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Steve Ballmer’s Biggest Mistakes As CEO Of Microsoft

Steve Ballmer's Biggest Mistakes As CEO Of Microsoft

 உலகின் முன்னனி நிறுவனங்களில் ஓன்றாக மைக்கிரோசாப்ட் விளங்கி வருகிறது. இப்பொழுது மைக்கிரோசாப்டின் சிஈஓவாக இருப்பவர் ஸ்டீவ் பால்மர் என்பது நமக்கு தெரிந்ததே. இவர் அடுத்த சில மாதங்களுக்குள் தான் ஓய்வு பெற போவதாக அறிவித்துள்ளார். இவரின் இந்த அறிவிப்புக்கு பின்னர் மைக்கிரோசாப்டின் அடுத்த சிஈஓ யார் என்ற கேள்வி டெக்னாலஜி உலகில் பரவ தொடங்கியுள்ளது. தொழில்நுட்ப உலகில் உள்ள வல்லுநர்கள் பல பெயர்களை இதற்க்கு பரிந்துரை செய்கின்றனர். ஸ்டீவ் பால்மரின் ஓய்வுக்கு பின்னர் இந்த கேள்விக்கான விடை கிடைக்கும். ஸ்டீவ் பால்மர் சிஈஓவாக இருந்த தனது பதவி காலத்தில் மைக்கிரோசாப்ட் நிறுவனத்தின் நலனுக்காக பல நல்ல விஷியங்களை செய்துள்ளார். நிறுவனத்தின் லாபங்களை அதிகரித்துள்ளார். அதே சமயம் அவர் தனது பதவி காலத்தில் நிறைய தவறுகளையும் செய்துள்ளார் அதை பற்றி பார்ப்போம்.
ஸ்மார்ட்போன் மார்கெட்டில் உள்ள 80% ஸ்மார்ட்போன்களில் ஆன்டிராய்ட் ஆதிக்கம் செலுத்த பால்மர் விட்டுவிட்டார். யாஹூ நிறுவனத்தை வாங்க முயற்ச்சி செய்து அதை வாங்காமல் தவறவிட்டார் ஸ்டீவ் பால்மர். மைக்கிரோசாப்ட் நிறுவனம், ஆப்பிளின் ஐபேட் வெளிவராததுக்கு முன்பு ஒரு புதுமையான டேப்லெட்டை தயாரிக்கும் முயற்ச்சியில் இருந்தது ஆனால் ஸ்டீவ் பால்மர் அதை நிறத்திவிட்டார்.
ஆப்பிள் ஐபோன் மற்றும் ஐபாட்கள் பற்றி கிண்டலடித்து வந்தார் பால்மர். அந்த சாதனங்கள் வெற்றி பெறாது என்றும் கூறினார். ஆனால் அந்த சாதனங்கள் மக்களிடத்தில் நல்ல வரவேற்பை பெற்றன. இவர் அதிகம் எதிர்பார்த்து வெளியிட்ட வின்டோஸ் விஸ்டா வெற்றி அடையவில்லை. ஆப்பிள் ஐபாட் வெற்றிக்கு பின்னர் மைக்கிரோசாப்ட் நிறுவனம் ஸூன் எனும் சாதனத்தை உருவாக்கி வெளியிட்டது அது வெற்றி பெறவில்லை.

Steve Ballmer’s Biggest Mistakes As CEO Of Microsoft

product launch in the company’s history, CEO Steve Ballmer was nowhere to be found. Microsoft had scheduled a mysterious, last-minute event in Los Angeles, flying in roughly a hundred members of the media from around the globe, who were eager to set their eyes on the rumored Surface tablet, Microsoft’s first PC device in its 30-year history, which was developed to show off the power of Windows 8, the operating system’s most radical redesign in more than a decade. Yet in the days leading up to the presser, as then-Windows chief Steven Sinofsky tirelessly rehearsed his presentation at Milk Studios, Ballmer was a no-show. According to a source present, his role was played by a stand-in until the day of the event.

That’s not to say Ballmer was an absentee chief executive, but it’s a telling example of the type of leadership he brought to Redmond. Ballmer, undeniably, was a booster of the company; he bled (and definitely sweat) Microsoft. But unlike Steve Jobs, who was involved in every aspect of product launches, Ballmer was never the hands-on leader that Microsoft so desperately needed. Nor was he a product visionary like Jobs was at Apple or his own predecessor Bill Gates was at Microsoft. Instead, Ballmer, who announced last week that he would retire from the company within the next 12 months, is likely to exit with a messy, unsatisfying legacy. He was a salesman who steadily grew the company’s bottom line, but one who has left Microsoft in a weaker market position than it has ever been in before.

There are two ways to view Ballmer’s tenure. On the one hand, Ballmer’s defenders might argue he brought much success. The press release on the day of his retirement is likely to tout how he tripled annual revenue since taking over in 2000, from $23 billion to nearly $78 billion, and goosed net income to $21.8 billion. It would also outline how Ballmer oversaw the launch of the Xbox and Kinect; ushered in the acquisitions of Skype and Yammer; expanded the company’s enterprise business significantly; and introduced new versions of best-selling products like Windows 7, which still dominates the PC market. After all, Microsoft is the fourth most valuable company in the world, roughly tied with Google in market cap.

However, Ballmer’s mistakes are impossible to ignore. The list of product flops during his tenure are numerous: Zune, Vista, Kin, to name just a few. He invested billions of dollars in Bing, which has failed to make a dent in Google’s search market share. And most significantly, Ballmer completely missed the sea change in mobile, losing out to Amazon, Apple, and Google in the music player, e-reader, smartphone, and tablet markets. The PC industry is now in decline; Microsoft’s enterprise business is being attacked from all sides; and Ballmer’s bets on Windows 8 and Windows Phone have failed to resonate with the public. Only recently, Microsoft was forced to take a $900 million write-down on unsold Surface tablet inventory.

Following the announcement that Ballmer was stepping down, Microsoft’s long stagnant share price shot up around 7%. But it wasn’t just shareholders who seemed to welcome the news; the tech press lauded the move too. And reports indicate that Microsoft’s board, including Gates, who recently criticized the company for a lackluster period of innovation, also agreed it would be best for Ballmer to depart sooner than the company had originally planned.

The problem is that Ballmer was never much of an innovator. A former high-level Microsoft manager describes Ballmer’s approach to product: “It really all boils down to the innovator’s dilemma,” the source explains. “Are you going to have 50 people work on something that’s interesting and that could maybe make $100 million in three to four years? Or are you going to use those 50 workers to increase the SQL server sales team, which could generate $1 billion in additional revenue in nine months?”

Ballmer simply wasn’t a product guy. As top insiders told me not long ago, Ballmer offered no direction on the features and user interface of Windows 8, for example; he never even got together with the team to green-light the redesign. When asked if Ballmer was ever involved in any product decisions, one longtime designer said “no” flat-out. Another added, “Not at all.” As one source said, “I don’t think Steve could even spell the word design.”

Ballmer was always, at heart, a salesman. I once saw him actually running to find Yang Yuanqing, the head of Lenovo, at a Microsoft event, yelling at his handler, “Just tell me where he is!” Lenovo is the world’s No. 1 PC maker, and therefore a huge Microsoft customer. It was clear that Ballmer, who looked relieved to catch Yuanqing before he left, was in his element talking him up and keeping him happy.

Steve Jobs believed having a salesman at the helm was a big reason for Microsoft’s decline. “The company does a great job, innovates and becomes a monopoly or close to it in some field, and then the quality of product becomes less important,” he’s quoted as saying in Walter Isaacson’s biography. “The company starts valuing the great salesmen, because they’re the ones who can move the needle on revenues, not the product engineers and designers. So the salespeople end up running the company. When the sales guys run the company, the product guys don’t matter so much…it happened when Ballmer took over Microsoft.”

It’s the reason why so many sources I’ve spoken with hoped Microsoft would one day add a chief designer to its ranks, a position that was sorely lacking from Ballmer’s recent company restructuring.

Ian Sands, the former senior director of Microsoft’s product long-term vision and strategy, once told me that he believed Microsoft would be a better company if it had someone in that role, as Apple did with Steve Jobs. “I think a lot of people feel like, ‘Why don’t we just have a senior VP of design?'” he said.

Still, one former top executive, who worked closely with Ballmer, argues that it’s unfair to criticize Ballmer with the benefit of hindsight. No company, the source argues, saw the disruptions coming to the mobile space from Apple, though he acknowledges that the iPhone, which now generates more revenue than all of Microsoft’s divisions, caught Ballmer off guard. “All of us were surprised that the iPhone was as successful as it was.”

“People give Steve a hard time,” the source adds. “But he’s got the hardest job in the world.”

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