Within a month, Ray was putting his thoughts on software-as-services on paper.

[Microsoft executive Jeff Raikes remembers what the industry was like when he joined the company in 1981.] The software business was dominated by hardware companies, and everybody thought they would just come in and wipe us out, ... People forget that Microsoft took a huge bet to think that an independent operating system and programming language would be successful.

The software business was dominated by hardware companies, and everybody thought they would just come in and wipe us out. People forget that Microsoft took a huge bet to think that an independent operating system and programming language would be successful.

Until now, business intelligence software has been too complex, costly and disconnected from the software tools people use to do their everyday jobs.

In business, the market gives you feedback in real time. Your sales figures tell you what's working, what isn't, and how you need to change. If you don't listen to the feedback, you go belly up. In philanthropy, there is no market.

In business, there's a constant focus on developing strategies, reviewing executive performance against those strategies each year, engaging with opposing or different points of view, and having intellectual dialogue.