(1) people, people, people

“Most of our competitors were very poorly run,” he tells Fiona Bruce, for The Money Programme.

“They did not understand how to bring in people with business experience and people with engineering experience and put them together.”

Klunder says it was Mr Gates’ ability to understand the business as well as the technical side that gave Microsoft the edge.

(2) importance of product iteration

“Most of our competitors were one-product wonders”

(3) making your venture relevant

“She says of Microsoft that "because they were the operating system, everyone else in the industry had to deal with them”.

“Microsoft’s clout was, by this argument, unavoidable.”