Bill Gates and his first annual Foundation letter

Last Monday Bill Gates published his first Foundation’s Annual Letter, inspired by Warren Buffett’s annual letter to the Berkshire shareholders. I think it’s an absolutely must read for any marketer for the following reason:

•  He outlines the big vision and principles of his foundation, while diving into the few separate focus areas, almost always starting with a number based challenge against which he outlines a measurable goal for the foundation. His foundation for example is aiming to cut down the 10 million children deaths in half within the next 20 years. I would love to see that marketers write their annual marketing plans that clearly and number centric, always balancing the need for a big vision and the urge for implementing concrete projects
  
• He has an ambitious and honest tone that educates, inspires, and directs anyone reading the annual letter. It must have been quite some work to put it together. But it would be great if big brands or companies could have a scaled down version of their marketing strategies and brands once per year. Their marketing organizations and external partners would know much more about core priorities and strategies that would make everyone a better marketers
  
• He tries to be as transparent as possible. Most marketers still don’t pursue sufficiently today’s necessity of transparency. It’s less sharing trade secrets than spreading the right message within your own organization and beyond. It’s the only way of how to change things in today’s world of 24/7 information and stimuli. 

I am curious to read his next letter in January 2010