This is Steve Ballmer. CEO of Microsoft. The man who took the reins from Bill Gates in 2009 when Gates stepped back. Hardly Steve Jobs now is he? Although I think he tries to be. I mean who came up with the track "get on your feet"? Kind of like playing "simply the best". Cringeville.
There's an awful lot of people having a go at Microsoft at the minute.
And it has to be putting immense pressure on CEO Steve Ballmer.
One wonders if he'll survive it and especially after an article in Vanity Fair due on the newsstands in August.
But they're having a go firstly, because it's the launch of Windows 8 coming up. Oh, didn't know? Exactly. And remember the excitement, the queues for 95.
Secondly, the acquisition of Yammer for 1.5 billion (yep, billion) of a company few of us ever heard of, and which earns little revenue, is being seen as a bizarre way of buying yourself onto the front pages. One way to get that Facebook/Instagram 1 billion limelight. I blogged about it here http://streamabout.blogspot.ie/2012/06/microsoft-acquires-yammer-for-12.html
The official Microsoft announcement photo two weeks ago, did little to help things too and here it is. Steve Ballmer and the Yammer boys looking like something from the 70's rather than the new leaders in Social Media. Shocking.
As an aside, interesting too that when you go onto the Microsoft news centre and search 'Yammer' - nothing comes up. So Microsoft could do with updating their site - which for Microsoft, is pretty poor.
Thirdly, Microsoft have just taken a 6.2 billion write down this week following their disaster purchase of digital network aquantive in 2007 - then the biggest deal in Microsoft history. The 8.5bn acquisition of Sykpe by Microsoft in 2011 beat it. And what exactly have they done with Skype? Nada. Looks the same to me except with higher prices and more advertising. Vision?
But this write-down, wipes out fourth quarter earnings and that will have a stock/investor issue, adding more pressure.
The acquisition was seen at the time, as a response to Google's acquisition of Doubleclick (with which I was involved in a small way in Ireland) because the Microsoft move came only a month later. Kind of a "anything you can do" thing. But one huge 6.2 billion loss.
Fourthly, the success of Apple has been one-in-the-eye for Microsoft and continues to be. Apple's iphone division alone is worth more than Microsoft. Here's the genius Steve Ballmer in 2007 on the iphone. "500 dollars for a phone? You're kidding".
And of course he teamed up with Nokia...who've recently had their ratings cut to "junk status".
But lastly, the real crowning glory this week is an article in Vanity Fair August edition which seems to slam work practices at Microsoft and makes the company totally uncool. This sort of publicity might be the straw that broke it because it will be hard for Ballmer to escape it.
Sometimes publicity is the killer blow because it's so public.
Titled 'Microsoft's lost decade' it's written by well regarded scribbler, Kurt Eichenwald.
It's not on the newsstands yet, but Geekwire have seen a full copy and refer to it as "epic". In other words, explosive.
Forbes have referred to it as "a devastatingly destructive management technique at the heart of Microsoft’s problems" and others are calling the exposure "Microsoft's downfall".
Techcrunch don't have the story because when they asked for a preview, they were asked for a fax number to "fax it on over". Honestly. And they've written a good humorous piece on that......
http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/03/can-someone-send-techcrunchs-fax-number-to-vanity-fair/
The controversy, supported by interviews and emails collected, is about management style and creativity. Or lack of.
It's based around a work system for employees in Microsoft called 'stack ranking' where employees are rated from good to poor. And according to Eichenwald that meant that "Every current and former Microsoft employee I interviewed—every one—cited stack ranking as the most destructive process inside of Microsoft, something that drove out untold numbers of employees.”
“If you were on a team of 10 people, you walked in the first day knowing that, no matter how good everyone was, 2 people were going to get a great review, 7 were going to get mediocre reviews, and 1 was going to get a terrible review,” says a former software developer. “It leads to employees focusing on competing with each other rather than competing with other companies.”
Which could well be the reason why the company under Ballmer, flounders.
Basically, it crippled the company and stifled innovation.
And from what I know it seemed to be a dreadful place to work which in itself is bizarre given the 'great places to work' awards Microsoft have achieved. I always wondered about those awards though, always did. I saw companies winning them who I knew to be dreadful.
But they were big companies who'd always take a table or two at the Awards dinner.
We'll see what happens when Vanity Fair comes out.
Watch out for the noise and watch out for Steve Ballmer.
Except it to be huge.
His window is closing. (sorry).
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