Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/jul14/07-17announcement1.aspx

by r0h1n • 12 years ago

18 11 12 years ago

couchand• 12 years ago

The first step to building the right organization for our ambitions is to realign our workforce. With this in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year. Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs, comprising both professional and factory workers.

This is why people don't trust executive-types. Satya, why can't you just say: "We're laying off 18,000 people total, and 12,500 people from Nokia."

ath0• 12 years ago

Because while that's the top-line for the 18,000 people affected (12,500 today), he'd desperately like that not to be the only thing the other 100,000 people who are staying hear. He wants the rest of the people to first hear: "We're changing for the better, and while these layoffs are a bad thing, it's necessary pain we have to go through to be better in the long run." That means wrapping the bad news with as much context and transparency as you can, every time you talk about it.

sokoloff• 12 years ago

I agree with your overall sentiment that you can't just lay bald facts out there, devoid of context and expect great things to happen.

However,if I were famous enough to propose a Sokoloff's Law, it might say "If your goal is to increase transparency, you've failed once the phrase 'realign our workforce' or 'work toward synergies and strategic alignment' creeps into the draft."

pfitzsimmons• 12 years ago

"He wants the rest of the people to first hear: "We're changing for the better, and while these layoffs are a bad thing, it's necessary pain we have to go through to be better in the long run."

Right, but the question remains, why did he not just say exactly what you just said? Why use the business school/managementese style language? Why not use language that is human and expresses empathy?

derefr• 12 years ago

He probably did say that. To a PR person, who paraphrased it.

Mz• 12 years ago

When I worked for a Fortune 500 company, the department head in my department did not write his own anything. He had a staff writer (I applied for the position at one point). And I am reasonably sure that the staff writer also got his stuff edited or reviewed by someone to make sure it contained no typos, etc. before it went out as the Face of The Department.

So I would be kind of surprised if Satya actually wrote this at all. Someone else wrote it. He put his name on it and posted it. Being the face of the company is part of his job.

contingencies3• 12 years ago

Does anyone else feel like Microsoft hasn't actually done anything in over a decade? OK well .. except with the Xbox lineage. It seems like in every other part of the business they've made a bunch of dumb purchases, epic-failed in all areas - including their previous core competency of the consumer OS space - and brought in this Steve Jobs-esque clone CEO guy who is gagging to be seen as doing something while offering precisely zero believable direction.

It must be hard for them seeing all the areas die for them at once: Bing, Exchange, Hotmail, Office, Windows, XBox, mobile, embedded...

Zikes2• 12 years ago

Satya Nadella's only been CEO for 6 months. You can't effect major changes in a major multinational corporation overnight, especially not until you've had sufficient opportunity to come up with a good direction for that change. If anything, I would consider that a promising and reasoned approach, as opposed to announcing a layoff of 18,000 people within the first month of his appointment.

Steve Jobs did not invent innovation or style and he certainly didn't patent them, so there's no need to claim anyone else with a hint of competence or ambition is just some cheap knock-off. If you raise his pedestal any higher you'll only spend your own life living in the shadow.

contingencies3• 12 years ago

My point was it's a sinking ship, this guy is too little too late and yet to prove any efficacy. I think you misinterpreted the Jobs mention... I'm not a fan of the original, and frankly find the similarities with other tech presentations highly amusing. Skivvies. Round glasses. Slightly wasted, career-corporate bearing. Ease with which non-words of utter boardroom befuddlement spill out of their mouths. And so on...

Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture

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