What if Steve Ballmer Left Microsoft Today?

[wotan31]

If Steve Ballmer left Microsoft today.... I'd be willing to bet that Microsoft would still churn out crappy half-assed products, same as always.

 

[Guest]

To choose an engineer for the top job is a very tricky thing. The great CEO's who were engineers had good business savvy first and foremost - their engineering talents just complement that. You can't tell me that Jobs is a great engineer - his entire life has been about bringing technical geniuses within his fold to build his visions. Jobs is one of those CEO rock stars - but it's not because he's an engineer.

An engineer at Microsoft could produce another Vista - technically competent but from a user perspective and perception an recipe for disaster. An engineer would have thought that the User Access Control in Vista was technically important, but the user just sees it as annoying. And the market hates user upheavel - you just have to look at Apple's recent stock woes over the iPhone. An engineer would insert 500 different menu items in Office because the software is technically capable of doing so - but kill the ease of use experience.

For MS (and other companies) the trick is to have the Eric Schmidt as CEO who keeps the engineering kids in line. The market wants reassurance from the company that their business is in good shape and there are future earnings. Of course, having Larry and Sergy as the face of the company helps build the mystique - but the CEO office with the regulatory and financial obligations of running a listed public company is no playroom for engineers. But the CEO should also be flexible enough to know how to use their engineers to meet their visions - this is why Apple and Jobs are where they are now.

 

[zybch]

[citation][nom]vic20[/nom]Ballmer looks like someone who sells cars. His image is all wrong. To me the most sensible replacement is John Carmack.He looks the part, kind of like a young Bill Gates. What he lacks in carisma, he makes up for in respect and understanding of the industry and programming[/citation]

He doesn't just lach charisma, he has charisn'tma.

 

[vancouverboy]

How about giving Steve Jobs incentives to replace Ballmer for a few years?

I can't resist imaging he will note that "No, our Windows product has absolutely no issue, it's perfect, you users just handled it wrong way..."

it's a joke not likely to happen, but what if... hmm...

 

[thrust2night]

There are different managerial styles and work environments that tend to work in some companies better than others. Steve Jobs' authoritarian style works well for Apple (if you can ignore the iPhone 4 issues) and has brought Apple to a point where they have bested Microsoft economically. Google's "open" standard or better yet part open and part authoritarian standard works well for Google. In general I feel Google is much more open as opposed to Apple or Microsoft.

From what I've seen of Microsoft in the last few years, I don't think Steve Ballmer will be missed. They haven't really set the standard much so to speak and are losing market share across the board to companies like Google, RIM, Apple, Firefox, etc. Perhaps, they need to take a step back and rethink their goals and how they want to get where they want to go. Cooperation and openness within the company is critical if they want to work well together and issues that led to the departure of two of Microsoft's directors (partly because of Courier) should not happen. Sure you can't make every director in the company happy but when people start leaving because they are unhappy about the direction of the company then that is an issue worth analyzing.

I think Bill Gates should be brought back just to provide insight on who can be the next leader and mentor/train him or her before they take the leadership role. After being gone for a while Bill's approach to the issue will be better than someone who has been around while bad decisions have been made.

 

[falchard]

Tech companies really need an Iconic figure to scape goat problems. When you lose that figure, the company turns into something like IBM. IBM is making things that are truly ahead of their time, but they fail to get their products to the consumer.

 

[Guest]

No Steve Balmer is not a Steve Jobs. Yes, he may provoke positive thoughts at Microsoft. But as for the consumer he is no salesman. Microsoft needs a consumer salesman. Someone who can instill a interest in new products just as the other Steve does at Apple. In other words I buy Microsoft products because I need them but people including myself buy Apple products because Apple and Steve make you want them.

 

[djam2001]

My first experience with Steve Ballmer involved me working one of his keynote presentations, him busting a MS natural keyboard in half like an overgrown gorilla with no sense of propriety and demanding a standard keyboard in its place. He may have a good business mind, but Microsoft needs someone running the company with a great business mind....

 

[scryer_360]

Balmer is the most inept CEO of the last ten years. With him at the helm, Microsoft missed out on the Internet search market (Google), the Music Device market (Apple's iPod, with Zune having barely enough market share to be relevant), and the SmartPhone Market! What Windows Phone was really competitive of the last ten years? Blackberry ate Microsofts lunch first, then iPhone crushed them until recently when Android once again quickly surpassed and dominated Microsofts offerings. Even though the OS market is still squarely Microsoft, just think about averaging out Apple's public image with its OSX compared to Windows 7. And Windows 7 was only late last year: before then we had two years of Vista (which despite its similarities to 7 is still widely panned) and Windows XP, which was widely panned as insecure and lacking in polish compared to OSX.

What has Balmer done for the company? You say Xbox 360, but in terms of profitability and consumer appeal, Nintendo ate Microsofts lunch. Sure, Hard Core gamers don't like the Wii, but the Wii has found an entire blue ocean of customers in casual game play. It has been more profitable all around as well, with the Wii quickly returning its investment compared to the Xbox 360, which took several years to do.

Balmer is inept. He can't forsee new markets like his contemporaries can and he doesn't maintain the strong public image needed for today's cutthroat environment. Microsoft would be better off finding a visionairy, even some gray-beard hippy would be better at this point. Someone to find the new markets is all.

Think Apple: despite its lack of presence in the OS market, its a top tier maker of Smart-Phones and the worlds largest music retailer. It also sells, along with that, the most popular line of dedicated portable music devices. And it has a burning lead in the Phone-App market, in terms of profitability. Apple isn't priced higher than Microsoft for the fun: its genuinely a more innovative, more profitable company.

Microsoft is a one trick pony: OS. Everyone who competes against them on some level is in multiple market spaces and offers far more attractive products.

 

[lamorpa]

Ozzie?? He's a 2 time loser (Lotus 123, Groove) I personally interviewed 2 ex Groovies who lost everything. Ozzie just walked away...

 

[Guest]

Ballmer has been quite inept as a CEO indeed.
He's still at the helm only because he’s protected by the huge Windows+Office profits and nobody seem to care that all other initiatives at MS has been failures - except maybe Xbox.
Paul Otellini, on the other hand, is a *phenomenal* CEO.
No, he’s not had the chance to redefine an industry as More/Grove and Gates.
He inherited an Intel which was lagging in innovation behind AMD and has just went through a very unsuccessful ‘diversification’.
But look at where Intel is today – they just announced their best quarter ever and Intel CPUs are maybe two generations ahead of AMD.
I don’t believe that CEOs need to be gurus with cult followings. In fact, I find it quite discomforting that a single person might be representing a company.
You know how these types of representations are called and treated when a single person represents an entire country.

 

[dEAne]

Yes an engineer is good if he work with people who use the products, have encounter problems with it and listen to things what the consumers really wants the products to be. Software architect? - no, I would say people who has more creative vision - even if it is impossible - just leave it to the engineers to developed it.

 

[androticus]

Steve Ballmer just recently saved Microsoft from the Windows Vista disaster

This was the funniest thing I've read all day! BTW, who was CEO BEFORE AND DURING Vista's development???

 

[war2k9]

Steve Ballmer have more misses than hits. I think m$ will be a more focus than now.

 

[lathe26]

From inside Microsoft, a lot of employees would rather see Steve Ballmer go. Check out the comments on http://minimsft.blogspot.com. The main reason employees would like him gone are:

1. Stock price has gone nowhere in a decade. A lot of the old-timers are upset that stock options worthless and stock awards don't make money like they used to.

2. Gates used to impart the same feeling of "deficit of intelligence" as Groves. Ballmer doesn't do this.

3. There is a general feeling of lack of leadership from the top.

 

[belardo]

I should be the new face if Microsoft.

They would never forget me.

 

[wishmaster12]

I vote myself

 

[JOSHSKORN]

If he dropped out today, I would remember him as the CEO that royally screwed up (Windows Vista) and then actually made an effort to make everything better (Windows 7).

 

[sailfish]

Steve Ballmer is the John Sculley of Microsoft.

 

[puddleglum]

[citation][nom]sailfish[/nom]Steve Ballmer is the John Sculley of Microsoft.[/citation]
You nailed that one on the head!!!

 

[Guest]

Steve ballmer should have been fired a long time ago considering his long history of failures.

But Ballmer will not be fired even though he certainly should be.
And he is not going to leave either.
He still believes that he is essential to the company and that he can make up for all of his bad decisions and horrid management and turn the company around if given enough time.

Also, Bill Gates says that he "likes the job that Steve is doing".

So obviously Steve Ballmer has some kind of dirt on Bill Gates whatever it may be, maybe they were intimate or something back in college, they both look the part and fit the profile so I don't think that is too much of a stretch.
Either that or Ballmer has compromising Polaroids of Bill Gates locked away somewhere.

Whatever it is he has Bill Gates over a barrel so Ballmer is there to stay no matter how much he screws up and acts like a demented clown and runs the company into the ground.

Bill Gates will never let him be fired and Ballmer is not going to leave on his own.

 

[hardwarekid9756]

When I think Microsoft, the first two images that pop into my head are A seductive Bill Gates trying to peddle his PC, and Ballmer freaking out about how awesome Paint and Calculator are for Windows back in the 80's. To me, Ballmer is just as much a reverent force as Gates. I've never had the honor of meeting with either, so I can't say anything to the effect of their inherent Aura, but, I can say that Ballmer is easily one of the most underrated CEOs today. His strategy is absolutely phenominal. Microsoft isn't the innovator they once used to be, for better or worse, but I have never been prouder to be a Microsoft supporter. They are releasing some of the greatest pieces of software they've released in their history. Game-changing pieces of code that are sculpting the way we interact with computers in such a way that, I often suprisedly mention to myself "Oh shit, Microsoft isn't there yet? I'll wait for them." They aren't revolutionizing tech like they once did, which may be why this article even needed to be written. But, even if they're not revolutionizing the industry, they ARE revolutionizing the way the industry they enter works. The iPhone created the Smartphone boom, and is King for now, but I guarantee when WinPhone7 drops, it may not be as huge, but it will become the "baseline." It won't be special, but it will be EXACTLY what we want in a snappy, stable, functioning phone. It will be, for lack of a better word, the perfect phone, if only ridiculously boring and uninteresting. That seems to be microsofts' Niche these days, perfection, only boring. And that's because that IS Ballmer's vision. He is the stalwart to Jobs' revolutionizer. The Mainstreamer versus the Inventor. And I think, with a company like microsoft, that is the perfect target. Don't be remembered for making cool products that aren't perfect, be "the once company." the "go-to" that people are trying to out-do. When I think office mail, i think Outlook. There may be a million clients, but they all compare to outlook. And that is Microsoft. They aren't better; they aren't more; they just "are". And that's the way I like it ^.^

 

[rooket]

[citation][nom]jescott418[/nom]No Steve Balmer is not a Steve Jobs. Yes, he may provoke positive thoughts at Microsoft. But as for the consumer he is no salesman. Microsoft needs a consumer salesman. Someone who can instill a interest in new products just as the other Steve does at Apple. In other words I buy Microsoft products because I need them but people including myself buy Apple products because Apple and Steve make you want them.[/citation]

umm... did you miss the entire windows 7 launch?

 

[danimal_the_animal]

I bet Richard Simmons would make a better CEO

LOL!

 

[NoCaDrummer]

Don Draper (of "Mad Men") Bright, driven, and a heck of a lot easier on the eyes than Steve Balmer.

Who cares if he smokes like a chimney, picks up women like most of us geeks pick up a candybar, and has lied his way into his position? Sounds like a perfect fit for Microsoft.