4 ms·

What awful slide in the background of that pic! So many words, so little meaning. I can only imagine that this had to be compensated by some pretty compelling d

by ibagrak 16y ago

What awful slide in the background of that pic! So many words, so little meaning. I can only imagine that this had to be compensated by some pretty compelling delivery.

watmough 16y ago
Nicely picked up. Microsoft overreached with Vista, but I believe they've overreached with many other things. Joel Spolsky wrote a great essay on Microsoft's 'Fire and Motion' where they simply keep building new and deprecating old apis. How do you ship and support software against such a fast-moving target? The only way to win is to walk away.
- rbanffy 16y ago
  If you want to play in Microsoft's ecosystem, you have to correctly pick which APIs and products you will support (and code against) and which ones you think will be dropped before you recoup your investment. While working at a MS "solution provider" I had the task of building a large NGO hosting service on top of IIS, Site Server, Exchange and SQL Server. I was not allowed to use Apache or any other non-Microsoft alternative. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be (for our client) to port it to newer versions of whatever came after Site Server 3. That same solution provider whole heartedly embraced WebClasses when they were announced, but that happened after I left.
raganwald 16y ago
So little meaning? How about: "Attracting talented employees; making balanced investments; innovating in the right areas, maintaining a positive product flow and making the right future bets." Sorry for the meretricious linking, but some time ago I wrote about The Not-So-Big Software Design: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/05/not-so-big-software-application.html http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/05/not-so-big-software-appl... My thesis was that a good design was about the specifics of the problem and the client, not about generics that could be applied to any project. I feel the same way about business plans. What's specific to Microsoft about this list? In what way are these the right objectives for Microsoft but not for Apple, General Motors, or Heroku? Ballmer doesn't call me up telling me how to blather on the Internet, so I won't tell him how to blather to reporters. But I will warn him: Steve, if I'm ever interviewing you and you give me this list, I won't meekly transcribe your Motherhood and Apple Pie platitudes, I'll follow-up by asking you what's specific to Microsoft about these items that couldn't apply to anyone. I'll ask you what's special about your leadership that you could identify these priorities, and how you differ from some B.Comm. intern that would mouth much the same list if I asked them what Microsoft needs to do to succeed.
- xpaulbettsx 16y ago
  And I guarantee, that SteveB would have specific, detailed answers about each of those - even though he often doesn't come off great in the press, in person he's an extremely sharp individual, and the depth to which he could tell you about each of those pillars is far more than he shows in a press conference.
  - raganwald 16y ago
    Well then, there's something extremely broken about the business culture that he can't, won't, or shouldn't be more specific. especially given that one of the pillars is attracting talent. Are talented people really reading this stuff he says and getting excited about working at Microsoft? Or are they assuming (possibly incorrectly) that it is just another BigCo where everything is doublespeak and generic talk that means nothing except "I want to look good so I can get my bonus this year?"
    - xpaulbettsx 16y ago
      That's a fair criticism

by ibagrak 16y ago

What awful slide in the background of that pic! So many words, so little meaning. I can only imagine that this had to be compensated by some pretty compelling delivery.

watmough 16y ago

Nicely picked up. Microsoft overreached with Vista, but I believe they've overreached with many other things. Joel Spolsky wrote a great essay on Microsoft's 'Fire and Motion' where they simply keep building new and deprecating old apis. How do you ship and support software against such a fast-moving target? The only way to win is to walk away.

rbanffy 16y ago
If you want to play in Microsoft's ecosystem, you have to correctly pick which APIs and products you will support (and code against) and which ones you think will be dropped before you recoup your investment. While working at a MS "solution provider" I had the task of building a large NGO hosting service on top of IIS, Site Server, Exchange and SQL Server. I was not allowed to use Apache or any other non-Microsoft alternative. I can only imagine the nightmare it would be (for our client) to port it to newer versions of whatever came after Site Server 3. That same solution provider whole heartedly embraced WebClasses when they were announced, but that happened after I left.

raganwald 16y ago

So little meaning? How about: "Attracting talented employees; making balanced investments; innovating in the right areas, maintaining a positive product flow and making the right future bets." Sorry for the meretricious linking, but some time ago I wrote about The Not-So-Big Software Design: http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/05/not-so-big-software-application.html http://weblog.raganwald.com/2007/05/not-so-big-software-appl... My thesis was that a good design was about the specifics of the problem and the client, not about generics that could be applied to any project. I feel the same way about business plans. What's specific to Microsoft about this list? In what way are these the right objectives for Microsoft but not for Apple, General Motors, or Heroku? Ballmer doesn't call me up telling me how to blather on the Internet, so I won't tell him how to blather to reporters. But I will warn him: Steve, if I'm ever interviewing you and you give me this list, I won't meekly transcribe your Motherhood and Apple Pie platitudes, I'll follow-up by asking you what's specific to Microsoft about these items that couldn't apply to anyone. I'll ask you what's special about your leadership that you could identify these priorities, and how you differ from some B.Comm. intern that would mouth much the same list if I asked them what Microsoft needs to do to succeed.

xpaulbettsx 16y ago
And I guarantee, that SteveB would have specific, detailed answers about each of those - even though he often doesn't come off great in the press, in person he's an extremely sharp individual, and the depth to which he could tell you about each of those pillars is far more than he shows in a press conference.
- raganwald 16y ago
  Well then, there's something extremely broken about the business culture that he can't, won't, or shouldn't be more specific. especially given that one of the pillars is attracting talent. Are talented people really reading this stuff he says and getting excited about working at Microsoft? Or are they assuming (possibly incorrectly) that it is just another BigCo where everything is doublespeak and generic talk that means nothing except "I want to look good so I can get my bonus this year?"
  - xpaulbettsx 16y ago
    That's a fair criticism