On Sunday 18 December 2005 23:51, steve szmidt wrote:
> On Sunday 18 December 2005 19:50, chris lee wrote:
> > gates gives out billions per year to people who need it, i respect him
> > for that.
>
> It does make him look good. My question is WHY does he do it? I'm curious
> as to why he does it. Tax writeoff, PR value, actually cares for other...
>
> Of course lots of people benefit regardless of why. It's the proper thing
> to do when you reach a power position.
>
> Unfortunately he's not realized how that applies to business.
Some time ago, (15, 20? years), I saw an article (Wall Street Journal,
possibly) about some consultant/advisors to Gates told him he needed to start
doing some philanthropic things because the size of his wealth and the power
of MS had reached the point where the size alone would create a bad image.
Setting up the foundation then followed.
Being geekish, Gates had also ignored politics which gave them trouble with
the restraint-of-trade suit brought by the govt. They worked on that too,
e.g. contributing to the parties. AC Nielsen in the 60's got in a bind with
the Senate hearings on ratings. The unpublished rumor was some senator had
invested in some program, it got bad ratings, and he lost money, so he had it
in for the ratings biz. Anyway, not long afterwards, Nielsen, Jr. became
Charles Percy's campaign treasurer for his senate race (Illinois, which he
won), and the govt problems melted away. As they told us in MBA school the
CEO has to look after whole picture, which includes such things as public
image, and politics.
Don
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