The professor asked with a wide grin.
So you want to write a book on high tech CEO's?
Well gentlemen, its a long shot, a huge long shot.
And besides, no CEO knows why hes successful.
Its all just luck.
Coming from a well known strategic management professor, a comment such as this seems somewhat ridiculous.
For if successful management were all luck, then why are we taking his class?
Why, for that matter, were we in business school at all?
Surely successful management was not entirely due to luck.
There had to be some successful strategy and ideas at play too.
Louis Pasteur once said that chance favors the prepared mind.
If chance is a major factor in a companys success, as our professor believed, then we really wanted to know what successful entrepreneurs do to prepare their minds.
What are the crucial skills needed to run a successful company?
To hire great people?
To ship a great product?
What skills should a potential manager try to develop?
Why was one manager successful where another wasn't?
Answers to these questions, in the words of the very people who have started successful technology companies comprise this book.
We chose to focus on the computer industry for two reasons.
First and foremost, computers are dynamically changing the way people exist.