News Ballmer details Microsoft re-org plan

Do i have this right ? Ballmer is moving the company away from what it knows and made it money to devices and services that so far have lost them money and failed to impress customers.

When is someone going to slap him with a wet fish ?

 

cheap tactics from a cheap company IMHO

 

Greetings!

I read:
Ballmer derails Microsoft re-org plan

 

How to wreck a company, step no 1.

 

I see it more as like an oil company slowly coming to the realistation oil won't be around forever... they know they should be looking into/doing other things, but they still haven't got to grips with what that should be...

 

I see it more as Ballmer trying to Apple-fy Microsoft. Microsoft has grown so large and fractured, and I posit the reason some products haven't done well is because the product cycle at Microsoft has become an exercise in design by committee.

By attempting to streamline things and reduce the tribal nature of the fractured company, Ballmer is taking a page from Steve Jobs' management book. Whether or not Ballmer (or his successor) has the necessary vision to pull it off is another question.

 

The problem is you don't just stop producing oil because you know it wont be around forever, especially when the world hasn't agree on what to replace it with.
I cant think of one Microsoft devices or services that has both made them money and been widely accepted by their consumers, yet they are choosing to move away from what founded the company to things like Bing, Office365, Outlook.com, tablets, Xbox, etc, etc.

 

Sticking with the car/oil analogy...

Windows [7 and earlier]/Office are your petrol cars... Traditional PC sales are Declining [The Oil is running out] as more people are moving over to Tablets/Smartphones/Cloud Services [Alternative fuels]... Windows 8/Office 365 are, in this analogy, a Toyota Prius, they are a hybrid. And kinda like most hybrids they're ridiculed by the die hard petrol heads ['power users'], and some others argue they don't go far enough...

And companies are allowed to move on... otherwise Ford would still be making the Model T and Nintendo would still be making Playing Cards...

 

Yea well the analogy you used isn't exactly comparable as oil is a finite resources and software, services, and devices are not.

For a company to turn away from successful money making products and to embrace unsuccessful loss making product just seems like idiocy to me, any CEO with half a brain would grow a burgeoning market before turning their back on their existing revenue stream.

If i was a stock holder in Microsoft i would be very worried about the company changing focus to what has so far been loss making markets for them.

 

Balmer and EVERYBODY there at high command should be FIRED! There is NO EXCUSE for those spying stuff ! Down with all them!

 

Microsoft needs to make decisions to stay profitable. There search engine is a disaster net loss around 4billion. Xbox entertainment is at break even.

Windows and office its 2 lead products are both very profitable and have made microsoft rich but both are struggling to gain sales of there newer products.

Windows phone has 2% of the smartphone market Nokia is not good enough to push it along. Microsoft should buy out Nokia and be done with it.

 

Maybe because the new version of Office and Windows are so slanted towards this "services" approach Ballmer seem so intent on pushing down everyone throats.

Office 2013 has out sold Office 365 three to one. While 8 with its login to Windows using a Microsoft account, SkyDrive, Windows Store, and Xbox LIVE services hasn't exactly set the world a blaze.

What with all the fuss over Snowden and if any back-door access has been given to the spy's im not sure people trust TPTB to keep our personal information safe, as they say "trust no one but yourself"

 

Not at all that I disagree, but what's MS going to do? Tell the NSA no? If you want to learn the wide variety of ways people can die in "car accidents" and "suicides" and the even wider variety of ways a gigantic corporation can be squeezed out of existence, you (well, Ballmer) can learn it by trying to tell the spooks "no".

On-topic, this seems...stupid. And pointless. It was bad enough when there were all the little fiefdoms within MS, standing in a circle pissing on each others' legs. Is anyone so easily fooled into thinking the people will so easily give up their old loyalties? That there won't be a lot of pissed off former senior employees that feel like they've been busted back to lower levels under different leadership (said leadership still maintaining their loyalties to 'their people' in favor of the 'outsiders')?

MS has essentially admitted their going down the Adobe road and Office at least will be subscription-only within a decade. Like RedFlames has it - MS is flailing a bit, recognizing that what they've done for the past 30 years is shifting, but they can't quite figure out what to do. This re-org is only going to confuse things.

I can sympathize - I hear several times a week from the president of the company I work for talking about the industry we're in and how it's on the decline. The company's plowing ahead in 6 different directions to move into complementary lines...but no one knows them that well and nothing's being executed effectively. Other than hiring more managers - good-bye proper raises and enough working staff, hello more clueless, overpaid delegators that act like 5-year-olds - they want it, but they have no idea what it takes to get it done. They just know they want it. Like, yesterday.

 

Microsoft is having a wake-up call. Internal competition is bad (just look at the NHS). Design by committee is bad (and again...). Focusing exclusively on maximising value-extraction of two static products which depend on a platform and user model that is rapidly becoming out of date is bad.

So as Supermonkey says, Ballmer is trying to Apple-fy Microsoft. One king, one country, one faith: One leader, one Microsoft, one cohesive vision. Eliminate competition for cohesion, design by committee for creativity and flexibility. I'm sure there will be execs pissed-off at losing their fiefdoms, but expect a lot of them to be quietly ushered out over the next months.

Microsoft really has no other choice. To continue the same old vampiric value extraction model of Windows and Office is what caused Microsoft to miss out on the tablet (Courier), fail to follow through on the potential iPod killer Zune, and caused Windows Phone to lose its massive head start to the iPhone. Microsoft missed tons of high profit opportunities, and now the traditional Office and Windows platform, the PC, is in steady decline. It's Darwin time: adapt or die. The worst thing it can do is follow the Moses leadership principle --wait for a sign from above to tell them when the time is "right" to change. There is no "right" time. Things will only get less right as time goes on; it needs to act NOW.

Office 365 is selling extremely well. It is killer value. Where before you'd pony up £400,-- for Office with two licences, which would be out of date 5 years down the road, you pony up £80,-- a year for five licences, and have the latest version all the time. No brainer, really.

 

I would disagree that Windows or Office caused them to miss out on all those opportunities, it was bad management decisions IMHO.
And yes while the PC is in steady decline its not like it going to go the way of the dodo, consumers have more choice than they did a few years ago and they are exercising that choice.

In the past if people want to use E-mail, internet, games, software, etc the only choice was a PC so they made up %100 of the potential mark. Now consumers have more choice the market will no longer be %100, it may end up being a 50/50 split, or a 30/70 split, until the market finds its own level who knows ?

Compared to its non subscription equivalent Office 2013 it isn't doing well at all, Office 2013 is out selling Office 365 by three to one.
http://thevarguy.com/big-data-technology-solutions-and-information/office-365-vs-office-2013-retail-sales-results

 

That's not what I am saying. I am saying that focusing purely on extracting the maximum profitability possible from Windows and Office caused them to ignore and miss out on other products and opportunities. Those were the bad management decisions (which are well documented).

Basically they are buying devices to replace the PC, not supplement it. If the market splits 50/50, that's a 50% loss of income for Windows. If it splits 30/70, that's A 70% loss. That is bad. So Microsoft has to move into that new market.

The total sales of both versions combined is comparable to the total sales of Office over the same period in 2012. If anything, Microsoft is breaking even. And Office 365 offers the added incentive of a low entry cost to try it for a year and see if it suits, which proves attractive to small businesses. Basically, it is more choice, and if you are in the habit of updating Office every 5 years anyway, it is cheaper.

 

Sorry just the way it sounded at first was that you where blaming Windows and Office for Microsoft failed projects, when it was more likely short sited managers that cause them to fail.

It still sound like Ballmer is turning his back on what made the company (software) what it is, and instead reorganizing the company into what has so far lost them money (devices, services)