadership style of Bill Gates, the way employees are empowered through IT, and involved to initiate the Microsoft's business strategy. Gates easily recognised his past error e.g. for not including Internet, a quality for a CEO, and encourages his staff to send him e-mail even with bad news. For many companies this is the future, but for High Tech companies like Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Intel it is already here. Gates also calls the new way of working the WEB WORKSTYLE, built on the use of networked PC and the Internet, while he argues that the term "Executive Information" is counterproductive. Many companies already have the basic tools, the problem is that they are not yet using the technology to full advantage. Gates admits that the biggest challenge for Microsoft is to look 3 or 4 years out and predict the direction of software and computer developments. How is Windows going to be dramatically better than all of the competitors ?? e.g. The next version of Windows NT, Windows 2000 for business users. The technology business never stops moving, and to me said Bill, it is moving faster than ever before. Gates is committed to expanding the company into Internet services and Microsoft has a very aggressive plan to rule this out. Can we believe the book? Yes, 2 weeks ago a partnership with 3Com will see a co-branding home networking kits for the fast-growing numbers of households with more than one PC. Gates calls it "The Web Life Style". So this new book will provide satisfaction to new "SPIDERMEN" (in comparison with other disappointing Gates' s publications such as "The Road Ahead" which seemed a Promotional Campaign). In addition it is in line board directors last week showed that few in Europe have grasped the cost-cutting opportunities afforded by the Internet. American directors took this most seriously. But directors from France and UK were in state of denial. Dear executives, remember what say Bill Gates "in 1993 we didn't focused on the Internet, it was a 5 or 6th priority"... "in 1995, various experts predicted that small, nimble competitors using the Internet would put Microsoft out of Business. This was bad news" . So we can recommend Business @ the Speed of thought
Rating: Summary: As usual, no new ideas from Bill. Review: Most of what are written in the book are already well known to the business society, there are really nothing new in the book other than an appealing title.
Rating: Summary: A good, solid read. Review: I got an advance copy and was dubious after "The Road Ahead." This was a pleasant surprise, and worth reading. Some keen observations and a few exciting ideas. For those of you who neither evangelize nor demonize Microsoft, this is something to add to your reading list.
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