In Conversation with Steve Ballmer at Oxford (4 Mar 2014)

The 3 valuable  takeaways from this 1- hour interview with Steve Ballmer, who co-founded Microsoft with the richest man in the world Bill Gates:

1. Have a great idea before startup.
– The financial,  talent, etc come later.

2. Great company does (at least) one trick well.
– Microsoft has 2.5 tricks: PC operating system (Windows); Microprocessors in data center (Winservers); the half trick is X box game console. 

– Apple also has 2 tricks: Mac; Mobile computing in iPhone/iPAD/Appstore

– Facebook (Social Network) and Google (Search Engine)  have 1 trick.

– Sony has 1 trick : Audio TV

– HP has 1 trick: Tester Equipment (now in Agilent)

– IBM has 1 trick: Entreprise Data Centre

– Samsung has 1 trick: hardware manufacturer (LCD flat panel, Smartphone…)

– Amazon has 1 trick: online bookshop

– Alibaba.com has 1 trick: eCommerce

Many great companies degenerate into smallness or extinction, because…