Those were stumbles the biggest failures are not as easily seen. One of them was the way MS responded to the economic downturn. Despite having billions in the

Those were stumbles the biggest failures are not as easily seen. One of them was the way MS responded to the economic downturn. Despite having billions in the bank MS acted scared. They put the brakes on bonuses, promotions, and hiring. They indulged in a series of layoffs, giving many the impression that their jobs were not secure. MS had the money to project strength, to acquire talent from its competitors, and so forth. Instead they project weakness and abused their own employees. And the result was that many of the most talented people left the company. People who saw that MS no longer had their back, people who had the easiest ability to find more interesting, more rewarding, or higher paying work elsewhere. And that exodus is still ongoing. It's a process of evaporation. As so many good people leave that diminishes the goodness of the rest of the company, which causes even more people to leave. The changes in corporate culture and Ballmer's bad strategy decisions have had their role in people leaving as well. Moreover, Ballmer has been pruning the company of high level leadership which could challenge his authority. With predictable results. Overall the difference in the average quality of people at MS is astounding. It used to be, even in the mid '00s, that the best and brightest work there. Now only a few people at MS fit that category and the ability of the company to execute on projects has been diminished in untold ways.