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'It is very hard to replace Bill Gates'

January 22, 2009

When did the introspection start? Soon after the launch?

The rethinking happened in 2006, I think. We looked at certain features and scaled back on them. The other challenge we faced on Vista was even the partners were not sure when the product was going to ship. So, many of our partners -- hardware manufacturers, device manufacturers, printers, mobile phone -- everyone connected to the system were not ready. The predictability was missing. So the users did not get the perfect experience. With the service pack, we are back in great shape. But it took some time. It was a learning experience.

When MSIDC first started, you hired engineers from IITs and then NITs. Now that you have 1,500 employees, do you find talent hard to come by?

For the numbers that we hire, it is not a problem. We don't hire in thousands but in hundreds. Over the period of time, we have found a list of more colleges where good talent is available.

Image: Rajiv Kaul, then managing director of Microsoft India, with a copy of Office Hindi. | Photograph: Kamal Kishore/Reuters

Also read: America's first CTO may be Indian

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