2. 比爾?蓋茨

公司名稱：微軟

銷售額: 699億美元

市值：2,735億美元

員工人數：90,000

建議：找到最聰明的人，組建小型團隊

????比爾?蓋茨是極少數能有機會在一生中兩次改變世界的企業家：第一次，作為全球最具影響力的技術怪才，他幫助推動了個人電腦革命。如今，他作為全球最慷慨的慈善家，正在積極應對全球醫療衛生和公共教育這兩大長期挑戰。

????如果說蓋茨過去領導微軟（Microsoft）和如今作為聯席主席領導比爾和梅琳達?蓋茨基金會（Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation）有何相似之處，那就是都注重聘請最聰明的人，用小型團隊來解決重大問題。“別無選擇，”他說。“挑選編程員時，必須選高智商的人。”

????有一次被問到他最出色的商業決定是什么時，蓋茨不假思索地回答，歸根結底是選人。“選擇和保羅?艾倫共同創業或許是最明智的決定，其次是聘請了朋友史蒂夫?鮑爾默（接替蓋茨擔任微軟首席執行官一職）。擁有一些完全信賴的人非常重要，他們全力以赴，與你有共同的愿景，但具備的技能又略有不同，因此在某種程度上對你也是一種約束。”

????56歲的蓋茨談到鮑爾默時稱：“你和他講一些想法，他會說，‘嗨，等等。你想過這樣或那樣嗎？’和一個這么聰明的人交談，好處是它不僅會讓生意變得更有意思，而且真地會帶來巨大的成功。”

2. Bill Gates

Company: Microsoft

Sales: $69.9 billion

Market Value: $273.5 billion

Employees: 90,000

Advice: Find very smart people and create small teams.

????Bill Gates is one of the very few extraordinary entrepreneurs who have had the opportunity to change the world twice in one lifetime: First, as the world's most influential geek, he helped usher in the personal computer revolution. Now he is tackling the stubbornly difficult challenges of global health and public education as the world's most generous philanthropist.

????If there is a similarity between how he led Microsoft and how he is leading the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as its co-chair, it's a focus on hiring very smart people and putting them to work in small teams to solve big issues. "There is no way of getting around that," he has said. "In terms of IQ, you've got to be very elitist in picking the people who deserve to write software."

????Once asked what his best business decision was, Gates replied without hesitation that it came down to picking people. "Deciding to go into business with Paul Allen is probably at the top of the list, and subsequently hiring a friend, Steve Ballmer [Gates' successor as CEO at Microsoft]. It's important to have someone who you totally trust, who is totally committed, who shares your vision, yet who has a little bit different set of skills and who also acts as something of a check on you."

????Says the 56-year-old Gates about Ballmer: "Some of the ideas you run by him, you know he's going to say, `Hey, wait a minute. Have you thought about this or that?' The benefit of speaking off somebody who's got that kind of brilliance is that it not only makes business more fun, but it really leads to a lot of success."