Ray Ozzie at least gave Microsoft Azure, which honestly if they didn't have that much at least they would be nowhere on the cloud. He was working on things like

Ray Ozzie at least gave Microsoft Azure, which honestly if they didn't have that much at least they would be nowhere on the cloud. He was working on things like syncing files, email, office integration, etc. Basically stuff like google docs, dropbox, heroku, etc. were all trying to be made in Microsoft's image under Ozzie and they all sort of ignored him. Now Microsoft is scrambling with SkyDrive, Office 365, Windows 8, Azure, etc. Microsoft also pushed out J Allard who had vision to compete with iPad. His team was also responsible for Xbox and Zune. Between Xbox you get the blueprint of how to deliver services people love and evolve with over time. With Zune you got the beautiful Metro design that Microsoft finally embraced. The Zune player was pretty much the blueprint for this style and it was outstanding software for a Windows app. Microsoft 20 years ago was about finding brilliant people and letting them build brilliant businesses under the Microsoft umbrella. At some point around 2000 the name of the game is to make all things Windows and Office and that kind of protectionism pretty much put Microsoft consistently 3-5 years behind in areas that matter like Search, Mobile, Services, Cloud Infrastructure because they couldn't see how that benefitted Windows and Office.