3 ms·

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 lon

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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 13y ago
    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.
vehementi 13y ago
Microsoft has the good stuff, just needs to be more popular/cool/get adoption/etc. A new CEO will have a chance at the start while he/she's still in the news, to make huge waves with radical actions that turns the perception of MS on its head. The new CEO could also do internal things like kill the performance rating shit. MS might not need much of an employee culture turnaround. It's the company's image that needs fixing.
- einhverfr 13y ago
  I think that is almost exactly the wrong way to approach the problem. Here is why. Microsoft has never lacked an astute understanding of the market. They have rarely been behind the curve in their domains. They had purchased hotmail before Gmail was even on the drawing board. They had been trying to market tablets for a long time before the iPad. But what they lack is a fresh perspective. The corporate culture is relatively ingrown and I think that's the big problem. Long story short that means their executions of plans tends to be... somewhat... problematic. Microsoft has what it needs, namely a lot of very talented people (some of which I still am in contact with). What it lacks is an ability to get those people in charge of getting all the little problems solved so that people will find the solutions useful. They have largely coasted through on momentum, using spare cash to purchase promising companies. To turn this around you have to turn the entire corporate culture around. You have to start encouraging cross training. Get the developers working front line tech support a week a year or something. Have the main developers do stints at Critical Problem Resolution or similar groups. Get folks in touch with the problems of the customers and what they are solving. More importantly, encourage Microsoft employees to use and study competing products. When I was at Microsoft the problem was an island mentality and this killed their early tablet efforts. That has to be turned around and it won't be easy.
sliverstorm 13y ago
I've been told the big thing a CEO does is bring in the right people, starting with the other three-letter titles and possible also a level below that. You can see how the CEO's influence would then spread from there.
- einhverfr 13y ago
  My point is that it takes time, patience, and effort to cultivate a different corporate culture. It isn't something which is just planned and controlled.

dalek_cannes 13y ago

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 13y ago
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 13y ago
  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.

vehementi 13y ago

Microsoft has the good stuff, just needs to be more popular/cool/get adoption/etc. A new CEO will have a chance at the start while he/she's still in the news, to make huge waves with radical actions that turns the perception of MS on its head. The new CEO could also do internal things like kill the performance rating shit. MS might not need much of an employee culture turnaround. It's the company's image that needs fixing.

einhverfr 13y ago
I think that is almost exactly the wrong way to approach the problem. Here is why. Microsoft has never lacked an astute understanding of the market. They have rarely been behind the curve in their domains. They had purchased hotmail before Gmail was even on the drawing board. They had been trying to market tablets for a long time before the iPad. But what they lack is a fresh perspective. The corporate culture is relatively ingrown and I think that's the big problem. Long story short that means their executions of plans tends to be... somewhat... problematic. Microsoft has what it needs, namely a lot of very talented people (some of which I still am in contact with). What it lacks is an ability to get those people in charge of getting all the little problems solved so that people will find the solutions useful. They have largely coasted through on momentum, using spare cash to purchase promising companies. To turn this around you have to turn the entire corporate culture around. You have to start encouraging cross training. Get the developers working front line tech support a week a year or something. Have the main developers do stints at Critical Problem Resolution or similar groups. Get folks in touch with the problems of the customers and what they are solving. More importantly, encourage Microsoft employees to use and study competing products. When I was at Microsoft the problem was an island mentality and this killed their early tablet efforts. That has to be turned around and it won't be easy.

sliverstorm 13y ago

I've been told the big thing a CEO does is bring in the right people, starting with the other three-letter titles and possible also a level below that. You can see how the CEO's influence would then spread from there.

einhverfr 13y ago
My point is that it takes time, patience, and effort to cultivate a different corporate culture. It isn't something which is just planned and controlled.