Bad Boy Ballmer: The Man Who Rules Microsoft

Microsoft's CEO Steven Ballmer is the subject of "Bad Boy Ballmer". It traces Ballmer and Gates friendship back to their days at Harvard University. It uses primarily secondary sources to give a nice rehashing of the Microsoft story. We learn of Ballmer's Jewish heritage, Detroit roots and even have a mention of Robin Williams. We learn of Ballmer's enthusiasm, tearing his vocal cords, ascension to the CEO position, and his arrogance. While technically a biography, it is more a history of Microsoft with Steve Ballmer as the focal point. Read and reviewed by Jimmie A. Kepler.

When I read about the author's problems with his Steve Jobs biography, I picked up a copy of this to see if he was legit. He is. I read the book straight through, and think I got a wide picture of both Microsoft and Steve Ballmer. I find that I like Ballmer, even after reading about all his miscues. I'm giving this to a few tech friends as office gifts.

Fredric ya gotta fan. The book is a gem! Felt like I was looking at a well-cut stone;brilliant light reflecting and refracting on the computer industry and the "bigger than life" it seems men that run it or are run down by it. Hard as a diamond in places and then a soft glow like amber in others because of the wry humor. Great macro view of the "new evil empire" of Microsoft and a heck of lot more.So now. . .where are you going to train your "lens" next?

Lots of really good details about his life prior to joining MicroSoft many of which explain how he came to be the type of person he is today.Robin Williams was a classmate, Glida Radner a relative... if Steve hadn't met Bill... we might having been looking at his name on the credits to Saturday Night Live and there might not be a MircoSoft (at least not as you know it today).Well worth the read, makes you realize that everything you do in your life is important. MicroSoft and Steve's relationship could VERY EASILY have never taken place but for a fluke few minutes.

In the nineteenth century, Rockefeller and Vanderbilt founded and built entire industries. In the first half of the twentieth century, Edison and Ford did it. Then Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer turned Microsoft into a household word and one of the richest companies in the history of business. They didn't pump oil or haul freight, light the world or put a car in every driveway; they just sold computer software. Their accomplishments coined the term "intellectual property" and transformed the world from the industrial age to the age of information.There have been a number of books by and about Bill Gates. Fredric Alan Maxwell in "Bad Boy Ballmer: The Man Who Rules Microsoft" tells the story of Gates' loyal friend and second in command, Steve Ballmer. After the creation of the income tax in 1913, not only to raise revenue but also to prevent the creation of an American aristocracy, it was thought impossible to ever again amass fortunes on the scale of the nineteenth century robber barons. Steve Ballmer grew up from humble beginnings in suburban Detroit to become a multi-billionaire and the fourth richest man in America, but only the third richest in the county where he now resides outside Seattle. Great wealth inspires great curiosity. In the case of Microsoft where the products are full of bugs and don't work too well ... great wealth can also inspire great loathing. Ballmer is a leader, a doer, a tremendously effective executive, and Maxwell tells us his story.Ballmer could spend a million dollars a day every day for the rest of his life and still have many billions left over. If Gates and Ballmer just walked away from Microsoft and started all over again with, say, a measly billion dollars each, they'd find a way to make another personal computer operating system and give their former company a run for the money. Ballmer, the only billionaire who got rich working for someone else, is a great business talent and competition addict. It's not the excellence of the software that created the alleged "monopoly," it's the skill at business strategy. Ballmer got the right people working on the right things. But it's also his personal ability to intimidate and dominate. Everybody ... except Fred Maxwell.Maxwell's initial approach to do an authorized biography was rebuffed by Ballmer and the public relations department at Microsoft. To get the story, he had to do it the hard way. Through meticulous research and countless interviews, Maxwell turns out this business biography with wit and humor. When Ballmer went to work for his friend from Harvard he joined the nascent Microsoft as the 24th employee. They've built the company up to where they now have 50,000 employees, and more cash in the bank than any company in the world. A hundred years from now, their names will still be on people's lips, like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt.