I'd be Bill Gates over Steve Jobs any day

While I'm just amazed at what Apple has done--from a technology and a marketing standpoint--I think what amazes me more is how many people rave endlessly about how Steve Jobs has "changed the world!"

And yet they never reference what Bill Gates is doing to change many of the world's problems. It confounds me. (To be sure, they always reference how Bono is changing it.)

Indeed, indeed, Apple has produced marvels that push the limits of innovation and defined what is hip. And it has certainly changed many markets. Or I guess I should say that Apple has opened new markets. Respect galore and then some.

But when I think "change the world" I do not think of cool gadgets.

Sure, I think of how cool gadgets change the business landscape and how they change the way we communicate. But in changing the world--a term that is so abused these days we should just charge tax on it to raise the required funds--I think of making a difference to the world's core problems. You know, the problems that are so big and have been around so long that they just feel too big and too entrenched to do anything about.

Like hunger and diseases (many of which, like malaria, can be prevented with a couple bucks per person while a vaccine for measles costs fifteen cents). Things like giving kids an education.

Things like giving families clean drinking water.

Oddly, the biggest problems are the most basic. But even though they are basic, they need to be solved using some BIG bucks--and some new incentives. Yes, incentives. You know, the basis of that evil capitalism concept? Yep, that one. And that's going to take some creative problem-solving, and asking the right questions. The ones that Gates is asking in his current essay in Time Magazine:

"Creative capitalism isn't some big new economic theory. And it isn't a knock on capitalism itself. It is a way to answer a vital question: How can we most effectively spread the benefits of capitalism and the huge improvements in quality of life it can provide to people who have been left out?"

Naturally, if companies are going to get more involved, they need to earn some kind of return. This is the heart of creative capitalism. It's not just about doing more corporate philanthropy or asking companies to be more virtuous. It's about giving them a real incentive to apply their expertise in new ways, making it possible to earn a return while serving the people who have been left out. This can happen in two ways: companies can find these opportunities on their own, or governments and nonprofits can help create such opportunities where they presently don't exist."

To be sure, Gates is neither cool nor hip. But cool and hip won't change the world. Just ask Einstein, Galileo or Gandhi.

Yeah, I'd be Gates over Jobs any day (though I'd try and dress better ;-).

I've just begun reading the book that Gates cites in his essay for Time. It's titled "The Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid" by C.K. Prahalad and it speaks to creative capitalism and how to eradicate poverty through profits. If you've read it, I'd love your take on it.

And I cannot urge you enough to read this book, too (though it's not about changing the world but about how the world around us has changed).

PS: Yes, that is Gates's famed mugshot from decades ago (I believe he was caught speeding). Hey, it was the hippest shot I could find of him.

Comments

[Gavin Heaton]

I saw a doco on Gates the other day and it was really interesting. One aspect that they brought up towards the end was the idea that Gates was aiming for a Nobel Peace Prize. And as they said on the show -- good for him! If he can use his wealth and his influence to really change the lives of people, then brilliant, hope he gets it (and the kids get what they need too).

BTW ... CK Prahalad is awesome. Check him in action:
http://feedroom.businessweek.com/?fr_story=a70fa645459486909c4d1522606dfd19a6c798b6

[Lewis Green]

Like you, CK, I have always been befuddled and saddened that so many of us rave about Steve Jobs but ignore Bill Gates, who has done hundreds times more than Jobs and most of us to make the world a better place to live and work. Nice post, CK.

[CK]

@Gavin: Thanks for the point to the Prahalad video--and his new book which I'll have to get. Now that you mention it, I could definitely see Gates as a contender for the Nobel.

@Gav & Lew: What is so interesting about Gates is the "turnaround". Perhaps since he made such vast fortunes, he needed a bigger challenge. Perhaps Melinda inspired him...or perhaps he came into a time in his life when he found a new purpose that he could greatly affect.

Ironically, the vast fortunes (of he and those he's inspired, like Buffett) will not go to themselves, but the majority of those billions will go to those who need it most. And with all the baggage around Gates’s “evil” ways, it’s so heartening to see that, in the end, the money and the brainpower will go towards making a real difference—not just on the business playing field, but a difference to so many people’s quality of life.

I hope more will realize it, because it’s truly inspiring to watch it all unfold.

[mack collier]

When you ask people for the first word they think of when they hear the name 'Bill Gates', their answer will almost always be 'Microsoft'. And to many people, Microsoft represents a big power-hungry company that produces many crappy products. IOW, many people don't have a very good opinion of Microsoft, and since Gates is so closely linked to the company he founded, the opinions we have for Microsoft are going to bleed over to Gates. Whether we realize it or not.

In the same way, the first word that most people would think of when you mention 'Steve Jobs', is 'Apple'. Apple is viewed as a cutting-edge tech company that produces cool tech toys that we love. And in many ways, they are viewed as the David to Microsoft's Goliath.

So by extension, Jobs is also viewed as 'cool' and 'hip'. Because it's SOOOOO cool to wear jeans and a black turtleneck, right? ;)

For better or worse, our opinions of Gates and Jobs will likely always be more or less the same as our opinions of the companies they founded.

[Ike]

I look forward to snagging that book...

The best way to spread the fruits of capitalism is to spread capitalism. Helping the poor find their way into free trade creates a bigger market for everyone.

It's an easy recipe:

- Give people property rights
- Let them trade as freely as possible
- Enforce fair laws to uphold contracts and trade

It's worked everywhere it's been tried, but many governments in impoverished nations think they can control their way to prosperity. The hurdle is changing the deep-seated culture and attitudes.

I know a guy in Prague who is trying to help businesses there recover from the Soviet-dominant mindset. They are capable of so much, but to hesitant to step out and do it.

Kudos to Gates. Maybe one day, the people in those Bottom of the Pyramid states can afford to be screwed by Steve Jobs and the Apple DRM machine.

[Rob]

Thanks for the post CK. I, like so many others, have occasionally found myself blinded by the hipness of Steve Jobs and his Apple products. I always knew that Bill Gates was doing a lot of good with his success, but I never spent much time thinking about it because his goodwill seemed to exist outside of my frame of reference. What was of more concern to me, I'm sad to say, was finding new apps for my ipod touch. And yet, in the end, isn't the work Gates is doing substantially more important than the incredible, but ultimately unneccessary innovations of Apple?

That's not to say that I think Steve Jobs is some kind of unsympathetic hipster. Apple products truly are revolutionizing the way that people can communicate and access technology. It's just that, as your post says, these are basic problems which require immediate action and Gates is the one providing assistance.

[CK]

@mack: "For better or worse, our opinions of Gates and Jobs will likely always be more or less the same as our opinions of the companies they founded."

I agree that it's inevitable to think of these men's companies when thinking of them. Absolutely. But if Gates continues on the path he's been on since 2000, I believe history will remember him quite differently. The humanitarian work he's doing--and moreover, the way he's doing it--is just so impressive. It gives me hope on problems that, until now, have just seemed hopeless.

@Ike: Agree all around. The book so far is very interesting, I can't wait for your take. The first thing the author asks us to do is to change our perception, and to start by changing our wording, of "the poor" and to look and refer to them as "unserved markets". Perhaps if instead of ruling them out, we get really innovative in including them/serving them, then co's can "do well ($$) and do good" at the same time. I can't say what will work, but I can say that it's going to take another way of looking at the problem...so as to see the opportunity. Maybe making money and making real progress need not be mutually exclusive.

@Rob: Thanks. Not at all a knock on Jobs. The two men are now doing completely different things--but they're both working on opening new markets. I have incredible respect (awe?) for what Gates is doing and the way he's "thinking" about solving these incredibly large, all-too-entrenched problems. So I guess when I hear the "change the world!" cry, I'm just confounded (miffed?) that Gates is never mentioned (at least not in the circles I run in).

Thanks again all for reading and voicing-in.

[John Rosen]

CK: Excellent post. Rather than comment on Gates or Jobs (you and the other bloggers do a fine job on that) I would like to emphasize your more macro point: Capitalism, otherwise known as free trade, or commerce, is, I think, about the only way the Third World can hope to truly escape grinding poverty. This is Gates's overriding concern and a key point in Zakaria's book (about which you and I have exchanged emails and blogs before) and C. K. Prahalad's, which I read a couple of years ago when it first came out. Consequently, we should all be disquieted by the recent collapse of the Doha Round of trade negotations. This may all seem a bit arcane and esoteric to those who don't focus o internation relations,global poverty, or economics, but it is real: Only trade begets the necessary long-term foundations for wealth creation and only wealth can cure diseases, heal the environment, educate the poor, and address any number of other quite worthy objectives.

[Brandon Weber]

Great points. I think it may be a long road for the perception of Gates to change. Of course this perception is linked to Microsoft, whose success it was that allows him to do all of the things he is doing now. For most people Gates is synonymous with Microsoft. He, like the company he founded, is "branded" and it will take a lot of work to alter that branding (though not impossible).