Microsoft – Leopard spots.

Microsoft can talk the talk but can it change its spots?

• Microsoft’s reorganisation and new strategy says everything that is needed to turn the company around but talk is cheap.
• The two statements from Microsoft detail how the company will be re-organised to achieve the following:
  • One Microsoft. A structure that ensures that decisions are taken for the benefit of the whole company rather than one particular business line.
  • Devices and services. A range of third party and first party devices and services that offer one experience across all form factors.
  • Core functions. R&D, Sales and Marketing and Operations re-organised to run across all of the product groups rather than separate functions inside each product group.
• The aim is to produce a family of devices and services that offer a user a full suite of services within which to live his Digital Life.
• Furthermore these services should be available across every device from TV to phone in a seamless and easy to access way.
• Microsoft has already made strides towards this goal with the creation of Windows 8, Xbox One and Windows Phone which are much more closely related than their predecessors.
• There is a consistent look and feel across all of Microsoft’s offerings and improvements are being made towards a single sign-on meaning that the dream of unified devices and services is not that far from reality.
• Where it all falls over has been in how Microsoft has been run to date.
• It has been a collection of independent and self-sufficient business lines that act in their own self-interest.
• In effect, Microsoft is a holding company and the stock attracts the discount to match.
• This announcement attempts to change all of that but what companies say and how they really are inside are very often worlds apart.
• Steve Ballmer has decided to break down the ivory towers and force his teams to work together for the greater good.
• His manner is brute force and I don’t know whether this will work.
• He has to break down 37 years of culture and build it up again into something new and this is very difficult achieve especially when one bullies the troops into submission.
• This is why I am far from certain that he is the right man to lead this transition unless he too, changes his spots.
• This change is exactly what Microsoft needs to remain one of the giants of the technology industry but it must become a religion not just lip service.