--- title: Talent Wars date: "2005-10-31T12:00:00Z" categories: - links wp_id: 515 description: I highlight a 2005 Forbes insight where Bill Gates identifies Goldman Sachs as Microsoft's primary competitor for high-IQ talent. Google’s significantly higher revenue per employee suggests it has now overtaken Microsoft in the recruitment war. keywords: [talent war, bill gates, microsoft, google, goldman sachs, revenue per employee, hiring] --- [Talent wars](http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2005/1031/045.html). The interesting part was the first three paragraphs. > Flying on the Delta Shuttle with Bill Gates 12 years ago, I asked, "What Microsoft competitor worries you most?" > > "Goldman Sachs." I gave Gates a startled look. Was Microsoft about to try the investment banking business? "Software," he said, "is an IQ business. Microsoft must win the IQ war, or we won't have a future. I don't worry about Lotus or IBM, because the smartest guys would rather come to work for Microsoft. Our competitors for IQ are investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley." > > I spent five days traveling the country with Gates, and he must have talked about IQ a hundred times. Getting the brightest bulbs to work at Microsoft has always been his obsession. It's paid off. Microsoft does close to $40 billion in sales and has some 60,000 employees. That's a whopping $650,000-plus of revenue per employee, topping IBM's sales per employee twofold. > > Along comes Google, with its revenue run rate of $6 billion and about 4,000 employees. Google's sales per employee are $1.5 million, or 2.3 times that of Microsoft. This is like comparing Babe Ruth to Home Run Baker. Google now beats Microsoft in the IQ war. --- ## Comments - **Jayant** _3 Nov 2005 2:46 am_: Just an opinion. I think there is subtle difference between the two talents. Both are sharp but one is more commercially driven. I do think lot of behaviour changes happen due to that orientation