 "Round Table: Steve Ballmer’s hits and misses during his reign")
In about eleven months, Microsoft’s flamboyant CEO, Steve Ballmer, will be handing over the keys to Microsoft to the next brave soul. Finding a replacement isn’t going to be an easy task for the board of directors as taking charge of Microsoft is no cake walk. In the meantime, we look back at Steve Ballmer’s decade plus career to discuss some of his success and failures as far as products and services go.
In the next few months, Microsoft plans to transition to a devices and services company. In order to facilitate the process, the Board of Directors has appointed a special committee for the same. This committee will be chaired by John Thompson, who is the board’s lead independent director, and also includes Chairman of the Board Bill Gates, Chairman of the Audit Committee Chuck Noski and Chairman of the Compensation Committee Steve Luczo.
According to the statement, the special committee will be working in tandem with Heidrick & Struggles, which is a leading executive recruiting firm. The committee will take into account both external and internal candidates for the position vacated by Ballmer.
It all began in the year 2000, when Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates as CEO. A year later, Microsoft launches Xbox gaming console to compete with Sony’s Playstation 2. This was a big success for Microsoft and four years down the line, we got the successor to the original in the form of the Xbox 360. Some would argue that Microsoft rushed the new console a little too soon in order to get ahead of its competitor and that showed with the infamous RRoD issues.
Microsoft also dabbled with MP3 players for a short time. The Zune turned out to be quite a disappointment and was nowhere close to the Apple’s iPod. Microsoft’s second attempt was a lot better but sadly, due to lack of apps and proper support, it died a natural death. Microsoft’s Windows Vista was easily the company’s least favourite Operating System. After the smartphone boom, Microsoft released Windows Phone in order to counter Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS.
Throughout his tenure, we see that Microsoft was playing catch up most of the time, whether it was to Sony, Google or Apple. The lack of innovation and foresight was one of the reasons for Microsoft’s falling stock prices a couple of years back and why Steve Ballmer probably had no choice but to resign his duties. Do you think his resignation will finally get Microsoft back on track and if so, who would be the best person to captain this ailing ship?
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