Ballmer Speaks on His Solo Act

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "In his first one-on-one interview since Bill Gates's retirement announcement, Steve Ballmer tells the Wall Street Journal he is bullish on Microsoft's investments in online services, and he dismisses as 'random malarkey' the idea that Microsoft is having trouble hiring and keeping the kind of brilliant employees that have always been the company's competitive weapon. Here's Ballmer on Gates's departure: 'As co-leaders of the business, I could allow Bill to be the full-time champion of innovation. And [now] with me really being the guy who's here every day running the place, I must be the champion of innovation.' And on competing with Google: 'We're going to compete. We're going to be in the online business. We are going to have a core around online. We're going to be excellent. That, I would tell people, to count on...'"

Comments

"We're going to be excellent..."

[Junior J. Junior III]

Apparently this is as close to admission that they're not presently excellent as we can hope for.

Re:"We're going to be excellent..."

[SpecTheIntro]

Ugh, the stream of bullshit coming out of Ballmer's mouth just makes my head spin. I don't understand why every chief officer in a tech company thinks they have to admit absolutely no fault and use meaningless business speech? Listen to some of the crap Balmer says:

I must be the champion of innovation. That doesn't mean I must be the guy who comes up with every innovation, but I really have to carry the mantle that says we're going to innovate, we're going to do new things, we're going to get into new areas, we're going to protect and nurture all kinds of innovation. That is my role.

This is not a one-trick pony. We are multicapable, multicore.

The best thing we can do for our shareholders is to be willing to be open-minded to possibilities.

They can't be open-minded, no, they have to be willing to be open-minded. What the hell? And what the hell does being multicapable mean? It's all a bunch of fluff talk, intended to make people think Microsoft is "dynamic," and that they're "expanding into key new markets." Just call it like it is, man. Microsoft hasn't done anything really impressive, on the software front, for five years. Your stock has flat-lined. It's ok to admit that you've got serious work to do. Instead he wants to tout how amazing Microsoft is, or how cutting-edge and forward-thinking their staff is. Just give it a rest. The PR machine really makes me sick.

Re:"We're going to be excellent..."

[Junior J. Junior III]

That's a bit of a distortion. MS usually wins the marketshare war by version 3, that's quite a different thing from saying that they achieve excellence at that point. I strongly question whether excellence is really a part of the Microsoft vision at all sometimes. A few counter-examples for you:

• Word wasn't all that excellent until v. 7.0 on Windows, or 5.1a on the Mac...
• IE was decent for the time at version 3, but really didn't get better than the contemporary version of Netscape until version 5 was released.
• Windows became actually usable... kindof at version 3.11. And still sucked donkey compared to Apple's System 6 and System 7 operating systems for Macintosh. Windows was NEVER, EVER excellent, however. Win95 sucked. Win98 sucked. Win98 SP2 was borderline acceptable, but still sucked. WinME was a relapse back into *dire* suckage.
• Windows *NT* got close to excellent around the release of Windows 2000 SP 2, which would be version 5 for those keeping track.

Re:"We're going to be excellent..."

[Junior J. Junior III]

Agreed; IBM's PC architecture was ALSO non-excellent.

Apple's architecture was better. Their software was better. It wasn't even funny how much better. But it was more expensive. And you could only buy it from Apple.

IBM regarded the PC as a toy, a piece of junk with no practical serious application. More a proof of concept than something you'd want to develop and support. They were pretty much right. They opened the spec, so that fools at other companies could build the boxes rather than be forced to build better.... and then gave away an empire in licensed software to Microsoft because they really didn't want to be bothered with it.

And the rest is history.

How very disappointing!

[jkrise]

I thought he spoke about His Solo Monkey Dance Act!

Re:How very disappointing!

[alexandreracine]

I thought he would speak about his chairs collection...

Re:How very disappointing!

[Alex P Keaton in da]

In all seriousness, Slashdot has matured. When I saw a headline about a "solo act" I was fairly sure that I would be greeted by a multitude of masturb*tion jokes.

Spelling error

[Rik Sweeney]

I must be the champion of innovation

Isn't that spelt

I must wait for someone to do something clever and then rip it off

Re:Spelling error

[tomstdenis]

That's just symptomatic of a company who spends more time and resources on HOW to capitalize on ideas and not enough on WHAT ideas to capitalize on.

In otherwords, they're out of steam.

If MSFTs idea of innovation is to make Windows "even bigger" then I think it's a good sign they're done for. As far as I'm concerned Vista shouldn't require anything more than WinXP or Win2K requires. These "added bonus value" features like the wasteful GUI, WGA and other random tools are further signs.

Tom

"The Lone Ballmer" - Tour 2006

[sharkey]

The Lone Ballmer toure plans to play 30 venues in 90 days, with 3 nights at each. It will feature such classics as "Developers, Devolpers" along with new hits such as "I'm Gonna Fucking Kill $FOO", a scale model of Stonehenge built from office chairs and Ballmer himself dressed in Andre the Giant's classic leotard.

yeeeeaaaaaaarrrrggghhhh

[Anonymous Coward]

We're going to compete. We're going to be in the online business. We are going to have a core around online. We're going to be excellent.

(howard dean voice) YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH

champion of innovation

[gEvil (beta)]

I could allow Bill to be the full-time champion of innovation. And [now] with me really being the guy who's here every day running the place, I must be the champion of innovation.

When Bill was being the "innovative" guy, they generally resorted to copying existing products or entering markets that others had already proven to be successful. Is Steve saying that his approach to "innovation" is a step behind even that?

Re:champion of innovation

[The Loverat]

You could say that he's a Deity of Enterprise, so to speak. That makes him Steve BullmerDE, which is about right if you excuse my French... ;) (Actually Freudian Lips) x

Re:champion of innovation

[SIGALRM]

When Bill was being the "innovative" guy

"Innovation" isn't simply the mechanics of developing something new, innovation often occurs by synthesizing concepts, methods, engineering, etc. into a new idea or technology. For example, the Boeing 777 is considered by many to be innovative, however it is by no means the first commercial jetliner.

While I find it somewhat awkward to be in the position of defending Bill Gates in the context of "innovation" --he uses that word incessantly IMO--Microsoft does manage to create some truly remarkable influences upon technology, if not the least of which is their corporate culture, which is one of the best examples of a Fortune 500 company cultivating the "small-team mindset" and (arguably) nimble despite exponential growth.

Rather scary...

[jejones]

Steve Ballmer, from TFA: "When did China get great? China didn't get great under Mao Zedong. China got great under -- in the recent years -- probably got great under Deng Xiaoping."

I'm skating on the edge of Godwin, but... it's kind of scary when the head of an organization such as Microsoft cites a totalitarian government as an example of greatness.

Re:Rather scary...

[Apocalypse111]

Scary? Considering this is Microsoft we're talking about, to me this ranks somewhere slightly below surprising, and even then only because its almost an admission. Just watch out for Windows Firewall to start filtering content and blocking non-Microsoft sites.

Re:Rather scary...

[Rob T Firefly]

For those unfamiliar with Deng Xiaoping, he's pretty much the guy who rolls tanks over student protesters. But don't try learning that from MSN in China..

Re:Rather scary...

[Dystopian Rebel]

It is hard to read what this man says without concluding that he is a fool.

China got "great" long before the dissastrous 20th century. China's history is measured in ~millenia~, Mr Bollocks.

China invented the first PDA (i.e. paper) thousands of years ago... and it's ~still~ better than Windows CE.

Outdated Icon?

[paladinwannabe2]

Now that Gates is leaving, will we be replacing the classic "We are Microsoft, you will be assimilated" logo for Microsoft stories? Would we have a Borg Ballmer? A Chair-Throwing Ballmer? Just a M$ in large font?

Re:Outdated Icon?

[gEvil (beta)]

Or simply a picture of a dancing monkey?

Re:Outdated Icon?

[mgblst]

Just like Ronald Reagan and George Bush (Jnr), Steve Ballmer is only a pupper. Its still Bill in charge, all the way down.

If we did replace Bill (just so they don't know that we know), maybe it would be Steve in a leotard, sitting on a chair ah la Auguste Rodin famous statue.

Re: Outdated Icon?

[Dolda2000]

Someone else suggested a panorama (read: vista) of a scrap dump. I still find that a rather good idea.

I'm no anti-microsoftie, but...

[Chabil Ha']

I would be a bit worried about Microsoft now that Bill is leaving. I would be worried that a 'geek' has left the innovation chair and is now being turned over to a businessman. That's pretty dangerous, not because he *is* a businessman, but because he is no technological visonary, ie. Steve Jobs.

Re:I'm no anti-microsoftie, but...

[mgblst]

To be fair to Bill, he was a great businessman. His innovation wasn't in the software he created, but in creating and controlling this huge market for Software - beating IBM at the same time. It will be difficult for Steve to screw up, Microsoft is in a fantastic position.

"Random malarky"?

[The_REAL_DZA]

Yeah, I think we can all agree that orderly, predictable malarky is much preferable.

Damage Control By Gates

[cbuckner]

Am I the only one that thinks Bill Gates is getting out of the business before Google embarrasses them so that He can blame the company's failure on Ballmer? Think about it. Under Bill Gates Microsoft is a multi-national; multi-billion dollar business. Under Ballmer they get pummeled by Google and Mozilla. Thus, Gates preserves his image as a brilliant mind and doesn't expose himself for being nothing more than a lucky, opportunistic, proprietor hack.

Re:Damage Control By Gates

[bennomatic]

No, I really honestly think that one day, Bill Gates woke up, looked into the mirror and noticed a gaping, sucking hole where his soul should have been. In the relentless pursuit of success, he destroyed competitors, crushed dreams and caused well-marketed mediocrity to become king over quieter quality. Suddenly, he couldn't ignore it.

He looked at the amazing innovations happening in the FOSS community and realized that as terrible a beast as it was, it was one of his own creation, because any company--other than Apple, which is the only reason that Microsoft avoids major Sherman Act action--which created a powerful, stable operating system like Linux and sold it--even for a dollar--would have been crushed by the mighty weight and hunger of Microsoft. He may not have actually created FOSS, but he certainly created the environment in which it is growing.

So yes, in a way, you're right; he probably does see the writing on the wall. But that's only part of it. It's not that he doesn't want to be blamed, but rather that he's realized that he's defined by something which is doomed, in the end, to fail, as all things are. As he approaches the sunset of his life, he is looking for something that can still be approaching its apex as the lights are going out, instead of watching the slow, painful death of a dinosaur.

If anyone does not believe that a single act of hubris can sink a major company, look no further than Commodore. They once had the best selling computer, worldwide, in the Commodore 64. They were smart, and while developing the Amiga, they also got into PC-compatibles, since they saw that market as likely to explode. However, they refused to license the technology for VGA displays which they had incorporated into their systems, and as such, they got locked out of the US market (for PCs) in the very early 1990s. The Amiga didn't sell well enough, and Europe wasn't a big enough market for PCs, and so the company, which had grown so much, literally imploded.

I don't think that MS will fall apart quite so quickly, but with the lack of true innovation ("Me too!" seems to be their entire vocabulary), and constant and growing court costs, penalties and fines in the millions of dollars, it's not going to be long before the slope is noticably down-hill for them, unless something major changes.

It's not about blame; it's about shame.

Anyone notice a pink elephant around here?

[bhmit1]

He dismisses as 'random malarkey' the idea that Microsoft is having trouble hiring and keeping the kind of brilliant employees that have always been the company's competitive weapon.

When you're that big and popular, I don't doubt that you have an easy time finding talented developers. Sure, you will lose some to the other cool companies like google, but that's not microsoft's problem. The problem is that they are popular because all the applications are written for the current version of microsoft, and the existing code is extremely complicated. They are also the majority, if not the monopoly in many parts of the industry. The result is that you can only lead the industry by abusing your monopoly powers since drastic innovative code changes cause all those applications to start breaking. And with the complex code, any improvement is likely to be drastic. The end result is that competitors pull away parts of your customer base one bit at a time and you are constantly playing catch-up to avoid losing your majority.

Ballmer sums up why MicroSoft is in decline...

[aschoeff]

'And [now] with me really being the guy who's here every day running the place, I must be the champion of innovation.'

QED

Re:Ballmer sums up why MicroSoft is in decline...

[CopaceticOpus]

And [now] with me really being the guy who's here every day running the place, I must be the champion of innovation.'

Seriously. When I read this, I swore I felt a great disturbance, as if millions of stockholders suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

I have four words for you...

[Reverend528]

Developers Developers Developers Developers!

Re:I have four words for you...

[bjorniac]

Mushroom, mushroom?

Interesting

[Klaidas]

I see the storyline is very interesting...
First, Microsoft itself prefers to use Google: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/22/029 243
Then, Microsoft "warns google away": http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/16/204324 2
After that, they change their mind and are going to allow competitive search: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/19/217 218
And now, they are going to

"compete. We're going to be in the online business. We are going to have a core around online. We're going to be excellent"

What's going to be next?

Re:Bloated head

[Chabil Ha']

Steve and Linus are braggarts in their own regard, but what they *do* speaks much louder than what they *say*. Especially Linus. As a person I think he's just as egotistical as Balmer, but the revolution he has created as an engineer was created not by words, but actions.

I think more than anything this is an indicator of the state of Microsoft. If you've got to send the CEO out on PR all the time, then there's some pretty shaking ground that the company is sitting on. Products and services should be able to speak for themselves without the CEO having to go on a media tour to tell how great they are. He's got to go around evangilizing MS because if people (employees as much as customers) hear it enough, they just might start to believe it.

we're going to succeed

[Anonymous Coward]

Favourite quote "There are very few areas where, except for Microsoft Bob, we haven't succeeded or where we're [still] telling you we are going to succeed"
Well apart from the Xbox division, which continues to haemorrhage money, MP3 players, where you're yet to make any serious impression, search, where Google and Yahoo continue to dominate, packaged enterprise applications, where SAP and Oracle dominate, Business Intelligence, where BusinessObjects, Cognos and SAS continue to dominate, and .NET, which continues to languish behind Java as a development platform, and where most of the strategy has never been developed, I can't think of single counter example.

The tanks stopped

[MarkByers]

Actually the tanks didn't roll over him. They stopped for about 30 minutes. The Unknown Rebel then disappeared into the crowd and no-one knows who he is or what happened to him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_Man

Re:The tanks stopped

[rdoger6424]

Him? did you even read the WP article? The tanks rolled over student protesters the night before.

Innovators never talk about "innovation."

[dpbsmith]

They talk about some specific thing they personally want to do.

BIll Gates didn't say "I want to make innovative software," he said he wanted a computer on every desk and Microsoft software in that computer.

Edwin Land didn't say "I want to develop innovative imaging-related products for the consumer and technical markets," he said "Marketing is what you do when your product is no good" and "The bottom line is in heaven."

Re:Predictible Slashdot.

[Fordiman]

Meh. I don't dabble in blue sky. I use Linux on my desktop. And barely use the konsole.

Linux IS ready for the desktop, and now awaits only adoption.

Re:Brilliance?

[symbolic]

and he dismisses as 'random malarkey' the idea that Microsoft is having trouble hiring and keeping the kind of brilliant employees that have always been the company's competitive weapon.

Um, no. The company's "competitive weapon" doesn't have anything to do with the alleged "brilliance" of its employees, save for the number of inventive ways that the security of its products has been compromised. The company's "competitive weapon" quite simply, is its monopolistic, anti-competitive behavior.

Out of curiosity.

[glas_gow]

We're going to be in the online business. We are going to have a core around online.

For how many years have Microsoft been touting this line, that they are going to revolutionise the online world? For the life of me, I can't think of one Microsoft online service that has caused even a murmur never mind a wave of avid followers. Unless you count IE and WMF vulnerabilities as having a "core around online."

Ballmer just shouldn't speak...

[multimediavt]

I'm sorry, but the more interviews I watch and read with Ballmer the more I think that guy is a complete idiot. I think he truly is the dumbest successful person I've *EVER* seen. He talks with the vocabulary of a high school drop out. "{W}e're one of the highest payers in our industry." Payers?!?! WTF! Moron.

Steve Ballmer is Howard Dean's long lost brother?

[IGnatius T Foobar]

"Not only are we going to kill Google, we're going to kill Adobe and IBM and Red Hat and Sybase and Oracle! We're going to kill Yahoo and SalesForce.com and eBay! And we're going to kill RealNetworks and AOL and Sony and Nintendo! And then we're going to Washington, D.C. to throw chairs in the White House! Yeeeeeaaaaaah! Developers developers developers!!!"

So...

[eno2001]

...the business geek retired and left the company in the hands of the frat house human mascot? ;P