The path to the top at Microsoft is not for the timid. Anyone hoping to make the ascent must be able to match wits with two of the most formidable and combative intellects in corporate America: Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder, and Steve Ballmer, its chief executive.
Eric Rudder, a senior vice president, demonstrated that skill not long after he arrived at Microsoft. In 1992, Rudder, then 25, had a confrontation with Gates, recalled Brad Silverberg, a former senior Microsoft executive. The dispute centered on some now-forgotten technical matter in the Windows desktop operating system.
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