Microsoft: Top Management "Lost"

Because Steve Bulmer was sticking to the stereotypes and holding Windows and Office to death, these two businesses have already become.

What happened to Microsoft (Microsoft)? It took me weeks to track and interview a large number of former Microsoft employees, many of whom were experienced in the company for more than 15 years.

The question now is how much time you will spend listening to the answers to the above questions.

Corey Solca has been working for Microsoft since 1992 in ~2009.

He mentioned the United States Department of justice's anti trust war against Microsoft.

At that time, Microsoft decided to counterattack the allegations of the US Justice Department and refuse to settle out of court.

Things have changed since then.

She also mentioned that Apple Corp (Apple) in its "I am Mac, you are a personal computer (PC)" advertising.

"It would be unbelievable if Microsoft did this reaction in the 90s of last century."

He said.

In his eyes, Microsoft "has become more cautious than before."

Philip Sue worked in Microsoft for 12 years before he switched to Facebook.

He believes that the root cause of Microsoft's loss of charm is that its employees lack initiative.

Su still remembered that in the late 90s of last century, he used his sleeping bag to lay the floor on the floor of his office. At that time, Microsoft was still a legend of Wall Street.

The reality is that traffic jams start at 5 p.m. every day at Redmond's Microsoft Industrial Park.

That's why Microsoft shares are no longer the same as they used to be. Every 1 and a half years, they split the stock.

In the past seven or eight years, Microsoft's stock price has been hovering at $25.

The fact behind this phenomenon is that almost all employees rush to flee the office at a time when compared with the past.

"Once hard work is decoupled from personal income and other incentives," Su said, "it's hard for people to work harder than before."

Many former Microsoft employees blamed the company's chief executive, Steve Bulmer.

How could they not make that conclusion? 11 years ago, when Ballmer took over the company, Microsoft could not brag that it was enough to make competitors lose heart in the field of software.

Nowadays, Microsoft is more aware of its mistakes than successful ones and great achievements.

It should have been a strong competitor in the tablet and smartphone market, because it started working on the development of E-Reader more than 10 years ago, but now, when critics accuse it of its poor performance, executives have only one word: at least Xbox has done well.

Last October, Glassdor.com conducted a survey of more than 1000 Microsoft employees, only 51% of respondents were satisfied with CEO Ballmer's performance.

"Compared with three years ago, the number of people against Steve has increased a lot."

A former middle-level manager said.

After leaving Microsoft for 15 years, he left the company recently.

"Therefore, employees will unanimously believe that under his leadership, the company has already lost its way forward."

Everyone thinks that Microsoft is the most complex company in the internal political struggle.

In the past, Microsoft was an object of envy in the IT industry. At that time, employees were closely related to the company's leaders. The best product manager could even say the birthday of the CEO's children.

Now, the head of the company seems to be sitting in his office all day, away from the one or two office buildings of the staff.

A former company executive used the metaphor of Redmond's trench to describe the people in this castle, especially those in managerial positions, who are less concerned about the outside world.

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"Microsoft will take all of its mind in the internal game."

He said.

"When you sit at the top of the company, you will spend 90% of your time on internal struggles and building an internal power network."

For example, James Whitaker was deeply bored with such things.

Whitaker is a leader in the field of software testing. He started working as a consultant in Microsoft in 1994 and eventually worked full-time in Microsoft.

He plays an important role in Microsoft, and he meets regularly with Bill Gate.

But he finally discovered that even a respected respected veteran like himself had no previous spirit and could not compete with people solely on the basis of ability and performance.

"Microsoft's culture is no longer:" let's start experimentation to see which idea is better, "but" let's make a pass, maybe they will be satisfied with our products. "

Whitaker said.

He left Microsoft in 2009 and moved to Google (Google).

What is worse is that those who have power in their hands are the most important because they are lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time, even though their products are mediocre, and as the company is booming, they also step up.

"Microsoft's corporate culture rewards the political killer."

A software engineer said he thought he might be an exception: Although he joined Microsoft in the middle of his journey, his career could still be smooth as an outsider.

Although he knew from the beginning that he had been a job hopping from other companies and joined Microsoft as a senior position directly, Microsoft people had always been hostile. However, shortly after he came to Microsoft office, one day, when an executive came to his office and told him the "survival law" of Microsoft, he couldn't help being surprised.

"He just stood there and said to me," remember, if I want to, I can disintegrate your team any time.

"He recalls.

In his view (he did not work in Microsoft), in Microsoft, the size of someone's power is reflected through his relationship with Ballmer, Gates or the two party.

He called these people "wanted".

One of the "important people" would say carelessly that they had had dinner with Ballmer recently, and then threatened with a hint that if people were not obedient, their little thumbs could be put to death by their influence.

"Nevertheless, I still want to believe that Microsoft still has the chance to make brilliant achievements."

Rebecca Noland said.

After leaving Microsoft for 19 years, she left the company in 2010.

"But Microsoft has to make changes, and to some extent, it is upheaval."

On the whole, the former Microsoft employees appreciated the old colleagues.

There are exceptions: the former executives are full of grievances, claiming that they want to sell all Microsoft shares in their hands, because "now the company is in critical condition."

In 1990s, when Microsoft was a cheap software manufacturer for the mass market, it announced that it began to enter advanced commercial applications, and the whole world was sniffing at it.

Now, in Microsoft's profits, $about 4000000000 a year comes from the company's business software department.

The profit of the product family has surpassed the profits of most fortune 500 (Fortune500) companies.

Moreover, in the total revenue of Microsoft, commercial software is only third, far behind Windows and Office.

Last year, Windows earned 18 billion dollars, and Office earned 17 billion dollars.

However, several former Microsoft employees have repeatedly stressed that success often breeds bad habits.

More than one of them cited the psychotherapist term to describe the unhealthy association between Windows and Office.

Small equipment is the direction of development, and Microsoft is the worst loser in this forward position.

They went on to say, but Ballmer and his company refused to admit that.

The reason is that the two businesses of Windows and Office are just like Kimcheon. Huge cash revenues have been pouring out, so that leaders of Ballmer and other companies can not feel the urgency of adjusting the direction of development.

It is these two successful licensing businesses, which cover the frustrations and worries of many frustrations.

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Microsoft has repeatedly rejected the promising internal projects.

The sponsors of these projects suggest that the company will no longer take Windows as the core and turn to a new platform.

Microsoft's software engineers continue to immerse themselves in compiling applications running on the Windows system, and then modify them on the basis, and no matter how bad compatibility is, they are used on mobile phones, tablet computers or browsers.

At the same time, despite hard efforts for more than ten years, Microsoft ranked only fifth in the smartphone operating system market, and its market share was less than 5%.. In the tablet market, Microsoft's behavior was at best a belated.

"All internal mechanisms of Microsoft still take Windows as the core."

James? Wei Tucker pointed out.

"Windows is always the most important thing. The network can only be second.

As a result, the whole company has been moving around an increasingly backward platform all day long.

I interviewed 16 former Microsoft employees.

Half of them thought Ballmer should leave.

But that does not mean that the remaining half thinks Microsoft CEO is doing a good job.

Although there are several people who hold this view, most of the remaining half are wondering: who is better than Ballmer?

Perhaps, for those who have dedicated their careers to Microsoft for many years, this is the most critical Criticism: Microsoft is like a giant machine which is difficult to manipulate and is extremely complicated. Although these people spend more than an hour to bother to enumerate every step that the company has gone wrong, even if they have to admit that unless Microsoft is divided into two or more parts, the board of directors of the company will continue to appoint Ballmer and hope that he can know how to use it effectively, effectively manage a large number of software talents, and reverse his disadvantages.