Microsoft needs a new CEO who probably doesn’t exist

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/08/microsoft-needs-a-new-ceo-who-probably-doesnt-exist/

by npalli • 13 years ago

39 41 13 years ago

troni• 13 years ago

They're reorganizing to hire Steve Jobs (they never got the memo).

DiabloD3• 13 years ago

I dunno, but I think I'd make a great CEO at Microsoft. Lots of things they do could be great products if someone would actually pay attention to the details and implement a forced eating their own dog food policy.

gkoberger• 13 years ago

This shows a terribly naive view of Microsoft and what it takes to run anything.

dgbsco2• 13 years ago

SHOMG LETS FHIGUR OUT THE SHOLUTHION 2 THA ALGORITHUMZ!!1!!

keithnoizu2• 13 years ago

Actually I think the eating your own dog food policy is actually holding Microsoft back as internal products no longer need to compete with external ones which increases developer and project manager myopia around what is and isn't important to end users.

keithnoizu2• 13 years ago

A good example is how similar TFS is to internal product like source depot and has failed to provide many of the features of other version control systems or project management systems.

There's more to life than feature parity but really TFS lacks some basic should haves and almost no one realizes this at Microsoft because they've never used any of the alternatives.

For a fun time try suggesting the team use Git or an Atlassian product and see how far things get. *this might almost actually work on the entertainment division. Most other divisions probably not.

nemothekid• 13 years ago

great products if someone would actually pay attention to the details and implement a forced eating their own dog food policy.

When it comes to consumer tech, I don't think Microsoft's products are bad. The Xbox is amazing, the Zune HD was amazing, Windows Phone is a great product, and I'm sure Windows 8 has its strengths (I've never used it).

I'm not in the position to say so, but I believe Microsoft's problem is either one of leadership or culture. Microsoft doesn't innovate, its a "me too" company in the consumer space. Zune, Windows Phone, and to a lesser extent, Xbox are all "me too" products. Even worse, there doesn't seem to be any incentive to switch. What does WP have that the iPhone doesn't? Now What does Android have that the iPhone doesn't? You can argue that Android copied iPhone, but Google didn't just copy it, they made a conscious effort to take risks and go one step above. I haven't seen that with Microsoft.

It seems to me any consumer decision that doesn't either 1.) Make more money for an existing product or 2.) Attempts to step into a well known, fast rising space gets killed. The biggest example in my mind for this was the Courier. The Courier was first hinted at in 2008, 2 years before the iPad. Someone at Microsoft had a hunch (because Microsoft has a ton of smart people), that this wave was coming and created a brand new experience. It wasn't me too, and it wasn't a proven market. It was innovation and vision. And we all know how it turned out, it was killed because it couldn't sell more copies of office[1], and instead we got the HP Slate, which was lackluster, and then the Surface, 4 years later which ended up being written down.

At the end of the day, I don't see Microsoft taking any real risks in the consumer space (aside from Xbox).

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-sto...

einhverfr4• 13 years ago

Call me pessimistic but I am not actually sure a CEO can do anything. The face is that taking on a corporate culture in a place like Microsoft is a big and long-term task. It takes not only vision and talent but a light touch with the whip and a heavy hand with the spade.

dalek_cannes• 13 years ago

In warfare, they say that the same army can behave radically differently under different types of leadership. The philosophy tends to percolate down the hierarchy pretty fast. I'm reminded of how Orson Scott Card said that part of Ender's Game was inspired by the struggle to find a general who could lead the Union army during the civil war (not sure why I mentioned that -- it felt relevant).

einhverfr4• 13 years ago

I am not sure that armies and corporations are that similar in this regard. I was working at Microsoft as a blue badge when Gates retired from the position of CEO and there was effectively no change in corporate culture.

To the extent they are similar, I think there is something to be said about faith in leadership. If the workers don't trust the leaders and vice versa, that has an immediate impact in this sort of thing, but beyond that, it is the interpersonal connections that have developed that define corporate culture.

vehementi• 13 years ago

Microsoft has the good stuff, just needs to be more popular/cool/get adoption/etc. A new CEO will have a chance at the start while he/she's still in the news, to make huge waves with radical actions that turns the perception of MS on its head. The new CEO could also do internal things like kill the performance rating shit.

MS might not need much of an employee culture turnaround. It's the company's image that needs fixing.

einhverfr4• 13 years ago

I think that is almost exactly the wrong way to approach the problem. Here is why.

Microsoft has never lacked an astute understanding of the market. They have rarely been behind the curve in their domains. They had purchased hotmail before Gmail was even on the drawing board. They had been trying to market tablets for a long time before the iPad. But what they lack is a fresh perspective. The corporate culture is relatively ingrown and I think that's the big problem. Long story short that means their executions of plans tends to be... somewhat... problematic.

Microsoft has what it needs, namely a lot of very talented people (some of which I still am in contact with). What it lacks is an ability to get those people in charge of getting all the little problems solved so that people will find the solutions useful. They have largely coasted through on momentum, using spare cash to purchase promising companies.

To turn this around you have to turn the entire corporate culture around. You have to start encouraging cross training. Get the developers working front line tech support a week a year or something. Have the main developers do stints at Critical Problem Resolution or similar groups. Get folks in touch with the problems of the customers and what they are solving.

More importantly, encourage Microsoft employees to use and study competing products.

When I was at Microsoft the problem was an island mentality and this killed their early tablet efforts. That has to be turned around and it won't be easy.

sliverstorm• 13 years ago

I've been told the big thing a CEO does is bring in the right people, starting with the other three-letter titles and possible also a level below that. You can see how the CEO's influence would then spread from there.

einhverfr4• 13 years ago

My point is that it takes time, patience, and effort to cultivate a different corporate culture. It isn't something which is just planned and controlled.

mfieldhouse• 13 years ago

"... the consumer space and enterprise space are connected and become more so. Microsoft needs to be strong in the consumer space to remain strong in the enterprise."

Not at all true. Cisco, Juniper, Oracle, EMC, Netapp are strong in the enterprise with virtually zero consumer presence. Or am I missing something?

rbanffy• 13 years ago

Microsoft has a positive feedback loop running between its enterprise and consumer operations. Kill one side and the other becomes irrelevant.

r00fus3• 13 years ago

Close. Not exactly irrelevant, but the profit margins will suffer as the failure of overlapping lockin schemes force Microsoft to actually invest and innovate in the area they don't abandon.

uptown• 13 years ago

What about David Sacks?

http://www.fastcompany.com/3007336/creative-conversations/wh...

busterc• 13 years ago

When Jason Calacanis interviewed him at Launch Fest in March, Jason suggested David could & should be Ballmer's successor, ASAP. David politely dismissed the idea, but it seemed to me that the notion wasn't completely foreign to him or that he wouldn't be interested in such a thing.

hauget• 13 years ago

He does exist. His name is Gabe Newell. He just doesn't want the job as his happy running his small little company: Valve.

zeckalpha• 13 years ago

I was thinking Simon Peyton Jones. He just doesn't want the job as he is happy working for MSR.

coolsunglasses2• 13 years ago

SPJ doesn't work for MSR anymore and I'm having a hard time imagining him being happy running a company like Microsoft.

marco_salvatori• 13 years ago

There is one CEO that has extensive experience and a proven history of effectiveness in Microsoft's type of business. He is called Bill Gates. MS only has to find the right enticement that will bring him back; one always exists. I am sure a returning Bill G. would do for MS what a returning Steve J. did for Apple.

yuhong3• 13 years ago

But that kind of thing is not a long term solution.

GuiA• 13 years ago

Bill Gates is loving his half-retired half-philanthropist life and has all the money he would ever need. I don't believe there is a single thing that would entice him to return to Microsoft. And I'm not even sure he would be the right guy for the job.

steve19• 13 years ago

My bet is that MSFT buys Nokia and Stephen Elop becomes CEO.

snowwrestler• 13 years ago

I agree with the article that Ballmer probably loved Microsoft too much. That extreme enthusiasm is likely behind famously awkward moments like screaming on stage, or laughing at the iPhone.

To manage for innovation, one has to be willing to say "wow, compared to that new thing, our stuff sucks." It just never seemed like Ballmer thought that way. He seems like the type of guy who perceive a thought like that as disloyalty or something.

miguelrochefort• 13 years ago

The thing is, most of their stuff don't actually suck.

Take Windows Phone. It's a great OS. The only problem is that it came too late and had poor marketing (and was associated with the uncool Windows brand). Technically, it's awesome and in the same league as Android and iOS.

The same is true for Xbox, Windows 8, C#, SQL Server, ASP.NET MVC/API, Azure, etc.

Google or Apple would build the exact same products, and people would probably love them.

So no, I don't believe that Ballmer's love for Microsoft (especially recently) was unjustified. He simply failed to account for the negative popular perception of Microsoft and its brands.

isaacwaller• 13 years ago

Windows Phone 6 sucked. Windows 7 on tablets sucked. In both of these cases, Microsoft was slow to react improving their products.

r00fus3• 13 years ago

While the OS may be good, it's lack of software and accessories ecosystem require Microsoft to make it more compelling than either iOS or Android - which it isn't (it's about par).

The same inertia that keeps Windows popular is preventing Windows Phone from gaining significant marketshare.

You would think that, of all companies, Microsoft, the abuser of platform lockin, would grok this.

yuhong3• 13 years ago

The Ars comments mentions two co-CEOs as a solution.

r00fus3• 13 years ago

So something like RIM? Oh, wait, they ditched the idea. Or like SAP? Nope - same thing.

The co-CEO idea is great in theory, but obviously lacks real-world backing, for obvious reasons.

dgbsco2• 13 years ago

I'm available.

jebblue• 13 years ago

They probably don't want me, else they would have Microsoft Linux, totally open and free, the paid version of course would offer more.

yuhong3• 13 years ago

A better route might be to look for another Steve Ballmer, but without that salesman's overconfidence.

This reminds me when I mentioned on HN that "I wonder what would be good professional management that is as close to general purpose as the old MBAs."

trustfundbaby• 13 years ago

I'd like to imagine Scott Forstall in this role. Wicked smart. Architect of an os that completely revolutionized the mobile market, a space that microsoft hasn't even made a dent in, despite having a massive head start in (Windows CE anyone?)

If Mayer could be plucked from Google to engineer a revolution at Yahoo, and Forstall was in the running to be Apple CEO ... I think its worth a thought, the question is ... would he accept?

flyt• 13 years ago

Forstall was never in the running to become CEO after Steve.

strlen• 13 years ago

That person exists and he works for Microsoft, he is Qi Lu. He took on Google in many fronts in a short amount of time: technology, product, infrastructure, and people. Was it the right thing for Microsoft to do? Who knows, but he successfully executed on a project that most reasonable people (myself included) considered almost completely impossible -- which happens to be exactly what people expect out of companies like Microsoft.

Microsoft needs a new CEO who probably doesn’t exist

Related Stories