But what employees talk about the most is the week in January when virtually the entire company -- this year, 1,600 employees -- goes on a cruise in the Caribbean. The cruise is something that MicroStrategy has been doing for years, to review the previous 12 months and to recharge for the next 12, as well as to relax. Alison Andrews, 28, vice president of global information services, has been on six such cruises. She remembers her first, when the 50 or so MicroStrategists were the youngest passengers on the boat. She recalls Saylor saying that one day the company would be big enough to have an entire boat all to themselves. "Yeah, right," she thought skeptically. This past January, when the cruise ship Century left Florida, every passenger was a MicroStrategist.

In many ways, the week reflects the company's "work hard, play hard" attitude that its employees relish. Despite the Caribbean setting, there are still daylong planning sessions, team meetings, and demos of the latest products. But there are also events like a talent show and "beach olympics," featuring kayak racing, a tug-of-war, and a sand-castle-building contest. "People tend to work together better after they come back from the cruise," says Andrews. "It's easier after you've shared a piña colada or two with a coworker."

Saylor considers the cruise not a reward but an entitlement. Still, it's quite a perk. Total cost to the company: $3.5 million. But the payoff in morale is immeasurable. Then there's Friends and Family Weekend in April. Employees receive a $750 stipend to fly in those closest to them for an inside glimpse of MicroStrategy. At the tech-support open house, Arellano's mother, sister, fiancée, and friends flew in from Mexico to see what he does. In past years, festivities have included performances by the Temptations, the Supremes, and Penn & Teller. "My family left with a better appreciation for why I spend so many hours here," says Andrews. "Now they understood a little about the MicroStrategy fanaticism."

But beyond all the fun parties, a strong sense of community infuses MicroStrategy. Despite adding 881 new faces in 1999, it avoided becoming a company of strangers. The employee directory on the intranet has detailed profiles of every staff member. "We try to include things that give you a sense of each person," says Payne. His profile contains his work history before coming to MicroStrategy and names his four children -- Kaitlin, Nicole, Alexandra, and Jason. His profile also mentions his love of Duke basketball, which prompted a fellow Dukie to send him regular Blue Devil updates.

The top criterion for recruits -- intelligence -- has remained the same since the company's early day. As long as prospective employees have the brains, Gabriele says, they don't all need technical degrees or a lot of technical experience. Aside from pure intelligence, recruits need a combination of passion, curiosity, and perfectionism. According to Gabriele, no matter how badly a position needs to be filled, the company refuses to compromise its standards. "I'm looking for individuals who match the attitude that I've seen since I started here: Never be satisfied, never stop improving, never go through the motions," he says. "I've yet to see a company more focused on being the best. It strives to get better and better and better."

Chuck Salter (csalter@fastcompany.com) , a Fast Company senior writer, is based in Baltimore. Contact Michael Saylor by email (saylor@microstrategy.com), or visit MicroStrategy on the Web (www.microstrategy.com).

Sidebar: The People and Technology Agenda

MicroStrategy is a new kind of company in a new era of business -- the Web era. It's young, aggressive, and quick to react to new markets and to apply the latest technology to its internal and external operations. Here are some of the principles behind MicroStrategy's success.

Easy come, easy go.

"Our attitude has always been that if it's easy, it's not worth doing," says COO Sanju Bansal, "because everybody else can probably do it too. We look for something more challenging or more interesting. That's how you add the kind of value that no one else can. From the beginning, we were calculating sophisticated equations. We worked with nonlinear relationships while everyone else was stuck on linear relationships. For instance, we showed the nonlinear relationship between the market adoption of a product and its price. The linear interpretation was an approximation of what actually happens."

Reputation matters.

CEO Michael Saylor likes to use a phrase from "The Godfather: Part II": "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer" because he believes that it also applies to business. "Let's say," he suggests, "that you've lined up a deal with a large company. But the CEO there has never heard of MicroStrategy, so he asks a buddy, 'What have you heard about MicroStrategy?' If he's heard that someone's had a bad experience, the deal is off. You don't want people 'anti-selling' you."