SEATTLE (AP) - It is almost unthinkable that any one human could pick up where Bill Gates leaves off when he ends his full-time tenure Friday as Microsoft's leader.But as Gates bones up on epidemiology at his charitable foundation, the software company he built with a mix of visionary manifestos and extreme hands-on management must still wake up Monday to face hard problems even he could not solve. Among them: beating Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG) on the Web while fending off its attacks on desktop computing.
When Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT) announced in 2006 that Gates planned to go part-time as board chairman, so he could spend more time on his global health charity, it named two senior executives to guide the company's overall technical direction.
Gates' recent remarks, however, indicate Microsoft is looking to a much larger group of employees for big-picture guidance and long-term ...
