In an email to the Enterprise Irregulars list, Dennis Howlett wrote
ZDN is planning a Gates farewell splurge of posts. Compilation of incisive thoughts from this merry band?
Here's my response.
Personally, I find it a bit sad that the larger-than-life figures that defined the PC industry are moving on, with such giants as Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, and Scott McNealy following the likes of Phillipe Kahn, Rod Canion, and Mitch Kapor into the sunset. Of course Michael Dell and Steve Jobs are both at the helms of the companies they founded (interestingly, both in their second acts) but obviously even they won't be around forever.
That being said, I'm glad that the industry hasn't become so staid that there's no room for oversized personalities like Steve Ballmer, Leo Apotheker, and Marc Benioff. When the big tech companies all start to look like HP and IBM with their exceedingly competent but forgettable chief executives, it will mark the end of an era.
I think it's clear that Bill Gates will join the pantheon of corporate titans that includes Henry Ford, Alfred P. Sloan, and Thomas Edison (not to mention John D. Rockefeller, JP Morgan, and Andrew Carnegie)—and rightly so. I hope I get the chance to shake his hand one day.
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