Microsoft Should End The Steve Ballmer Experiment

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We hear this every time Microsoft screws up, but is it really time for Ballmer to be replaced?

Today's version of Microsoft is a shell of what it once was in the mid- to late 90s. And if the company cares about its future, it must finally come to terms with what the Street already knows -- Steve Ballmer is no longer the guy to lead. After this most recent earnings disaster, it's worth asking if he ever was.
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Agreed, he's running the company into mediocrity. He seems to be forgetting that their market share is due to business and professional adoption.
 
He appears to be reactive instead of proactive.

I would start the succession process and get a young evangelist in there. Someone who has been on the streets and not sitting in an ivory tower for the last 25 years.
 
MS needs to fail hard before Ballmer is shown the door. That's still another year or two away.
 
Microsoft definitely needs to get rid of Ballmer and that should also extend to other executives. The company is beyond stagnating and you can see major failures from their OS divisions right on through to the Xbox division. Microsoft used to be about user empowerment and these days it has become an applevclone seeking control over the user.
 
If it wasn't for the business revenue that they generate from licensing (which they are trying to destroy with their shitty new OS designs), Microsoft would have tanked a long time ago.
 
I'm sure Ballmer was an excellent salesman, but I never thought he was the right guy to lead Microsoft. HP, Microsoft, even Apple now, floundering as old men, devoid of vision try to keep shareholders happy.
 
http://semiaccurate.com/2013/07/22/microsoft-drove-the-bus-off-the-cliff-now-it-tries-to-speed-up/

All of these fairly basic fixes needed to happen months ago in order for those needing the results to see the changes in a timely manner. Microsoft did none of this and quite bluntly went farther in the wrong direction in every case. Instead of fixes we got a reorg that consolidated power in the hands of the most incompetent of them all Steve Ballmer. If he was fired months ago there was a small chance Microsoft would survive, today he has more control than before.
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Well good luck with Ballmer, the screwup with tablets is the just beginning people who single handedly decide to piss off all of their hardware partners and screw OEM with costs while MS sells the hardware cheaper guess what ?
 
I do feel he definitely is contributing to the negative side of Microsoft lately. They need to dump all the new BS that is ticking their customer base off imo. And considering he is the man in charge, I'm pretty sure he's the one taking them in their new 'direction'.
 
Way overdue.

I don't think he should have gotten the spot in the first place.

I wish Bill Gates would pull a Steve Jobs. Come back however long he wants, kick some ass, clean house, and get things back on track.
 
I always thought Ballmer had the perfect personality to be an African warlord. I can picture him eating a human heart while doing cocaine.
 
Q-BZ said:
I wish Bill Gates would pull a Steve Jobs. Come back however long he wants, kick some ass, clean house, and get things back on track.
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I don't think Gates is the one to lead MS now either. He'd be better than Ballmer, but I think they could do better with someone new. Ballmer is a train wreck.
 
Q-BZ said:
Way overdue.

I don't think he should have gotten the spot in the first place.

I wish Bill Gates would pull a Steve Jobs. Come back however long he wants, kick some ass, clean house, and get things back on track.
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I think what BillG is doing right now around the world is better and more important than anything he could accomplish by coming back here. The impact of his efforts to combat disease, poverty, and other such programs is much greater than what he could do at Microsoft's helm.

Ballmer would probably be a great CFO, as he's a numbers guy. However, as our company's CEO, I see too much reaction and not enough vision to "be what's next." Unfortunately, I don't know who would best replace him, either from within our ranks or outside.
 
Doom and gloom aside, MSFT is doing some really great things on the backend with Server 2012. They need to keep in mind that their products drive the worlds data, not sit on top of it and consume it like Apple.
 
Restructuring means nothing if you have the same people in charge making the same bad decisions.
 
Even if he has the capability inside him to begin making good decisions, his reputation is already beyond salvageable at this point. Every new idea Microsoft comes up with is going to be taken in under the context of "ugh, another desperate idea by Balmer" instead of evaluating it on it's own merits.
 
developers, developers, developers, developers,
developers, developers, developers, developers!
 
No way! Ballmer is like totally that guy for the company and was like in with Bill Gates from waaaaaaay back a long time ago. Letting him go would be so, so dumb! :( He invented the iPod and pretty much took the smartphone industry away from RIM all by himself.
 
Microsoft is just one of those companies whose financials look like a kids sandbox in a neighborhood full of cats. On the surface, everything looks OK, dig a little deeper, and its full of shit. Suffice it to say, I think there is a lot more red ink hiding in the numbers and they are pacing/concealing/staggering those losses to reduce shock value/preserve stock value. I am not going to throw Enron out there as a comparison, but............

Charlie's opinion aside, Microsoft has just made some mind numbingly bad moves in a market that will no longer tolerate incompetence. 15-20 years ago when you were the only OS on the biggest computer platform, you could get away with incompetence. Now it costs you.

Microsoft has many many tons of cash laying around to cover fuckups with, so short term, meh. Long term, strategically, problems are there.
 
punisher said:
Microsoft is just one of those companies whose financials look like a kids sandbox in a neighborhood full of cats. On the surface, everything looks OK, dig a little deeper, and its full of shit. Suffice it to say, I think there is a lot more red ink hiding in the numbers and they are pacing/concealing/staggering those losses to reduce shock value/preserve stock value. I am not going to throw Enron out there as a comparison, but............

Charlie's opinion aside, Microsoft has just made some mind numbingly bad moves in a market that will no longer tolerate incompetence. 15-20 years ago when you were the only OS on the biggest computer platform, you could get away with incompetence. Now it costs you.

Microsoft has many many tons of cash laying around to cover fuckups with, so short term, meh. Long term, strategically, problems are there.
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I agree. You can only have so many Win ME, Vista, Win 8, etc.. releases and expect new Office sales or other divisions to cover it up forever. Most companies are fine with office 2007/2010 and adding cloud bells and whistles to the latest office is not enough to justify upgrades. New management with new direction is needed, not just shuffle the same people around and call it good.
 
IMO, two things have to happen first in order to determine Steve's fate with MS:
- XBox One (it needs to be a major money maker from the consumer segment)
- Windows 9 (it needs to do what Win8 really isn't good at: be a massive money maker from the business segment)

If both turn out to be home runs, then Ballmer will stay. If one or both fail, then buh-bye.
 
pcjunkie said:
Restructuring means nothing if you have the same people in charge making the same bad decisions.
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Well in fairness he did finally pull the ribbon lady off of the place where she was most dangerous, and transplanted her to a division where the products already sell themselves. Putting the Winphone O/S guy in charge of Windows division can only be an improvement.

But ultimately Ballmer's done little more than coast on the momentum created by Gates, though 2000-2010 is often described as "the lost decade" because Ballmer wasn't able to do jack except coast on the Windows PC monopoly, and now the pendulum has swung the other way and he's willing to bet billions on whatever hairbrained Apple-lusting overreaction scheme the fratboy marketing majors, Sinofsky and the ribbon lady came up with. And the "restructuring", quite honestly, will probably amount to little more than printing everyone new business cards because they haven't actually gotten rid of the people that have done damage and caused the warfare between divisions, only transferred them to another parish like some happyhanding catholic priest.

msft-from-jan-2000.png
 
temujin987 said:
developers, developers, developers, developers,
developers, developers, developers, developers!
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I was going to post the exact same thing. Somebody needs to give that guy a group of teenagers and a bunch of football equipment, because he totally missed his calling as a high school football coach.
 
Yes, Steve Ballmer is the one who should absolutely be replaced.
Most of the time, when Microsoft dislikes are made, it can normally be traced back to Ballmer's incompetence.

pcjunkie said:
Restructuring means nothing if you have the same people in charge making the same bad decisions.
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Absolutely.
 
jstnomega said:
just sad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U
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"The iPhone isn't good in businesses because it doesn't have a keyboard."
Dumbest fucking comment I've heard in a long time.

Granted this was from 2007, and granted there are many other reasons the iPhone doesn't fit in well within enterprise environments, but seriously Ballmer...
I love how the Zune no longer exists (yet another of Microsoft's products designed to fuck their loyal customers and users by EOL and zero support), and also how the Windows Phone do not have keyboards; Apple much, Ballmer?

The guy doesn't even act like he knows the basics of corporate or enterprise technology-based knowledge.
Ballmer is also the guy that said Linux is a cancer upon the world. :rolleyes:
 
Is heartlessun dead or something? This is the second MS bashing article I've seen today that he wasn't cheer-leading by post 3.
 
bigddybn said:
Is heartlessun dead or something? This is the second MS bashing article I've seen today that he wasn't cheer-leading by post 3.
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He's running out of material. Seriously.
Even heatlesssun can't defend Microsoft or Ballmer at this point.

Microsoft has just been doing too much damage to itself and to its customers.
 
bigddybn said:
Is heartlessun dead or something? This is the second MS bashing article I've seen today that he wasn't cheer-leading by post 3.
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Red Falcon said:
He's running out of material. Seriously.
Even heatlesssun can't defend Microsoft or Ballmer at this point.

Microsoft has just been doing too much damage to itself and to its customers.
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Because everyone that tried to present him with obvious facts about the reality of Microsoft and Windows 8 being in the sad states that they are were met with his comments filled with a seemingly elitist attitude stating the contrary. This article proves that he was arguing irrefutable evidence all along and just about everyone did, in fact, know what the fuck they were talking about. Alas, I doubt we will see any semblance of humility leading to an apology out of him.
 
thedintedcan said:
Agreed, he's running the company into mediocrity. He seems to be forgetting that their market share is due to business and professional adoption.
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What? MS is doing very well in business in fact the reality is that the consumer space is where they are hurting most and do not have the right products. Maybe the problem is Ballmer knows way to well their success was due to business adoption.

The first rush of computing was for those who could afford $3000 PCs for niche use, IE businesses, the first mobile rush which was won by black berry and MS was gainging ground in was won the same way. But this new mobile rush is being won on the opposite front, in the consumer space. Consumers who use iPhones and Execs are going to their businesses and saying I want to use this here make it work. Not the other way around which was I used a windows computer at work and now that I can finally afford one I will buy that.
 
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