Comparative biography of two V.V. or leave can not stay? Part 2. Bill Gates starts a new life

In the photo: Bill Gates vaccinates against polio. Delhi, India. year 2000

In the first part of the article, we discussed the upcoming departure of two VV. from their posts. Both are gone. What will happen to them next?

For now let's talk about the upcoming new field of William Williamovich. The following article was published yesterday in the Seattle Times.
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Bill Gates made Microsoft a worldwide empire. But now Bill and Melinda Gates are building a new brand.

Next week, Microsoft’s chairman’s center of interest will switch from the fate of software to the fate of the world. He will join his wife, Melinda, and will devote all his time to working in the $ 37 billion charitable foundation that they founded ten years ago.

Gates says that he will bring the same “optimism, a bet on scientific breakthroughs and accurate calculation” that characterize Microsoft to the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

But he does not go too far in comparing philanthropy and business, aware of the complexity of the problems of poverty, hunger and disease, which are the focus of his new mission.

In moving to new horizons, such as creating vaccines against malaria and AIDS, Gates sees an analogy with the Microsoft approach, namely “to achieve breakthroughs that can actually change things, bring together the best scientists, take into account the inevitability of mistakes and failures, be constantly focused on the goal. "

Microsoft and the Gates Foundation “are as different as the two organizations can be different in what they do,” says Gates. "Microsoft never sent me to the slums."

Philanthropists, doctors, and anti-poverty organizations expect Gates to use his influence and opportunities to raise inequality issues at the global level.

“The credibility of the Bill and Melinda Gates brand is extremely high,” said Jay Naidoo, a former labor activist, then minister in the government of South Africa, now a member of the Gates Global Health Council.

Gates can provide "momentum in putting these issues on the agenda in the United Nations and governments around the world," says Naidu. “Gates’s participation in the full program of the Foundation is extremely important.”

The Foundation has set itself ambitious goals such as eradicating malaria and revolutionizing African agriculture, which is especially important today when many countries are face to face with the food crisis.

Gates remains in the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors of Microsoft, but intends to focus on working in the Fund.

“I will have much more time to attend schools, visit the epicenters of diseases, meet with leading researchers working on these diseases, work with our potential partners - governments of rich countries, pharmaceutical companies, everyone who is interested in achieving our goals,” says Gates

One of the problems for the Fund will be to draw a clear demarcation line between the work of the Fund and Microsoft Corporation, from the profits of which the Fund is financed. “If all of this comes to a situation where philanthropy is put to the service of business, the Foundation will fail,” said Kavita Ramdas, President of the Global Women's Foundation and Advisor to the Gates Global Development Fund.

It's not just technology

“In the end, the new quality of Gates will continue to work with people,” says Trish Millines Dziko, a former Microsoft manager who left the company in the 90s and created the Technology Access Foundation that provides technology education to students with limited opportunities.

“This is not just a purely scientific approach: what should be done to end malaria?” Says Dziko. “It's about how to convey the funds found to people, how to get people to believe you, how to maintain patience and perseverance, and decide what to mean in this case success.”

Based on her experience, she believes that the ability to focus on a problem perfected in a company can conflict with the need not to lose sight of a very wide range of problems and interests.

“Technology is a wonderful arrow,” she says, “but a quiver must also contain many other arrows. I do not doubt the focus of the Foundation, its intentions and commitment to the goals. But I seriously doubt that the technology will become a “silver bullet”.

“Without political will and social change, technology may even work in the opposite direction,” said Dziko. “Providing computers to poor communities will not in itself change the circumstances in which these people live.”

To achieve the goals of the Foundation, Gates intends to combine technology with the creation of appropriate market conditions. “The vaccine development technology will not work if we do not create conditions in the market when medicines become more affordable,” he says.

Pre-launch excitement

Gates will visit China in the summer, India in the fall, and Africa next January.

540 Foundation employees are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Bill Gates.

“Bill, when he enters a room, when he enters a discussion, it’s like the appearance of an extra-class player on your team,” said Patty Stonesifer, executive director of the Gates Foundation. "It improves the game of each of us."

“Do you worry when you are facing a match with a champion?” Of course."

Stoneseifer says that she is looking forward to bringing Gates to his ability to focus on the problem and bring it to a solution, and hopes that this will finally help to use modern technologies to really improve the situation for poor countries and social groups.

“Everybody acts as a template,” she says. "Bill may approach the problem from an unexpected angle."

The breadth of thinking and perseverance

“We need the breadth of knowledge and views, therefore, of the five hundred Foundation employees, no more than a dozen are from Microsoft,” says Stonzifer.

"The diversity of the interests of the Foundation and the complexity of the problems requires the involvement of scientists from various disciplines."

The general characteristic of Gates and Microsoft, and the Foundation, is perseverance in achieving goals.

“Bill tends to make big bets and expect the best possible return,” says Stoneseifer. "Even if he fails at first, he only redoubles his efforts."

“His reaction to serious problems is not in retreat, but, on the contrary, in an even greater preoccupation with the solution of the problem. This perseverance and risk appetite is a huge acquisition for the Fund. ”