[.uk] Microsoft First Generation: The Success Secrets of the ... (ISBN 0471332062)

Amazon.com Review:
If a company's soul is defined by its employees, Cheryl Tsang's Microsoft First Generation offers the definitive look at the way one of the world's top corporations has really been shaped. In straightforward but perceptive profiles, Tsang introduces a dozen key individuals hired by Bill Gates and Paul Allen before 1990--when the primary focus was creation and development, rather than growth and maintenance. They are mathematician-programmer Bob O'Rear (hired two years before Microsoft relocated from Albuquerque to Seattle), technical writer Russell Borland, programmer Richard Brodie, senior vice president Scott Oki, chief information officer Neil Evans, CPA Dave Neir, Ida Cole (the first female VP), CD-ROM author Min Yee, technical manager Ron Harding, publishing-systems manager Russell Steele, Asian-business-development manager Paul Sribhibhadh, and senior diversity administrator Trish Millines Dziko. "The people who comprised Microsoft's first generation were exactly right for their time. They were the pioneers," Tsang writes. "The founders of Microsoft were shrewd to have hired them, for the company's monumental and continuing success would not have been possible without (their) exceptional work and passion." --Howard Rothman

First Generation: A wonderful example to today's society.:
Tsang's book, Microsoft: First Generation, display's a great example to today's society, and generation. The book focuses on 12 key members of Microsoft in it's earliest stages, which, in a way, helped create the infrastructure of the company. The interviews show how all 12 ex-ms employees ended up where they were, and what it took to be successful. I applaud Mrs. Tsang for her hard work. I recommend this book to anyone interested in business, or Microsoft itself.

Dull...:
Unfortunately, this book simply isn't very well written... it reads like an 8th grader's English homework. The interviewees don't really shed any light on Microsoft, and their stories are so lacking in detail as to be pointless. Read "Gates" for a far better treatment of the topic.

Does what it says:
I picked this book up and I think that it is very good. I started reading it right after finishing up a book on Linus Torvalds the creator of Linux. Thus this is almost the flip side of that coin, showing how Microsoft became. One thing that surprised me was that Bill Gates was not one of the main focuses of this particular book, though he is mentioned quite frequently. Rather it shows some of the others responsible for possibly the most successful computer company ever. This is not all just programmers either, but a good selection of people from various different aspects of the microsoft realm.

Truly awful:
It is such a shame. Imagine a party where everyone is telling the best reditions (often exaggerated) of their life choices and career path. These party goes will be slapping each other on the back for their good judgement, their luck, their brilliance. They are unlikely to tell the truth such that you would ever use the story as a basis for your own decision making. The story is also unlikely to provide access into what actually happened so that you get a sense of being there or give lessons to repeat it. Record these stories at your next party. Transcribe them. Publish as a book.

not up to the mark:
Just another book. Nothing special. As the name suggests, I wanted to have a look into the way these first guys faced compitition. That is missing. The stories lack in detail. Also its does not cover the complete Diaspora of the kind of people working at Microsoft.