America 1982-Chapter 192 - 72: There Happens to Be a Company That Needs Help

"Great companies all start from a garage: Microvention, Microsoft, Lotus, and Actor," said Roland Hanson, vice president of Microsoft Company, looking at the garage adorned with the Actor sign and smiling in praise at Tommy Hawk who stood beside him.

Tommy shook his head, "Actor is hardly qualified to be mentioned in the same breath as the three software companies you just named."

"I heard from Benjamin that Actor seems to have moved to a new office space. So what team is left here?" Roland Hanson asked curiously, observing the dozen or so employees who were busily answering phones inside the garage.

Tommy looked at the garage, which had become crowded, remembering a time when there were just three people: himself, Jason, and Holly, three college students dreaming about the future of Actor right here.

Now, Holly had taken a leave of absence from school and, as the vice president of public relations at Actor, was flying around handling all kinds of external affairs such as interviews and public relations.

Jason had also chosen to take a break from his studies and was currently directing training programs at various universities, working alongside Holly on some public appearances and interviews.

If the two of them were here right now, they would probably share his sentiments and reminisce about the days when they were just three inexperienced entrepreneurs.

Snapping back to reality, Tommy introduced to Roland Hanson, "This is the company’s customer service and technical support department; we currently have thirty part-time employees, all of whom are students from Stanford University. They come here after classes to earn some money. If the workplace is too far from school, it would be inconvenient for them to attend classes. In addition, full-time customer service costs too much in labor, so I decided to keep the customer service department in Garage 9, providing job opportunities to students."

"You don’t really seem like a traditional developer," Roland Hanson said with a slight nod after hearing Tommy’s introduction. "The entrepreneurs who are developers themselves often tend to improve employees’ benefits and the working environment as soon as they get funding."

With a smile, Tommy asked, "Mr. Hanson, when you say ’traditional developers,’ are you referring to Paul Allen who had to leave his management role at Microsoft due to illness?"

Last year, during a medical check-up, Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, discovered he had early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma. As a result, he relinquished all his power while retaining only his role as vice chairman of the Microsoft board, no longer participating in any company decisions.

That’s the official statement from Microsoft. In truth, early-stage Hodgkin’s lymphoma does not affect one’s ability to work, and it has a very high cure rate. The real reason Paul Allen left Microsoft was the irreconcilable differences between him and Bill Gates.

When Paul Allen was involved in the decision-making at Microsoft, the company still had a sort of geeky quality, but as Paul Allen was edged out, and Microsoft became entirely Bill’s company, the company’s ethos changed—becoming even more ambitious and more greedy than before.

For instance, despite good revenue, Microsoft still chose to hire a large number of temporary employees and insert complex, secretive non-compete and confidentiality clauses in their contracts. This approach allowed Microsoft to save a great deal on employee benefits, such as health insurance costs. Moreover, due to the existence of non-compete and confidentiality agreements, these temporary employees, even if dissatisfied with Microsoft, would not dare to resign easily. If they did, and joined another company with better benefits within the same industry, Microsoft’s legal department would be the first to sue them, giving them a ’parting gift’ of sorts.

Countless developers in the computer software industry have criticized Microsoft for ruthlessly exploiting its employees, but apparently, to no effect.

Even Paul Allen, after learning what Bill Gates had done, specifically called to curse him out, saying he didn’t deserve to be called a computer professional, but rather a vampire who had insinuated himself into the computer industry.

"Right, many programmers think that when a company makes money, it should improve its treatment of employees, so everyone gets a share of the profits. But Bill doesn’t see it that way, neither do I. That’s why he poached me from the cosmetics industry to sell software," said Roland, turning to look at Tommy Hawk. "I’m glad you don’t consider yourself just a developer. Speaking of which, do you have any guess why I asked Benjamin for your contact information, wanting to have a chat with you?"

"I guess I got to it before you did?" Tommy replied without hesitating, his gaze fixed on the other man’s face, as he countered.

"Indeed, I had asked Benjamin earlier if this Tommy Hawk from Actor Corporation was, by any chance, like me, someone who started out selling cosmetics," Roland Hanson said with a complex look, speaking earnestly to this man named Tommy Hawk, "I had designed a long-term promotion plan for Microsoft Word, and because of you, much of it has been scrapped. Otherwise, by now, Microsoft Word, not OSS, would be the one topping those computer magazine professional sales charts."

Tommy shrugged, "The reason OSS’s sales are so exaggerated is that it’s free, not because it’s more professional than Microsoft Word."

"I always feel like that statement of yours is mocking me," Roland laughed.

With the departure of Paul Allen, Bill Gates immediately replaced the previous vice president in charge of marketing, and recruited Roland Hanson, who had been vice president of marketing for the American cosmetics company Neutrogena, into his fold.

The first thing Roland Hanson did upon taking office was to announce a rebranding of Microsoft’s own document processing software Multi File to Microsoft Word, and to ensure compatibility with WordStar, the world’s best-selling document processing software.