Bill Gates China blunder
04 Jul 07 Filed in:Computers
I was reading a fabulous book by John Wood, a guy who left Microsoft to save the world at the end of the 90's. He recounts the time he was organising a TV interview between Bill Gates and the top TV journo in China at the time.
Determined to swing public opinion back towards Microsoft, and to dispel the idea of MS being a tyrannical capitalist company that gladly sued any violators of licensing agreements, Wood prepared and angled all Gates' answers towards the positives of MS China. For instance, there were only 3 out-and-out research labs in the world, and one was in Beijing. And many of the products they were launching in China were China specific and / or would dissipate throughout the world from China. All music to the Chinese people's ears, about 100 million of them tuned in!
Apparently Gates must have had one dose of jetlag too many, because when he was on TV he did exactly what he had been advised to avoid, and he genericised all his answers, making out China to be just another market. As the advisor died a thousand deaths in the background, Gates even missed a PR trick so obvious even I could see it.
Apparently Gates was idolised by the Chinese and people paid fortunes to be seen with him or have a photo taken with him. Some little girl had been seen crying because she wouldn't get to see her capitalist idol. Gates simply ignored the whole spiel from the interviewer, instead of offering to give her a special audience. Hello, Mr Gates, who missed PR101?
Despite the howlers of protocol and basic business sense, MS have gone from strength to strength there and, sure enough, China, along with India and the US are MS' biggest market. Fortunately, Wood the adviser saw the light and made his move to escape the rat race of global software domination and launched Room to Read a really worthwhile program, building and equipping Third World schools with bi-lingual libraries.
Of course Midas touch Gates has seen the light mega style and now gives away more than any human who ever lived. Perhaps if he had listened to his adviser in China, he could have given even more away far sooner.
Determined to swing public opinion back towards Microsoft, and to dispel the idea of MS being a tyrannical capitalist company that gladly sued any violators of licensing agreements, Wood prepared and angled all Gates' answers towards the positives of MS China. For instance, there were only 3 out-and-out research labs in the world, and one was in Beijing. And many of the products they were launching in China were China specific and / or would dissipate throughout the world from China. All music to the Chinese people's ears, about 100 million of them tuned in!
Apparently Gates must have had one dose of jetlag too many, because when he was on TV he did exactly what he had been advised to avoid, and he genericised all his answers, making out China to be just another market. As the advisor died a thousand deaths in the background, Gates even missed a PR trick so obvious even I could see it.
Apparently Gates was idolised by the Chinese and people paid fortunes to be seen with him or have a photo taken with him. Some little girl had been seen crying because she wouldn't get to see her capitalist idol. Gates simply ignored the whole spiel from the interviewer, instead of offering to give her a special audience. Hello, Mr Gates, who missed PR101?
Despite the howlers of protocol and basic business sense, MS have gone from strength to strength there and, sure enough, China, along with India and the US are MS' biggest market. Fortunately, Wood the adviser saw the light and made his move to escape the rat race of global software domination and launched Room to Read a really worthwhile program, building and equipping Third World schools with bi-lingual libraries.
Of course Midas touch Gates has seen the light mega style and now gives away more than any human who ever lived. Perhaps if he had listened to his adviser in China, he could have given even more away far sooner.
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