A few years ago, it was fashionable to bash Microsoft. Critics claimed that Google and Apple had raced ahead of them. The company’s stumbles in wearable tech, smartphones, and streaming music were the stuff of business cases. As the digital age pivoted past Windows and Office, the comparisons between Microsoft and IBM only intensified.

Last month, the Redmond air rippled with the sound of champagne corks popping off. At market close, Microsoft had reached a market cap of $851.36, dethroning Apple as the most valuable company in the world – by a $4 billion dollar margin, no less. It was a comeback for the ages. Over the past five years, Microsoft had pulled the ultimate hat-trick: it had overhauled its business model, regained its dominance, and tripled share value. In the process, the company has transformed itself into the leader of burgeoning fields like cloud-based computing, artificial intelligence, gaming, and cybersecurity.

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