Bill Gates As Interim Microsoft CEO?

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I support this idea. Come back Bill! Come back! :D

"There is no clear candidate with the visionary skills to turn company around other than Bill Gates," Benioff told CNET. "He wouldn't just be a magnet for a new vision, but for a talent pool of leadership."
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nope. You need someone outside the in group.

How about Jonathan Ive or Steve Wozniak? :D
 
I'll fill in if they need someone. My first order is to scrap "Modern UI". Then I'll kindly bow out and let the next CEO bask in all of the happy customers.
 
microsoft-cool-young-adults.jpeg
 
Heck if they are looking for thinkers. I'll take the job. I think they should stop fucking off and do something revolutionary and not invest in the next micro step forward but a big leap. Take the thought leadership again and lead the world with something that makes people passionate about their software again.
 
Super-D said:
I'll fill in if they need someone. My first order is to scrap "Modern UI". Then I'll kindly bow out and let the next CEO bask in all of the happy customers.
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All the new CEO would have to do is publicly say metro is not ready yet and I'm bringing back the start menu and he would have the whole world listening.
 
HAQattaq said:
All the new CEO would have to do is publicly say metro is not ready yet and I'm bringing back the start menu and he would have the whole world listening.
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"Metro" was and is a good idea for touch devices. It works great on Windows Phone. I agree that for traditional desktops and other non-touch devices, having more of a legacy mode would have helped. I suspect that some brainiac at Microsoft decided that going all in on the new look was the way to go. Typical corporate politics.
 
kohl said:
"Metro" was and is a good idea for touch devices. It works great on Windows Phone. I agree that for traditional desktops and other non-touch devices, having more of a legacy mode would have helped. I suspect that some brainiac at Microsoft decided that going all in on the new look was the way to go. Typical corporate politics.
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Ideas are everywhere. Good leadership is all about execution.
 
Here's hoping the new CEO takes a clue from that Wozniak clip posted yesterday.
 
Aside from personal interest, I can't why Bill Gates would want to go back full time and work on rebuilding a company which took a cannon to shoot itself in the foot.

Dunno...
 
What Microsoft needs is more than any single CEO can provide. Microsoft is so huge and diverse that there's no possible way a single CEO could influence the direction of the company. Basically, the CEO of Microsoft is nothing more than a public "speaker" or puppet that's controlled by investors and the board of directors.
 
Outsource the job to India, there are qualified people there that will work for a fraction of these guys.
 
OregonLAN said:
What Microsoft needs is more than any single CEO can provide. Microsoft is so huge and diverse that there's no possible way a single CEO could influence the direction of the company. Basically, the CEO of Microsoft is nothing more than a public "speaker" or puppet that's controlled by investors and the board of directors.
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A new CEO could pull in the reigns and dictate the direction. No company is too big to change how it operates. Look at how Steve Jobs led or even what Marissa Meyer is doing at Yahoo.
 
I forced myself to use windows 8 for my workstation and I was able to adapt and use it for my needs... before I made the leap I felt like many of the comments here.. wheres the start menu? its made for tablets? but now that I'm here it's groovy..
 
Horrible, Horrible Idea. Gates was great for Microsoft up till Windows 95 but bringing him back to the CEO's chair now would be like resurrecting Henry Ford to run Ford Motor Company.

Founders have their time but then they have to go if the business is going to grow into their vision. Having a vision about something doesn't mean you're the one to take it there.

It's why I never felt Ballmer was a good candidate, he made the same mistakes Bill would have.

http://infotechasiseeit.blogspot.com
 
if Bill comes back it won't be for the $$...the guy gives away most of his fortune to charity anyway...not for his kids either as he doesn't plan on leaving them much...so in the end if he comes back it will be because he wants to help restore the company back to prominence...or he wants to cement his status as a legend
 
OregonLAN said:
What Microsoft needs is more than any single CEO can provide. Microsoft is so huge and diverse that there's no possible way a single CEO could influence the direction of the company. Basically, the CEO of Microsoft is nothing more than a public "speaker" or puppet that's controlled by investors and the board of directors.
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Well they already had a hyperactive sweat monkey in the position:D
 
HAQattaq said:
A new CEO could pull in the reigns and dictate the direction. No company is too big to change how it operates. Look at how Steve Jobs led or even what Marissa Meyer is doing at Yahoo.
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Apple isn't as big. They aren't making video game systems, or games, or IPTv systems, or set top boxes, they don't have the number of software products (Office for example), they don't have need to work with other venders for drivers, or the various web applications.... Apple makes computers and phones. Yahoo doesn't have all that stuff either. That is what the person was talking about, the fact that Microsoft is in so many different fields not just one or two.
 
Bill would do a good job.

He always had the killer instinct. Microsoft didn't get where they were by having a "nice" CEO. Bill was out for blood.

Now, is that what the computing public wants back? A monopoly built on running over the competition?
 
Sure but it will never happen. He won't want to deal with the day to day BS.

I think Major Nelson is due for a promotion to CEO! He's the only MS guy that doesn't make me cringe when they speak.
 
Grimlaking said:
I still think the right answer is to break the company up. But that's just me.
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Let's break Apple up, instead.:p

Microsoft's future isn't and shouldn't be modeled on Apple's future (whatever that might be.) So far, the "futurists" all seem to have the same soggy old ideas-that is, that Microsoft should reach for the future by copying Apple somehow. Rather than being "done," today's desktop computing has never been cheaper or more powerful or more innovative or of higher quality. Intel and AMD and nVidia R&D and product announcements show no sign of slowing down on the desktop computing front.

It's natural that Apple with a ~5% share of the worldwide personal computer market would make statements like "We're in the post-PC era" and that sort of thing. With such a tiny market share, the Mac could easily be described as always having been in a "post-PC era." I guess the world at large has been in a "post-Mac era" since the first Mac rolled off the assembly line...;) If you are judging by sales numbers, that is.

But Apple's still selling the crap out of Macbooks, which are PCs; and its annual Mac sales (also PCs) fluctuate but always average out to ~5% of the overall PC market annually--and the sales numbers of the "overall PC market" even while temporarily down lately due to world-wide economics as much as anything else, still dwarf the total numbers of tablets sold by all makers combined. The personal computer market is "giganormous." By comparison, the best you can say for the tablet market is that it is "growing," by comparison. Microsoft's projections on just how fast the tablet market would grow this year were tragically off--the company wildly overestimating the tablet product-niche popularity. ('s what happens when you leap before you look, etc.)

Microsoft isn't Apple and has never been Apple (and vice-versa), but if the only thing the folks at Microsoft can think of that's "new" these days is following Apple then Microsoft has no future at all, imo. That's why Gates needs to come back for awhile, though I doubt he will, unfortunately.

Windows 8x64 the way I use it (sans the RT UI--I never see the start screen and I never have to operate within the RT UI) is a very decent upgrade to Win7x64. It's leaner, faster, sleeker and just better designed--uh, except for the RT user interface--the only saving grace of which is that its use is optional (but you have to set it up that way.) Sans the RT UI, I believe Win8x64 would have been very well received and sold much better this year--without the RT UI it is unquestionably better than Win7x64 (which I thought was great...;))

Whether it's about Windows or the xBoxen, 2013 has not been a kind year to Microsoft so far. At least with the xBone Microsoft has responded quickly and somewhat effectively to user complaints and addressed them all prior to shipping, so I doubt the xBone sales will be in the tank when it ships like would certainly have been the case otherwise. I'm hoping that with Win8 8.1 that Microsoft might actually grasp the notion that people without touchscreens do not want to use touch-screen driven UI's within their operating systems! Right now, that's one of the chief components of Microsoft's future--Windows. What Microsoft does with it will in no small part determine whether the company continues to be a major force in the industry, or whether the company simply...falls apart and breaks up as the consequence of its own mistakes in judgement. Ballmer clearly lost his way somehow. My crystal ball is hazy at the moment.
 
Steve said:
Great idea, a CEO from Apple would help MS capture 2% of the OS marketshare in no time! Oh....wait :eek:
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Microsoft wishes it could capture 2% of the relevant OS 2013 market share, i.e., mobile. :rolleyes:

You really are kidding, right Steve? Apple killed the desktop with its mobile revolution, and since Ballmer and Gates didn't see it coming, Apple killed Microsoft.

Oh, and guess who the most profitable personal computer company is right now (excluding mobile). Apple, with over half the profits. So yeah, Apple won the desktop too.

Gates picked Ballmer to succeed him, and remains as Microsoft's Chairman, so all of this happened on his watch. So Gates is far from the former executive from the glory days to return and save the company like Jobs did with Apple. Gates presided over this epic failure.
 
WaltC said:
Rather than being "done," today's desktop computing has never been cheaper or more powerful or more innovative or of higher quality. Intel and AMD and nVidia R&D and product announcements show no sign of slowing down on the desktop computing front.
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Except personal computer sales have cratered. The desktop is dead bro, it's a dinosaur. Go ask HP or Dell or all the companies who stopped selling them. Nobody makes money on them anymore, besides Apple, which gets half the profits of all PC's sold. And of course MSFT, due to their enterprise monopoly, but their profits are flat, since PC sales are flat, and because Windows 8 sucks.

It's natural that Apple with a ~5% share of the worldwide personal computer market would make statements like "We're in the post-PC era" and that sort of thing. With such a tiny market share, the Mac could easily be described as always having been in a "post-PC era." I guess the world at large has been in a "post-Mac era" since the first Mac rolled off the assembly line...;) If you are judging by sales numbers, that is.
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Well if you judge by profits, Apple is dominating the desktop PC market.

But Apple's still selling the crap out of Macbooks, which are PCs; and its annual Mac sales (also PCs) fluctuate but always average out to ~5% of the overall PC market annually--and the sales numbers of the "overall PC market" even while temporarily down lately due to world-wide economics as much as anything else, still dwarf the total numbers of tablets sold by all makers combined. The personal computer market is "giganormous."
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LOL, dinosaurs were ginormous. How'd that work out? Dude, the PC is DEAD.

By comparison, the best you can say for the tablet market is that it is "growing," by comparison.
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Growing? LOL, mobile is a revolution that is killing PC's!

Every year or so, I log onto HardOCP, and it's like entering a time machine to 1999. :p Same mindless anti-Apple bias, different decade.

PC's are dead. Long live mobile.
 
uclajd said:
Microsoft wishes it could capture 2% of the relevant OS 2013 market share, i.e., mobile. :rolleyes:
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They have about 4% in phones and 5% in tablets globally currently, which while small is better than last year, particularly tablets where they were essentially at zero this time last year.
 
jwalk6 said:
Horrible, Horrible Idea. Gates was great for Microsoft up till Windows 95 but bringing him back to the CEO's chair now would be like resurrecting Henry Ford to run Ford Motor Company.

Founders have their time but then they have to go if the business is going to grow into their vision. Having a vision about something doesn't mean you're the one to take it there.

It's why I never felt Ballmer was a good candidate, he made the same mistakes Bill would have.

http://infotechasiseeit.blogspot.com
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I agree, I like bill and all but his vision was realised already plus hes been out of the seat too long.

While I liked steve, his ability to run the company took a steep nose dive around 2003 where his direction changed from "developer" support and into only buying out products.

Plus he could never figure out how to beat apple with a superior product, like the Zune HD.
 
WaltC said:
Windows 8x64 the way I use it (sans the RT UI--I never see the start screen and I never have to operate within the RT UI) is a very decent upgrade to Win7x64. It's leaner, faster, sleeker and just better designed--uh, except for the RT user interface--the only saving grace of which is that its use is optional (but you have to set it up that way.) Sans the RT UI, I believe Win8x64 would have been very well received and sold much better this year--without the RT UI it is unquestionably better than Win7x64 (which I thought was great...;))
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uclajd said:
PC's are dead. Long live mobile.
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No the PC isn't dead but the market is declining and smart phones and tablets are skyrocketing. I just don't see how Windows 8 just as an incremental desktop only upgrade would all of sudden turned the desktop and laptop around and that Windows 8 would have sold a lot better. One thing to consider, even though touch devices are not a large part of the Windows 8 sales, they are pretty significant. Around 12% to 15% of the laptop and another 10 million or so Windows 8 tablets. I'm trying not to RT devices so the number may be off a little up or down but reasonable.

That's a good 30 million devices that have capabilities that a desktop only Windows 8 couldn't power. Some of the touch laptop sales would have been regular desktops but you'd have still near zero sales of Windows 8 tablets. So while the desktop market is shrinking, an incremental desktop only upgrade Windows 8 would have to make the sales of those devices and much more. The numbers just don't seem to add up where a desktop only Windows 8 is some sort of hit that would have sold better than Windows 7, particularly as so many businesses and enterprises were going to Windows 7 regardless of how Windows 8 turned.
 
Exavior said:
Apple isn't as big. They aren't making video game systems, or games, or IPTv systems, or set top boxes, they don't have the number of software products (Office for example), they don't have need to work with other venders for drivers, or the various web applications.... Apple makes computers and phones. Yahoo doesn't have all that stuff either. That is what the person was talking about, the fact that Microsoft is in so many different fields not just one or two.
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Maybe the new CEO needs to fix that. Pepsi is a great example in their bid for controlling product they bought entire restaurant chains just to force them to use Pepsi products. The problem was all of that was costing money to run, and they weren't running it very well because those businesses were not allowed to sink or swim on their own. MS is similar they have windows and enterprise / office bringing in the cash and everything else just limping along. You know some people dis vista but vista was going in the right direction, vista was a media center choice platform, back then I think you could even plug in xbox controllers and they would work as you thought, a complete mouse replacement. But after that MS found success with xbox and every OS has been a setback removing products like good xbox controller driver support, and media center.

MS is now too conflicted in interest. They want to sell expensive enterprise licenses so they cant sell cheap OS versions. They want to push XBOX so they completely screwed PC gaming, and all of it is showing in loss of market share. MS could have just developed the damn 360 controller and interface as a mode for windows and let all OEMs build HTPCs. Instead they sought to control it. They probably would have won had they done it. Instead they will be struggling vs the PS4.
 
uclajd said:
Microsoft wishes it could capture 2% of the relevant OS 2013 market share, i.e., mobile. :rolleyes:

You really are kidding, right Steve? Apple killed the desktop with its mobile revolution, and since Ballmer and Gates didn't see it coming, Apple killed Microsoft.

Oh, and guess who the most profitable personal computer company is right now (excluding mobile). Apple, with over half the profits. So yeah, Apple won the desktop too.

Gates picked Ballmer to succeed him, and remains as Microsoft's Chairman, so all of this happened on his watch. So Gates is far from the former executive from the glory days to return and save the company like Jobs did with Apple. Gates presided over this epic failure.
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Who summoned this guy? You're like Godzilla coming to smash Tokyo, only Tokyo no longer cares.
 
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