Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Narrows Down CEO Shortlist: Elop, Mulally, Bates, Nadella In Mix
rjmarvin writes "Sources have confirmed that Microsoft has narrowed down its search for its next CEO to five external candidates and at least two internal candidates. Rumored frontrunner Stephen Elop, former Nokia CEO, and Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally are reportedly in contention, along with Microsoft's Skype head Tony Bates and their cloud and enterprise chief Satya Nadella. The other external candidates who've emerged from the approximately 40 rumored names swirling around since August have not yet been revealed."
Those that know aren't talking. And those that are talking don't know.
Sources. Ha!
where the list gets narrowed down daily and the winner is announced after 3 days? In the case of MS, looks like this joke will go on for a year.
My hunch is that Elop already holds the reins to the ruins; this media contest is just a soapera.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple to bring down the MS share prices enough to be bought out.
...that guy that drives companies into ground.
Like naming a new captain to the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.
He did so much for Apple, after all!
MS should include Scott Forstall to the candidate list
Given what Alan Mulally had done for Ford as CEO and Boeing as a senior VP, I'm shocked he's not the front runner. He helped lead Boeing's resurgence against increased competition from Airbus, and then made Ford the strongest of the big three automakers and the only one able to weather the storm of the Great Recession. It would seem only fitting that he would be picked to lead Microsoft as it attempts to reinvent itself against growing competition.
Hey. Would ya look at that? Nutella is in the mix! Tasty stuff, that. And I'll bet it'd be a LOT more intelligent at running uSoft than the other names on the short list.
I certainly want Elop in charge. It will bolster Linux development immensely.
So the choices are
a) Nokia - a tech giant that went on major decline, so select their CEO to fix your major decline. Ya ...
b) Former Ford CEO - hey at least Ford has been doing well. But does this guy know a wheel from a mouse?
c) Skype - hey at least they got someone to buy them for a lot of $$$
One choice that was touted at one point was to have have Microsoft buy Netflix and make Reed Hastings CEO. While I think he'd do well as CEO. I'd hate that for Netflix.
yup...agree...
Elop is listed as an 'outside' candidate, but he was essentially a mole for M$ for his whole debacle at Nokia. He went in, ran that company into the ground...now he gets his reward.
Watching M$ die its weird death is sort of like the scene in Blade Runner when Pris is killed and does that awesome android freak out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9t5ikxjAQ4
Thank you Dave Raggett
I'm not really familiar with any of these people, but did they really just add the Bates person to the list because their last name sounds like Gates?
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
Microsoft is over- the Wintel alliance is going the way of the CP/M and Z80 team that ruled before it. Betas have the hardest time understanding that NOTHING lasts forever, regardless of its apparent success during their lifetimes.
Could MS be turned round in theory and made relevant for the emerging phase in computing? Obviously yes, but more obviously the 'in theory' has the deepest meaning, for when great companies die, they always have greater riches/resources than the new-comers that are going to replace them.
The Internet revolution came closest to wiping out Microsoft before- Microsoft actually bet the farm on 'interactive media on optical disk'- ie., CDROM. Very few of you reading this will believe me, or even conceive what it would mean for a company to back CDROM, rather that the Internet. The very concept seems nonsensical from our current POV. But at the highest level, Microsoft dismissed the Internet as a total non-starter, and claimed that the "extraordinary storage" of optical disks would change the experience of every domestic and business PC user.
Of course, we now know that years later, MS saw the light, and through their weight behind the Internet, buying the rights to the best browser technology of the time, and crafting the best browser for the next period. However, MS clearly missed the boat, and never recovered a leading position online.
Today, Microsoft faces an impossible situation. Everything it makes money from can be provided for free from other sources. The Wintel alliance is now toxic, as one-trick pony Intel discovers that having only one business success, the effective x86 monopoly, is good only as long as the world is willing to pay Intel sickeningly obscene amounts of cash for its increasingly mediocre products. ARM is remorseless replacing x86 (just as x86 remorselessly replaced the Z80, 60000 family, MIPS and PowerPC), and to add insult to injury, AMD has just gained the ENTIRE x86 business in the new consoles from Sony and Microsoft.
Microsoft's new console should be the CHEAPEST this Xmas, but is by far the most expensive, having focused exclusively on providing the NSA with the most advanced spying tools in the homes of ordinary Americans. Microsoft's tablets should have been priced to go from the off, but are the most expensive in the market, and have zero popularity. Microsoft's RT operating system (the dreadful 'NEW-UI' replacement for the crap they used to put on PDAs and phones) should be FREE, but actually sells (to OEMs) for MORE than the cost of the cheapest variety of full-blown Windows 8.
But fixing mistakes like these, and hundreds of others that Microsoft is now making every year, will not fix the mid-to-long term prospects for Microsoft. Microsoft and Intel's time is over. Their run has been FAR longer than either deserved, and is a consequence of the (up to now) hopeless competition. But it was inevitable that the incompetence and disarray of the vastly better positioned emerging players would not last forever.
The whole world, domestic and corporate, wants a free Linux-based replacement for Windows. The first company that bashes Linux into a shape at least as complete/useful as Windows XP will have an unstoppable success, and at this time we assume such a product will be Android for Desktops (Android with a standard multi-windows shell/UI/API/environment). The cost of computing is falling (at last), and the future CANNOT provide the margins that are the essential food for companies structured like Microsoft and Intel to survive on.
The cost of sufficient CPU performance is approaching free (Microsoft and Intel need this figure to be >80 dollars on average). While many of you here are far too stupid to believe in 'free', 2D-graphics and sound went the same route to 'free' in the near(ish) past, wiping out all the mainstream corporations that made their money from providing these solutions in your computers. Likewise, the cost of sufficient GPU performance (for desktop and casual gaming) is also approaching free. The
He's the only worse CEO, and the only one nearly crappy enough.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
He considered android and chose not to use it, there is a difference. You could say it may have worked out well for Nokia had they picked android. Then again look at who tried Android: Dell, HTC, Samsung, LG, Motorola, Lenovo, etc. The only one that can safely say they did well with the android platform is Samsung. That is one winner and most of the other companies were destroyed in the process. The android market was a knife fight, it is not insane to decide not to participate in it.
I guarantee a doubling of stock price in 2 years.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
After his success to burn Nokia, as a Linux user, I hope for him.
I'm looking forward to his Burning Platform memo on Microsoft.
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
The rumors I heard suggest the new CEO will be a strong contender from the 'unnamed' list: Clippy.
If the list doesn't have Scott Forstall on, then it's a list made up by a journalist.
And given Elop has managed to destroy every company he's ever run, I find it hard to believe that that the Microsoft board of directors will be so stupid.
My guess, the return of Gates III as it turns out that every other candidate falls short in some way.
--- My dad's political betting
Clearly they need to hire someone named Gil Bates, that would be awesome.
G.
Steve Wozniak. He would be one of the few that could turn Microsoft around and back into a tech company that changes the world in a good way.
Sadly, MSFT board members are not interested in that.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
"Microsoft rules the business software world. "
Pipe dream.... Oracle and others rule the business software world. Microsoft has only two inroads, OS and the office suite. Everything else they sell is 3rd bananana or worse.
The important parts of a business, the parts that make money or handle the money have NOTHING to do with microsoft products.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Microsoft rules the business software world.
I believe they said something similar about RIM back in 2009. Where are they now?
Microsoft will continue to do the one thing they have done well since inception. Compete.
MS has tried to compete but their success has been limited outside Windows and Office. Even products like Xbox and Bing which has some success are not financially successful.
They will continue to compete with every other software and now hardware vendor out there. The product lines are diverse and much larger than any other technology company.
And that's a problem. They have been fighting a multi-front war and losing on most of them.
Competition with everyone else in the market will always make Microsoft a viable entity in business at least until developers stop showing up on their doorstep.
Some would call that a lack of focus. Looking at their development platforms, how many have MS promoted and abandoned in the last several years. Developers are not eager to continue doing so. Win 8 has not helped the situation. They are not flocking in droves to program for Metro.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Oh, I thought it was going to be Megan Mullally. That would be awesome.
Sean Hayes could be head of marketing.
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
If Ford autos under Mulally's watch was known for bad Microsoft software (Sync is regarded as a source of trouble by Consumer Reports), will Windows start shipping with failing automobile transmissions?
... I'd change my name to Gil. Gil Bates. It's a proven fact that familiar names get more votes on a ballot.
Go Tony! Er, Gil!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
When the current CEO has spent twenty years eliminating potential future rivals.
Seriously, that's the best leadership talent Microsoft has? Microsoft, the company that we all used to be terrified of?
How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished.
Mulally would be the best pick, which is why it's not going to be him.
Mulally the best pick? He did an incredible job at Boeing and Ford but why would that experience translate to Microsoft? Microsoft isn't building passenger carrying vehicles out of metal and composites.
Brilliance is domain specific. Being a rocket scientist, and Mulally literally is one, doesn't mean you will excel in any field.
Former Ford CEO - hey at least Ford has been doing well. But does this guy know a wheel from a mouse?
He is literally a rocket scientist. BS and MS degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering. When he studied business he did so at MIT. He spent many years at Boeing in their Space and Defense division and in the Commercial Aircraft division.
That said, I share the sentiment that knowing how to make passenger carrying vehicles out of metal and composites qualifies one to run Microsoft.
Oracle? Let me guess, you're a fan of SAP as well? In all the dozens of businesses that I have worked with over the last decade and a half only two of them had Oracle installations. Implementing both were multi-year multi-million dollar fiascoes, and both have been phased out and replace with SQL Server and Informix. Very, very few companies have the need for a beast like Oracle, and even fewer have the staff to support it. Claiming that Oracle rules its segment of the business software world because WalMart uses it is rather like claiming that Lamborghini rules the automotive world because the Prince of Monaco drives one.
Microsoft has only two inroads, OS and the office suite.
OK, there you have just defined 90+ percent of all the computers every business (that isn't a data farm) owns. That would still be THE dominant position in the business software world even if your statement were correct (which it isn't). Almost every company of any size uses Active Directory for its LDAP authentication, and Exchange is the world's dominant email server. Oh, and Microsoft's cloud infrastructure is one of the largest in the world and it runs Windows. Although Apache is the largest Internet-facing web server, IIS is the largest internally-deployed web server.
So yeah, you're full of crap.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Mulalley is too old. Elop the Nokia guy destroyed his own company and the 'internal' candidates listed were injected into MS from acquisitions and can't wait to cash out. MS is actually a very conservative company they will pick a long time insider. It shouldn't amaze anyone if they pick someone with an accounting or legal background. MS is a portfolio of acquisitions now not an internally innovative company. They BUY innovation.
Elop went to Nokia as a subversive, to nuke their share price, so that MS could buy them on the cheap.
Save a company a few billion, and you tend to be remembered.
Although considering him an "outsider" is a bit of a stretch. And buying Nokia's handset business does NOT mean that MS now knows how to make hardware.
If the guy is a suitable candidate to run the firm, it would almost be too perfect :-)
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...