Bill Gates had memorised licence plates of employees and kept an eye on parking lots! Here’s why

Recalling his intense management style in early days, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said he had memorised licence plates of employees to check who was in for work.

In an interview to BBC Radio, Gates said he tried hard not to load people with his working style.

"I worked weekends, I didn't really believe in vacations. I had to be a little careful not to try and apply my standards to how hard (others at the company) worked. I knew everybody's licence plate so I could look out the parking lot and see, you know, when people come in," said Gates.

In the interview, Gates said eventually he had to loosen up as the company got to a reasonable size.

When asked if he was ruthless in business, Gates said, "No, only if you define having super-low prices as ruthless. It's hard to compete with somebody who's betting on the volume and saying, 'Hey, we're going to have... these super-low prices.' That's very intimidating and in that sense, yes we were aggressive."

Gates dropped out of Harvard aged 19 to start Microsoft with Paul Allen in 1975. He stepped down as the CEO of the software giant in 2000 and stepped down as the company's chairman in 2014.

Gates also spoke about his relationship with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs.

"Steve really is a singular person in the history of personal computing in terms of what he built at Apple. For some periods, we were completely allies working together - I wrote software for the original Apple II. Sometimes he would be very tough on you, sometimes he'd be very encouraging. He got really great work out of people," Gates said of Jobs.

(Image: Indiatimes)