The Hindu Business Line : Gates & Murthy: They still chase a dream

Mr Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft, and Mr N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chief Mentor, Infosys, during a chat show in the Capital on Wednesday. - - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Dec. 7

THEY are rich, have a good sense of humour and come across as down to earth. Even after 30 years of making it big in the global IT scene, both Mr Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Corporation, and Mr N. R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman & Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies, are still chasing a dream — to change the way the world is today.

Be it the motivation factor or the defining moment in their lives — be it admitting to having split personality or just the way events have unfolded in their lives, the striking similarities between the two IT honchos were there for all to see and hear on Wednesday at an event organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE).

"There are days when I attend a meeting in the morning, discussing how to make more money and in the afternoon, I would be sitting in another meeting to give away the money that I made," confessed Mr Gates when asked about his split personality. Last year, Microsoft donated more than $47 million in cash and $363 million in software to non-profit organisations throughout the world. For Mr Murthy, the power of money is to give it away. "Mr Gates is from a highly developed country, while I am from a poor country and therefore, it is easier for me to get a split personality. I don't have to go too far," said Mr Murthy. The Infosys Foundation is carrying out projects in the areas of healthcare, education and rural upliftment.

The event anchored by Mr Prannoy Roy, President of NDTV, had plenty of lighter moments with Mr Gates' quick repartees, throwing the audience, mostly comprising entrepreneurs and corporate executives, into peels of laughter. For instance, when Mr Roy asked about the challenge posed by companies like Google, which is promoting free software downloads instead of Microsoft's model of charging a royalty for software usage, Mr Gates took a dig at the company by saying, " Google should start sharing with the users the money it makes from its search engine. We have started paying those who use our search engine. Google's model is not going to hold up for long."

Had it not been some defining moments in their lives, both Mr Gates and Mr Murthy probably would have been somewhere else. For Mr Gates, it was the opportunity to use a PC when he was 13 and being asked by the school tutor to take classes that led him to believe that IT was his destiny. "The second defining moment was the decision to drop out of school to undertake a project that was the first of its kind and it worked. I was willing to take risks," said Mr Gates.

For the Infosys Mentor, it was his arrest and the subsequent release by Bulgarian authorities for having talked to a girl in French that changed the course of life. "They released me when I told them that I am from India. They said that I could go, since India was a friendly country. My dream from then on has been to set up an organisation that is respected globally and we are miles away from it," said Mr Murthy.

Success has also brought worries that keep both of them awake at nights. While for Mr Gates, it's the fear of missing out on a technological change that might be noticed by competitors first, for Mr Murthy, it's the issue relating to scalability. The two, however, do not make rough weather about the worries. Instead, they choose to dream big to keep themselves motivated. "My original goal was not sales, but a dream computer. I am still looking for that dream computer that will change the way we live and put you and me back in control of our lives. Our dream is to see a PC on top of every desk and we are no where near the finish line," said Mr Gates.

Probably, by the time the two of them share a platform in India again, we will get to hear more about that dream getting realised.

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Gates & Murthy: They still chase a dream