Burning the Ships: Intellectual Property and the Transformation of Microsoft

Praise for Burning the Ships

"When Marshall Phelps took the job at Microsoft in 2003, many in the industry believed he was on a fool's errand. The task of helping to transform the culture and business practices of Microsoft through the use of its intellectual property seemed impossible. Burning the Ships proves that Marshall is the unchallenged master in designing creative uses of intellectual property to enhance business performance. And through his collaboration with David Kline, they've accomplished something equally unique: a thoroughly entertaining and informative 'can't wait to get to the next page' read."

—Daniel McCurdy, Chairman, Patent Freedom

Burning the Ships offers a dramatic insider's account of how Microsoft used intellectual property to remake its business strategy and embrace the open source movement and the new open innovation world—with real-world benefits for large enterprise customers and chief information officers everywhere."

—Jim Noble, Chairman, World BPO Forum, Past President, Society for Information Management

"When Marshall Phelps talks about intellectual property strategy, business leaders would be wise to listen closely. More than anyone else in business today, Marshall understands how open innovation has changed the rules of the IP strategy game. It's time we learned the new rules!"

—Ruud J. Peters, CEO, Philips Intellectual Property, Executive Vice President, Philips International

"It's easy to talk open innovation and collaboration but extremely difficult ...