"...Is this Steve Ballmers Little Big Horn or the moment when Microsoft rises from the ashes of Organizational Stagnation?
It was not Windows or Office that hurt MSFT, its was the motivation zapping internal politics - http://minimsft.blogspot.com/
Only time will tell if this Industry titan can recover. But if anyone can do it is Microsoft..." - KPreddie, Torrance CA
Article By
John Furrier, www.forbes.com Contributor
Today I was interviewed by NPR Marketplace for a comment on the Microsoft MSFT -0.04%
reorganization announced by Steve Ballmer. I’ve been following
Microsoft since the 80s. This will be the company’s and CEO Steve
Ballmer’s biggest test yet. Included below are my unedited comments.
According to NPR,
“Microsoft is essentially admitting in this reorganization that the fragmentation of their products and their strategy has failed,” says John Furrier, editor-in-chief of SiliconAngle. “He’s been under pressure to perform…and it’s clear from this reorganization, this is Steve Ballmer’s last stand.”Full Unedited Interview
Interviewer: What did you think about the big reorganization announcement by Microsoft.
Today we saw a very corporate PR, corporate speak on essentially a major direction change from Microsoft. M my first reaction was the stance of Steve Ballmer in his aggressive in the leadership. I thought that he wouldn’t be around long as CEO. This reorganization was his big push to transform the company. In my opinion this is his last stand.
Interviewer:
You said he would not be around? What do you mean by that?
John:
He’s been under pressure to perform and the question was will he remain as the CEO and leader of Microsoft, and it’s clear from this reorganization this is Steve Ballmer’s last stand, his last effort to turn the company around.
Interviewer:
You mention in your blog post (on SiliconANLGE.com), which is what caught my eye, you said that this amounts to an addition of failure on Microsoft’s part. Can you elaborate what you meant?
John:
Exactly. Microsoft essentially is admitting in this reorganization that the fragmentation of their products and their strategies failed. They failed in search over the years and they have some success in Cloud now, but fundamentally this monolithic PC focus is over. The monolithic PC is now the Cloud and the edge of the network is mobility and the internet of things or industrial internet. That is clearly a fundamental change for their product strategy and how they their organizing their engineering teams.
Interviewer:
Did you read the entire thing?
John:
Yes.
Interviewer:
As you were going through, what kind of words and bits of information caught your eye?
John:
They were mentioning that other people (companies) have a fragmented approach and they’re obviously referring to Apple AAPL -0.23%. Obviously, Apple has had a lot of success with the iPhone and having a closed architecture as a device focus. They also talk about others doing well in areas that they weren’t and so that was obviously a sign; obviously the mobility piece was key. They’re saying devices and devices really is about hardware and not so much software. They’ve been a software company so that caught my attention. The trend right now in the world is about software; Mark Andreessen wrote a blog post recently about software “eating the world” and here, yes a software company saying they’re device (hardware) centric. That is clearly telegraphing that it’s a cloud and mobile direction for Microsoft.
Interviewer:
Do you think it’s going to work?
John:
I’m optimistic. I think, as I said in my post, they’re like an aircraft carrier; they move really slow, they have a lot of assets, they have an ecosystem, they have a business market that’s hot its becoming more consumerized. I think, like HP, it’s going to be a long road but they have the tools and ultimately it’s going to be on Ballmer if he can turn this around and move the company in this direction and be successful, we’ll see what the performance of their products. Ultimately, that’ll be the telling sign.
Interviewer:
Do you think that they needed 2,697 words to get its message across or was that over the top?
John:
I think this is more of an internal communication than a public communication. Microsoft’s very employee focused, a very HR centric company, and I think this is more about herding the cats internally to move this company into a direction that it needs to go, otherwise it’s doomed.
Interviewer:
Anything else you feel is important to add on this?
John:
What’s interesting is the Skype integration; Tony Bates is now in a different position. He was a leader of Skype; I thought that was an interesting perspective. We’ll see how that plays out. Skype obviously is really one of the cooler products along with xBox that’s relevant in terms of the new social and connected web that is really driving a lot of the marketplace growth.
Interviewer:
When you say the Skype thing is interesting, it’s not something I follow very much, so what is interesting about the person whose going to be running it and the shift involving Skype?
John:
Essentially, Skype was obviously a great product for people communicating and that’s also becoming a primary communication tool, and since Microsoft really doesn’t have a phone presence really compared to the other players, Skype was a key point in this (unification) communication. Tony Bates was in charge of the Skype and now looks like they’re integrating Skype across all the other parts of Microsoft. That’s different from the messaging they’ve had before but as a standalone entity, so that’s interesting and that’s a big asset. Skype and xBox are two major assets for Microsoft; if they can lever those two, they will do well.
Interviewer:
Anything else that caught your eye?
FULL STORY :
" Microsoft entering on of the MOST exciting times in its storied history. Good Luck former Comrades " - KPreddie
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You know a CEO could retire nicely in Brazil, very nicely.
