Former Microsoft SVP Speaks: Ballmer Forces Out Anyone Who Could Challenge Him

[zakislam]

Ballmer is the wrong leader for software giant, says Joachim Kempin.

Former Microsoft SVP Speaks: Ballmer Forces Out Anyone Who Could Challenge Him : Read more

 

[jhansonxi]

"... until Ballmer forced me out" could be good for a resume.

 

[dimar]

Instead of doing the stupid metro thingy, Microsoft should have used those resources to further optimize Win8 from very oldest PCs to the latest ones. And with the low upgrade price, MS could have gotten countless upgrade orders.

 

[twelve25]

Love the picture. Sums up Ballmer perfectly.

 

[twelve25]

I agree, Microsoft should own the mobile market. I had a very, very nice $500 Windows PocketPC in 1999 that was extremely powerful. We had XP tablets in 2002. Windows was way ahead on mobile and just let it flounder and all but die before kicking out what seems to be a desperate mobile grab in Win 8.

 

[blackmancer]

steve ballmer, loath that guy

 

[blackbeard34]

This company believes it can 'strong arm' the pc industry and consumers into buying a product that most people neither want nor need. I agree with both above statements. If microsoft would have refined windows 8 and not included metro interface; or at least given you some choices on what you wanted on your system and what you diddn't things would be different. Windows 8 will just be like vista and its said. Not only that but; to try to 'force' pc manufacturers to use 'secure boot' its just ridiculous...Any one heard any word on that?

 

[Marcus52]

Large companies are rarely the results of the decisions of one person, even if he is CEO. And, some of Kempin's comments seem a bit sour and off the mark.

He was, after all, manager of Windows sales, not a tech guy, and certainly not a visionary - when did we ever see excellence in marketing their products from Microsoft? I suggest that Kempin himself didn't know all that much about selling Windows himself. Maybe Ballmer cut him off at the knees, but frankly, I'm skeptical.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ballmer does everything right, but I do think a company that's lead by a single individual with his heart invested in it is better off than a company lead by a committee. I'm not sure Ballmer's heart is entirely in the right place, but neither am I so sure he is getting Microsoft off track overall. Every company has its ups and downs (many of them just go up and come down as the heart that made it leaves for whatever reason).

Microsoft has clearly dropped the ball at times. They did a bad job marketing Zune, and other things some of you have mentioned. They are doing a better job now marketing Windows phones, but they still need to ratchet that up. They need to get the word out AND they need to educate the populace; depending on their position in desktop OS sales isn't going to keep them at the top. I do think they know this though - I just think they, like all big companies, just get a little full of themselves and lose touch at times.

How much is Ballmer's fault? I don't know.

 

[fimbulvinter]

I honestly had no feelings either way about Ballmer until I saw his tongue. It's bad and he should feel bad.

 

[SteelCity1981]

Ballmer is a great salesmen i will agree but a bad CEO. The guy couldn't innovate himself out of a paper bag. Bill Gates when he was the CEO had a lot more innovating ideas for the company then Ballmer ever had as the CEO. At least with Gates we had some good innvoating ideas like Windows 95 that pretty much launched Microsoft into a whole new era of OS with innovations like the start menu that made it a lot easier for the avg consumer to use an OS and plug and play which made connecting devices to your computer a snap and the Xbox which was innovative to online gaming on a console. I mean what innovation has microsoft had under Ballmer as CEO? Can anyone think of one? lol

 

[COLGeek]

While I am not a great fan of MS, this really sounds like the snivel of someone with a serious case of sour grapes. If the MS Board of Directors wanted rid of SB, he would be gone.

 

[jakes69]

younger chief executive....30-40 of age? WTH is he smoking...no wonder he got canned.

 

[vaughn2k]

[citation][nom]Twelve25[/nom]Love the picture. Sums up Ballmer perfectly.[/citation]
He was also trying to mimic Albert Einstein...

 

[Vorador2]

I wouldn't be surprised if true.

In any case, Ballmer was considered by Forbes the 1º CEO that should have been fired already. Since he took the company, Microsoft has made blunder after blunder.

They had a mobile phone OS, never built upon it until it was too late. Currently throwing money desperately at it in order to gain some market traction.
They had tablet technology and patents much before the iPad appeared. Another missed opportunity.
Vista happened.
Zune happened, and never went beyond a minuscule market.

Now, they're betting their entire traditional market to a new UI that either feels like a stepback (after the transparent windows of Aero, the blocky styling of Metro feels ugly) or it can only be fully taken advantage with a touchscreen.

Ballmer is fucking insane.

 

[livebriand]

What are the chances that Ballmer will be let go, and only then they will stop forcing tablet UIs on people? I sure hope that happens anyway...

 

[back_by_demand]

The only way Ballmer keeps his job is a 2 year OS cycle and Windows 9 comes out and it is AWESOME, then everything is forgiven, but in the meantime I will hold my breath
...
I have no problem with Windows 8 Pro on a desktop, using it right now, but I can see why other people may not like it
...
Will it drive millions to Linux or Mac? Not in a million years, they will just bitch and moan till Windows 9 comes out and stay with Windows 7 till then - but switch camps? Not in my lifetime

 

[kryzzay]

Even though I'm running Windows 8 (only because it was free from work) there is just not enough incentive to buy it. I never use any of the Metro crap. It just plain sucks. The only reason I'm still running it is because Stardock Start8 returns it to the Windows 7 style and the only time I see anything Metro is when I actually open it. It cost me $5 which was better than formatting and reloading 7 and I just CNBF'D!

 

[Guest]

yay ballmer YAY metro! YAY!

 

[Shin-san]

[citation][nom]dimar[/nom]Instead of doing the stupid metro thingy, Microsoft should have used those resources to further optimize Win8 from very oldest PCs to the latest ones. And with the low upgrade price, MS could have gotten countless upgrade orders.[/citation]Actually, Windows 8 does run fairly well on older PCs. However, I'm not sure if they need to go back further than 1 GHz and 1 gig of RAM

 

[JohnUSA]

I agree that Ballmer is definitely a despicable and evil person, but I put the full blame completely on idiot Bill Gates for not firing Ballmer.
That is why Microsoft is in trouble now and Windows 8 sucks.

 

[belardo]

Ballmer and Microsoft as a whole = fail

 

[jalek]

Ballmer was never popular with Wall Street. Back when MS stock was volatile and things were happening, he'd give a talk, the price would dip, Gates would make an appearance, and it would bounce. It was a repeated pattern, Ballmer just didn't give people confidence.
Now they're talking about tossing money at Dell? More assembly lines for Surface perhaps? Now isn't really a stellar time to be investing in desktop production.

 

[TeraMedia]

If what Kempin says is true, then the real problem with MSFT is that Ballmer is not a visionary, and will not tolerate anyone else to be.

In hindsight, this hypothesis seems to clear up a lot of oddities with MSFT. Take Media Center, for example. It's given a pittance of a budget compared to XBOX, server technologies, and competing media products - so little budget, that innovation absolutely crawls along. It truly is "cut off at the knees" to use the article's words. Other examples of similarly-hamstrung product technologies can be found throughout Microsoft: Windows Phone, Windows Home Server, Streets and Trips, Messenger, I daresay Sharepoint, and countless little applications and tools that accompany their products such as Remote Desktop. Compare each of these products to what they each could be, and then consider the changes that MSFT has made instead to Windows 8 and Office 2010. And for what? Upgrades?

MSFT could be 3-4x the size they are today if they invested properly and timely in emerging markets, rather than cobbling those teams to save money for the next ribbon toolbar interface. It's actually quite astounding when you take a moment to think about it. Like Intel with ICs, they have enough size and resources that they could tackle any specific software target they wanted to if they execute properly. Just look at what they did with the XBOX for an example. Playstation 2 used to own the gaming console market, and Sony still hasn't recovered from the introductions of the XBOX and XBOX 360.

 

[f-14]

microsoft should have been on touch with the first tablet they had, right now they should be on voice, 10 years from now they should be releasing synaptic.

ballmer never should have been CEO, the fact he sold himself to the board and to gates as the best guy for the job speaks volumes about his salesmanship...the companys direction and production speaks for itself beyond any salesmanship pitch and lack of insight, creativity and leadership. when you have a salesman as CEO and sales on 3 products fail to sell (millenium, vista, 8) it is an immediate sign to replace the leadership causing the reasons for these products to fail and it is piss poor salesmanship by the best salesman the company has and should immediately fire.

i don't tollerate this from my sales people it would kill my business to do so beyond 6 months.

 

[gramps]

Yuck. I was eating when I clicked on this article and that picture popped up. It's totally put me off my lunch, thanks.