We watched a video in class, "Triumph of the Nerds Part II". It talks about the growth of the computer industry, and how they anchored to the "Bear", which was IBM.
Fun Fact, I've done multiple visits to IBM's campus and every time I visit, it kind of seems like a shell of what it used to be. It is quite interesting to see IBM out of the server business. Selling or spinning it off to Lenovo.
We watched how Microsoft grew out of the small business they had by using "the Bear" to catapult off of their work. By Microsoft licensing BASIC to IBM, they had the control over whatever happened. For me, it is one of the most influential business decisions of the twentieth century.
As Microsoft conserved their lead over IBM by having the control over the development of the software, all IBM basically did is to consult and add management to the work of others. I'm in no position to understand the motivations behind this, but it is absolutely horrific the amount of disregard they had for having smart people, over hard workers.
IBM had good business practices for the previous century, but when the personal computer era came in, it wasn't about smart deals and good business contracts, it was about having enough people to know how to build the best computer systems. This quote by Bill Gates, proves this easily.
"If we weren't still hiring great people and pushing ahead
at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a
mediocre company."
Bill Gates (Chaire.com, unknown)