Burning the Ships

Now in paperback, the inside story of the greatesttransformation of Microsoft since it became a multinationalcompanyMarshall Phelps's remarkable eyewitness story offers lessons forany executive struggling with today's innovation and intellectualproperty challenges. Burning the Ships offers Phelps'sdramatic behind-the-scenes account of how he overcame internalresistance and got Microsoft to open up channels of collaborationwith other firms.* Discover the never-before-told details of Microsoft's secrettwo-year negotiations with Red Hat and Novell that led to theworld's first intellectual property peace treaty and technicalcollaboration with the open source community* Witness the sometimes-nervous support Bill Gates and CEO SteveBallmer gave to Phelps in turning their company around 180 degreesfrom market bully to collaborative industry partner* Offers an extraordinary behind-the-scenes view of thehigh-level deliberations of the company's senior-most executives,the internal debates and conflicts among executives andrank-and-file employees alike over the company's new collaborativedirectionThere are lessons in this book for executives in everyindustry-most especially on the role that intellectual property canplay in liberating previously untapped value in a company andopening up powerful new business opportunities in today's era ofopen innovation. Here is a powerful inside account of the dawn ofa new era at what is arguably the most powerful technology companyon earth.