On Sun, 09 Apr 2000, EvMick@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/9/00 7:00:02 PM Central Daylight Time, Dehede011@aol.com
> writes:
>
> > often wondered what would happen if Bill Gates moved his
> > headquarters and his jobs out of the US and into anyone of a number
> > of countries where he would be welcomed with open arms.
>
> I wonder why he doesn't?....maybe the cayman islands...or the
> bahama's....hardship locations like that....
>
> He'd own the place...the locals would love it...his employees would love
> it...what would be the downside?....except for janet reno i mean?
The downside is that it would be extremely difficult to transplant the
tangible and intangible infrastructure that supports a business like
Microsoft. Most of it has to do with people and culture; the success of a
business is closely tied to its environment and you lose a lot of network
effects that have emerged in the Seattle/Redmond area.
A perfect example of these types of issues is to look at the number of
places that have tried or are trying to be another "Silicon Valley".
While many try to maintain the outward appearance of a Tech Mecca, in
practice they have always been a pale shadow of the real thing
largely because they lack the culture and intangible resources required to
generate the virtuous runaway feedback loop that makes Silicon Valley so
different. It is easy to copy the tangible aspects of a business
environment, but the intangible aspects are often more subtle in nature and
generally much more difficult to change and/or duplicate.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:09:13 MDT