The announcement that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is scaling back his leading role at the world’s largest IT company in favor of his charitable work is both logical and laudable. Though Gates intends to stay on as chairman, he is ending his day-to-day control of the company which has made him the world’s richest man with a personal fortune in excess of $100 billion.
Instead he will concentrate on the philanthropic trust which until now has been run largely by his father and his wife Melinda. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is dedicated to bringing innovations in health and learning to the global community and has so far been endowed with $29 billion to undertake this work. Personal munificence on this scale quite dwarfs the efforts of famous philanthropists of the past such as John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie.
Though such men clearly wanted to give something back to the society from which they had profited so immensely, there were also good tax and public relations reasons for their charities. The significant point is that none of them ever took the hands-on executive role in their foundations which Gates has announced for himself as of July 2008.
This in itself makes the change of focus for Bill Gates extremely interesting. Despite his geekish appearance, Gates, who was 50 last year, has a reputation for confrontational management and ruthlessness. This is evidenced by the way in which Microsoft has seen off virtually all the competition except Apple Computer, crushing or buying up rivals who emerged with products that challenged Microsoft’s continued control of some 90 percent of the world’s computers.
The problem with international aid is that traditionally it has often been hard to make sure the aid is spent in the most effective manner for the people and communities for which it is targeted. There have been scandals enough about the misappropriation of UN and First World governmental aid to demonstrate this. Bill Gates is not the sort of man to put up with this. He can be expected to bring the same ruthless business methods that made him a multibillionaire to the distribution of his fortune for charitable purposes. Half of his foundation’s work is actually taking place in the United States itself, where the charity’s management can keep a handle on how the money is dispensed and ensure that every dollar obtains best value. As a leading US citizen who has succeeded in the way Americans most respect, Gates has considerable political and moral leverage.
Making sure that the foundation gets the most bangs for its bucks abroad, for instance in its campaign to eradicate AIDS, is going to be a great deal tougher. How Gates tackles it and tries to cut out waste and corruption could well provide an object lesson to all other dispensers of international aid. Considering his record at Microsoft, Bill Gates may be about to give rise to a revolution in aid work on a par with what he achieved for the computer.
