Microsoft's Mundie looks beyond Gates
Published: 18 May 2007 17:05 BST
… some figure of merit, and then when it has to make a move it takes the path that it thinks has the highest probability of good score, and it takes that as the next move, and then it starts all over again.
In a way you could think, well, why couldn't we do some of those things relative to the tasks that people do every day? What's the next word you're most likely to type? I mean, today we do word-wheeling and other things. Maybe we could guess more based on how you write.
I think we'll see a very graceful transition in the course of the next year
Craig Mundie
Obviously one of the reasons that your role gets so much attention, and Ray, is that you guys together are taking on a lot of the duties... How is that going from your perspective?
I think for Ray, you know, he's been in the company a shorter time. He's taking on the shorter-term cross-divisional architecture co-ordination role. So in a way I think it's a bit [of a ] bigger change for Ray than it was for me.
I kept the part that I had. I've been working for Bill now for going on nine years directly and have been, I'll say, his partner in research and strategy and incubations and other things, and all the policy work.
And so for me, particularly since Rick Rashid is staying in his role as the founder and still running Microsoft research, that was a fairly straightforward transition. Ray has probably a slightly bigger list personally to make to just get himself assimilated, but we gave ourselves two years to manage through this transition. And I think that we'll see a very graceful transition in the course of the next year.
Is there a shift that the company sort of makes without Bill there every day?
Well, I mean, Bill is still there every day. So one can say we don't really know yet because we haven't had to go cold turkey and say: "Oops, he's not here every day." Whether it was me or Ray or Steve or anybody else, they can still ask him a question.
And to some extent I expect Bill will still be available; but not being there every day, it will be harder and harder for him to deal with the very real day-to-day stuff.
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