LogFAQs > #895973381

Microsoft was a scary ass company in the 90's. They had a 'art of war' mentality. This stuff was used in anti-trust trials against Microsoft. It was basically their corporate strategy. They called it effective evangelism. They had an evangelist team.

Basically the key points of their plan was;
1. Microsoft's platform will dominate thanks to third party developers
2. They don't 'force' developers to do anything. They use persuasion and psychology to get what they want.
3. Supporting Independent Software Vendors is critical to success...but only if their loyalty and effort is in support of Microsoft
4. If someone is too strong to attack directly or unwilling to cooperate then help their competition instead
5.Be subtle with attacking competition. Disrupt their plans and alliances. Don't attack their strengths
6. Authorities are watching so be ethical and honest. But selectively ethical and honest
7. Selective honesty is like a court case. The prosecution tells truths that help their side and so does the defense. Neither side tells the whole story. Likewise Microsoft should tell the truths that help themselves and hurt the competition

- If Microsoft did something for you it was to further their own interests. Independent Software Vendors were pawns in Microsoft's war against the other guys like Apple
- Microsoft evangelists were often opportunistic and willing to capitalize on mistakes. One guy was going after a company called Intergraph who hated NT. So he found an engineer within the company who was willing to do 'skunkworks' in secret. When Intergraphs's sales were going down then the engineer suddenly unveiled what he was working on
- Microsoft became so powerful that whatever they introduced was basically the standard. At that point it was no longer about coercion and but instead inclusion or exclusion
- An example is the early adopter program. They'd have a new technology to introduce and your company could be given a head start with it. You'd be given direct access to Microsoft and all of their tools. In exchange you'd commit to Microsoft events and they'd co-market your stuff. Of course if you didn't want to do this stuff they'd simply offer it to your competitor instead
- This leads to an environment where it's a bad idea to reject Microsoft. They'd act nice to your face but then suddenly give a huge edge to your competitors
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Kind Regards,
Darmik