Corporate-finance

As an ESL text it may have uses in the hands of a good teacher (because the material is superficial). If your or your students actually need to LEARN something about doing business outside your home country, look elsewhere.

Bob Showalter, Chairman
Showalter Flying Service, Inc.
Orlando, Florida

What I particularly liked about the book was the many helpful tables, sidebars and figures that provided valuable information to company and flight department personnel looking for a better way of doing things. There are lots of reference materials in the appendix, too.

This is a must-read book for anyone involved in business and corporate aviation. It's an easy read, too.

Why? Because the issue Mr. Gates is writing about with such passion is really an old story nowadays. Let me explain. We have an "old" IT infrastructure in some places that is not good enough to support companies in a new economy, fortunately most of the corporate world also possess "new" PC and PC based devices connected to the Internet that are (according to Mr. Gates) fully capable and optimal way of supporting business in the 21st century. Hmm...I know at least couple of people that will strongly disagree with that (Larry and Scott where are you :-). The result is that corporate management is desperately looking for clues how to make the best use of this "new" technology to succeed in a new economy.

This book will help you get most of the answers, but (as usually) don't buy everything you read!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not negative about the book, in fact I learned a lot from Mr. Gates as businessperson. With his enthusiastic writing style, he kept me constantly rethinking from chapter to chapter about existing solutions in my company from business perspective and NOT from IT as usually!

Another good reason to read this book are real world examples from different companies, including Microsoft Corporation itself, on how you can gain business advantage with proper use of digital tools.

Last but not least, if you think that you know Mr. Gates and his company well then think again or better yet, read this book!

We would have liked to see more business examples outside of the Microsoft examples they cited.

What we also liked about this book is that it offers a brief glimpse into the mind and thinking of one of the most successful businessman in history. For anyone interested in business/leadership biography, this is a worthwhile read.

Middleware serves the purpose too make different applications and systems integrate together. Middleware has the potential to keep all data consistent between different systems. Leaps in PC performance have eliminated the need to deploy incompabile middleware applications. High end PC hardware is compability and the software is a 100 percent compabile. The homogeneous platform is the reason PCs are being accepted as servers. ERP companies are moving to PC technology realizing support for more internet user pools at lower costs. The internet protocol allows software running on PC servers to provide information analysis and business transactions.

Out of the box software provides easy to customize applications to meet business needs. Using a three tiered architecture combined with customized software makes customization more possible. Companies of all sizes have PC technology. Microsoft next generation of 64 bit operating system will give Microsoft a larger stake of Unix servers. Microsoft NT has already scaled by Unisys as a Mainframe power equivalent operating system. Microsoft and telecom technology will allow voice and data networks to pass information over fiber lines and be internet based.

Savings on infrastructure are significant. Listed companies realizing savings were: McDonalds - predicted savings of 18 percent, Dayton Hudson ($100 million and save at least that amount in operation savings), Lockheed and Martin Marietta (cut IT spending by $700 million over five years - realized in two years),

Horizonally integrated computer industry based on PC technology attracts more software development. Software developer build software components reducing the cost of business and providing a rich layer of functionality. Windows standardize operating system insulates the developer from the variablity of the hardware. Selecting PC technology safe quards your software investment and retains hardware preference.

In summary, cheap harddrives, massive amounts of memory, faster processors have reduced the cost of PC technology. Rich internet applications can be streamed to browser or client applications using internet protocols. More cities will invest in fiber optic infrastructure bring media, voice, and video to businesses and homes. Combining these two factors: cheap PC technology and standardize Internet Protocols will allow software developers to provide rich business functionality and result in "Free capitalism". We are just beginning to discover what the computer can do for us. There will be many more billionaries in the next generation.

I loved the title! The title of the book caught my eye, because I had heard about a book titled "business at the speed of light(?)", and being a bit of a rebel, I laughed when I read the title and thought "that's the truth". After a few scans of various pages, I wanted to buy it. And I am not disappointed yet.
I would not feel stupid telling someone to read this book based on it's title, and if you do, then you may need to get out the environment you are currently in. Everyone needs to lighten up a lot. That theme is illustrated several times in this book.

Dan & Alan, please send me an email when your site is revised (ExecuThought.com), I would like to find other tech people to converse with about your thoughts and lessons in this book, and I think your online dicussion board would be an excellent place to do it.

Again thanks for the book, I haven't enjoyed reading a "business" book like this since reading the "E-myth revisited". Each chapter is a comedy, adventure and tragedy wrapped in a valuable lesson.

The book covers the internet business from 1994 to 1997, when Wolff was trying to cut a deal with Magellan or AOL or Ameritech or the Washington Post, while keeping his venture capitalists at arms length. His "burn rate" is high-he's spending half a million bucks a month-and the money is always about to run out in a few weeks. He has no hope of turning a profit in a reasonable length of time and so he needs a deal, fast.

Wolff is always on the verge of that deal, always about to sell out for more money than he thought existed, only to have the whole thing collapse in acrimony or apathy or a shift in the corporate zeitgeist or whatever. Back then, everybody was making internet commerce up as they went along (the term "e-business" was a couple of years off) and huge sums of money always seemed about to be made or lost on hunches or whims or loopy idealism. Wolff has a keen eye for the resulting nonsense, and he can write about it without condescension because he realizes that he was just another asylum inmate. Overall, a good, fun read.