Execs bolting from Microsoft
Tags: Microsoft, Apple, Marketing
Business Week has an article titled "Troubling Exits At Microsoft" that talks about the problems that currently dog Redmond's business including excessive focus on defending its monopolies, stifling bureaucracy, and general incompetence. But it turns out you don't have to read it in Business Week; you can get the same in a more timely manner from Mini Microsoft, a blog written by a Microsoft employee.
The handwriting was on the wall for this six years ago when I wrote a piece for Forrester Research titled, "Memo To The Judge: Swing The Ax On Microsoft." In it, I said this:
What indeed. This is a marketing challenge, a business challenge, and a strategy challenge. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said when launching the project to develop the iPod nano nine months ago that playing it safe was the most dangerous thing he could do. Let's hope that type of thinking makes its way north to Redmond before the great Microsoft crash of 2006. But at the very least given our current energy crisis, could the last executive leaving Microsoft remember to turn off the computers before he leaves?
Business Week has an article titled "Troubling Exits At Microsoft" that talks about the problems that currently dog Redmond's business including excessive focus on defending its monopolies, stifling bureaucracy, and general incompetence. But it turns out you don't have to read it in Business Week; you can get the same in a more timely manner from Mini Microsoft, a blog written by a Microsoft employee.
The handwriting was on the wall for this six years ago when I wrote a piece for Forrester Research titled, "Memo To The Judge: Swing The Ax On Microsoft." In it, I said this:
Let's face it -- Microsoft is already too big to exploit the talent that it has locked up inside itself. Splitting up the company will unlock this value and establish an industry landscape comparable to the breakup of AT&T. Today's Microsoft shareholders would, at minimum, receive shares in both a monopoly operating system company and a competitive applications company. Meanwhile, users would get stable platforms, standards, and competition -- and the US Government wouldn't get dragged into the software babysitting business. So what are we waiting for?
What indeed. This is a marketing challenge, a business challenge, and a strategy challenge. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said when launching the project to develop the iPod nano nine months ago that playing it safe was the most dangerous thing he could do. Let's hope that type of thinking makes its way north to Redmond before the great Microsoft crash of 2006. But at the very least given our current energy crisis, could the last executive leaving Microsoft remember to turn off the computers before he leaves?
posted by Carl Howe at
5:41 PM
| View blog reactions
| 
