
Microsoft needs a new CEO who probably doesn’t exist - npalli
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/08/microsoft-needs-a-new-ceo-who-probably-doesnt-exist/
======
strlen
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.

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

~~~
r00fus
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.

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snowwrestler
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
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.

~~~
r00fus
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.

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

------
uptown
What about David Sacks?

[http://www.fastcompany.com/3007336/creative-
conversations/wh...](http://www.fastcompany.com/3007336/creative-
conversations/what-microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmer-told-yammer-cofounder-david-
sacks)

~~~
busterc
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.

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marco_salvatori
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.

~~~
GuiA
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.

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einhverfr
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
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).

~~~
einhverfr
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.

~~~
brg
I too was a blue badge during that time, but I think there were three changes
that happened when Gates slowly faded out of the company. The company lost
focus on Windows desktop applications, the culture pivoted towards business
strategy instead of engineering strategy, and quality of both the people and
the products declined.

As to losing focus, part of this is because the re-orgs and company policy
changes accelerated. At least every two years in the last decade there has
been a major shift in branding or focus. This is something decided by the
management team, and Ballmer was directly responsible for these constant
shifts in direction.

Second, the role of SDE and senior SDE was even more marginalized. I am sure
this had been going on, but for a data point note that BillG reviews were run
by PMs. The engineering culture was gone and replaced by a business culture.
PMs and MBAs ruled every org; they talked about their resources and looked at
the SDE-L and SDE-M as line managers whose were there to make their designs
reality. This served to push out the more motivated engineers.

And speaking of BillG reviews, these were real and helpful. After a review, we
would talk about it for days. Products would be re-aligned, schedules would
change, and we would be focused on shipping a great product. When these were
gone, Ballmer's business strategy approach failed to motivate or align the
teams and that had a drastic affect on quality.

------
yuhong
>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."

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steve19
My bet is that MSFT buys Nokia and Stephen Elop becomes CEO.

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

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

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

~~~
shadowfox
> SPJ doesn't work for MSR anymore

Interesting. Where is he now? His MSR page hasn't been updated -
[http://research.microsoft.com/en-
us/people/simonpj/](http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/simonpj/)

I thought only Simon Marlow left recently.

~~~
coolsunglasses
Oh blah, you're right. Bloody Simons.

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

~~~
r00fus
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.

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dgbsco
I'm available.

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

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DiabloD3
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.

~~~
keithnoizu
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.

~~~
keithnoizu
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.

