It's not surprising that Paul Allen is coming forth in his memoir saying that Microsoft's game plan was to emulate the competition. This idea was mentioned in the documentary, "Revenge of the Nerds" when Steve Jobs mentioned this same sentiment when competing with Bill Gates and company.
"[The competition] can be taken. But the only way we're going to take them is to study them, know what they know, do what they do, watch them, watch them, watch them. Look for every angle, stay on their shoulders, clone them, take every one of their good ideas and make it one of our good ideas."
- Steve Ballmer
While most people would look down on this type of strategy, I think it is actually necessary. If you think about it, if a company is copied in their work, they will be angry. When this anger passes, I think they would be motivated to rise above their competition to be better than them. With this, innovation is born. With this, companies are able to grow and evolve, which is always a good thing.
While this is fine and well, it would be nice to see some original creative content from one of the biggest companies in the world!
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