Was Kodesh new to Microsoft at the time? The culture there is a "prove it works first, ask for approval once you've worked everything through in detail and need

Was Kodesh new to Microsoft at the time? The culture there is a "prove it works first, ask for approval once you've worked everything through in detail and need a Big Change" one. I would have expected any reasonable manager to just spin up a small team to fully mock up a few devices in concert with a couple of clients and present those up the chain. I personally would have nixed him on this as well. It's quite easy to say, "we should scrap this and build something else" and another entirely to provide sufficient evidence that you're capable of doing so. If, for example, this guy wasn't able to deliver but was given a charter based on his random memo, Microsoft wouldn't be in third right now. They would be completely out of the game. Even readers of this site who hate Microsoft have probably experienced it: most bad managers step into a new position and immediately talk about how the old thing needs to be thrown out and a new one built, naturally at great time and expense (and hiring a few of his old "Architect" buddies) but with amazing benefits down the line. How does that story usually end when you say "ok"?