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Microsoft Narrows Down CEO Shortlist: Elop, Mulally, Bates, Nadella In Mix

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the surprise-surprise-elop-wins dept.

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."

49 of 183 comments (clear)

  1. Those that know ... by jamesl · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Those that know aren't talking. And those that are talking don't know.

    Sources. Ha!

    1. Re:Those that know ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's no way this goes to anyone but Elop.

      Mulally would be the best pick, which is why it's not going to be him.

    2. Re:Those that know ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      I think dead Steve Jobs would do a better job than any of those.

    3. Re:Those that know ... by cusco · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mulally would be the best pick

      Why? The whole Cult Of The CEO revolves around the magical mystical "leadership" aura that supposedly inhabits the specially gifted and turns everything they touch to gold. What a steaming pile of horsepuckey. Saying that Mulally is the best pick because he has succeeded running factories in the past (never mind that most of his success seems to have been lucky timing) is like saying that since my brother knows how to run a remodeling company he would be the best person possible to manage a restaurant chain.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    4. Re:Those that know ... by 0123456 · · Score: 2

      The whole Cult Of The CEO revolves around the magical mystical "leadership" aura that supposedly inhabits the specially gifted and turns everything they touch to gold.

      If that was true, 'former Nokia CEO' Flop sure as heck wouldn't be in the list.

    5. Re:Those that know ... by timeOday · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I largely share your skepticism, but Microsoft seems almost uniquely positioned to get a lot of value from a real leader, if they can find one. On the one hand, it is a highly profitable company with huge resources and a culture of making large, sustained investments. On the other hand, it seems to have trouble rallying around an uncompromised, clear-minded vision.

      The truth is Microsoft could also make a lot of money for many years yet with nothing at the top but a hard-nosed accountant/administrator. But it could also be much more. I suppose most likely they will get the administrator and pay him like a visionary.

    6. Re:Those that know ... by cusco · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Success has nothing to do with the Leadership Aura effect, Carly Fiorina, Donald Trump and Michael Capellas are all highly sought-after.

      --
      "Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
    7. Re:Those that know ... by Sir_Sri · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why?

      Because he's not a microsoft technology nerd.

      Microsoft needs someone at the top who uses their products the way someone who isn't surrounded by microsofties every day does. So they can get their shit together on design. Windows 8 is an example of doing a great job executing a terrible idea. That has to stop. Now.

      It also needs someone who recognizes there is a market beyond himself and can support that (this is where Steve jobs always struggled) - car guys get that. This car might not be for me, but there is a market for it.

      It also needs someone with an internal employee evaluation system that is going to actually make supportive of co-workers and that rewards everyone doing great work when they do.

      Ideally microsoft needs someone who can decide what direction to take the company - an open services and software company that supports a large collection of partners, or a device and services company that has no friends. And to decide which of those is best for shareholders they need someone from outside the microsoft bubble.

      Mulally isn't necessarily the best pick - but of the list of known candidates from outside MS he's got a decent track record.

  2. Is this some kind of Miss World contest? by jkrise · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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....
    1. Re:Is this some kind of Miss World contest? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      First they must be able to pull the chair from the sacred stone, if they can toss it in Google's direction they become CEO

    2. Re:Is this some kind of Miss World contest? by Snotnose · · Score: 2

      The board cloisters themselves in a conference room. When there is no CE0 it's booking terminal shows a BSOD. When there is a CEO the terminal will boot to metro.

    3. Re:Is this some kind of Miss World contest? by Sarten-X · · Score: 2

      Given Microsoft's dictatorial approach to management, he'll just be referred to as "Master", anyway.

      --
      You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
  3. Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple by CodeReign · · Score: 2

    Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple to bring down the MS share prices enough to be bought out.

    1. Re:Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      I posted about this before, but if Elop gets put on charge then MS gets sold to Oracle in 3 years : BECAUSE CLOUD!

      if you look at the stats then ms os stats on devices are going down(due to mobile phones) so it would make perfect sense to announce it as a burning platform(if you totally forget year on year income etc, which he did or rather ignored on purpose before) and that they're going all cloud on everything and........ yeah.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    2. Re:Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Interesting

      He did that for a reason. He was trying to promote WinPhone at all costs. Nokia was an acceptable loss. He has no interest in risking Microsoft. That is his team.

    3. Re:Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple by RaceProUK · · Score: 3, Funny

      This would be the same Apple that uses Windows Azure?

      --
      No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
    4. Re:Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple by lgw · · Score: 2

      Microsoft owns the "business desktop" for as long as it will continue to exist - eventually the concept will fade, replaced by BYOD and thin clients talking to cloud apps. Sure, that will take a decade at least, but no one big enough to matter is going to enter an obviously fading market.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
    5. Re:Elop needs to broker a deal with Apple by ppanon · · Score: 2

      You would think there would at least be grounds for a Nokia shareholder and employee class action lawsuit.

      --
      Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au monde. - Voltaire
  4. Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by balaband · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...that guy that drives companies into ground.

    1. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nah, we're sad that Ballmers fail train is leaving the station.

    2. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      Ballmer is leaving, did you not know that?

      Elop would not surprise me after the hit job he did on Nokia.

    3. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by disposable60 · · Score: 3, Funny

      They might as well be looking at Carly Fiorina, then.

      --
      You're looking for quotes? See my journal.
    4. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      What?
      He osborned the company while it was still profitable. He put out the N900 and let it flounder even when it outsold the windows phones.

      He refused to even consider android, when it would have been possible to make their Linux Phones compatible with it.

    5. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by Kjella · · Score: 5, Informative

      Elop? Nokia was already in a nosedive when he started. If anything, he just guided them to a softer crash into a fluffy Microsoft pillow.

      They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here. They had ten stable quarters with >6 billion in revenue and >500 million euro profit, the Windows Phone deal is announced and boom they go from a 750 million euro profit to a 200 million euro loss and their sales have been in free fall ever since. Yes they needed a revitalization in the smart phone market where Apple and Google were kicking their ass, but they had sales and profits to fix that. Until Elop issued his "burning platform" memo and announced an all-out switch to Microsoft, that is. If Microsoft hires him it's nothing but kickback for burning Nokia to the ground to promote Windows Phone.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    6. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by Kingkaid · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Nokia was tanking long before Elop, it just became much more visible during his reign. And look at what he actually accomplished. Pre-Elop Nokia had ALL divisions losing money. He has now left, and the mapping division is in the black. Their network infrastructure is in the black. Nokia could not make a good run with the phone and device portion, which he was able to sell, giving Nokia enough cash to pay off many restructuring debts. That is actually not a bad record.

    7. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by donscarletti · · Score: 2

      Past success or failure is a poor indicator of future performance for a CEO.

      That's something that incapable senior managers say when looking for a new company to ruin.

      Something I've learned is if you have a new CEO that sucked in his last job, find a new job right away, while the company still looks like it means something on your resume.

      --
      When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
    8. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by alexander_686 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Mod parent up – and here is my 2 cents.

      In a market that is exploding having consistent revenue and profits is not a good thing. It means you are being left behind.

      If you are a company whose products are drifting away from the high-end high-margin end of the market to the low-end low-margin is a troubling sign. It could mean you company is heading towards irrelevance.

      Nokia was heading the wrong direction and a big change was needed. Either Nokia was too far gone or Elop was not up to the job – probably a bit of both.

    9. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by kirkb · · Score: 3, Informative

      You might be wrong about how bad Nokia was pre-Elop:

      http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2013/10/pinpointing-the-elop-effect-3-pictures-from-nokia-financial-data-all-agree-it-was-february-2011.html

      --
      Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
    10. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Please don't spread that myth. This is clearly not true and the numbers are public. The smartphone devision was highly profitable exactly up when the switch to Winodws Phone was declared and Symbian was deprecated. Symbian sales instantly collapsed and Windows Phone never (up to now) got sales even remotely close to that Symbian smatphones had at this point (30 million per quater - Lumia now: 8 million). Nokia was overall a healthy company with losts of cash before Elop and it is close to bankruptcy now.

    11. Re:Slashdot is cheering for,,,, by Anarchduke · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But apple and google were not kicking their ass. The truth is that until Elop took over, Nokia's smartphone division not only had more marketshare, it was growing faster than either Apple or Android. Elop destroyed that http://seekingalpha.com/article/916271-how-stephen-elop-destroyed-nokia

      --
      who prays for Satan? Who in 18 centuries has had the humanity to pray for the 1 sinner that needed it most? ~Mark Twain
  5. A day late and a dollar short by korbulon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Like naming a new captain to the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.

    1. Re:A day late and a dollar short by WWJohnBrowningDo · · Score: 4, Funny

      That's a terrible metaphor. Microsoft is not sinking; Microsoft is soaring!

      If anything, it's like naming a new captain to the Hindenburg after it caught fire.

      Original credits goes to Colbert.

  6. Shocked That Elop is the Front Runner by macromorgan · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Shocked That Elop is the Front Runner by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      You make it look like they are selected on competence ...

    2. Re:Shocked That Elop is the Front Runner by Kingkaid · · Score: 2

      So someone who knows how to manufacture physical products automagically knows how to make software? Is this part of the powers of the Holy Snake Oil that MBAs are anointed with upon graduation?

      You obviously don't know what an MBA teaches. Microsoft is trying to become a physical product company (along with services), so Alan Mulally is a very good choice. You don't need to know how to make something to manage the people that actually make it. You cannot be too arrogant and not listen to them, but if tempered it can work out better. If /. is correct, M$ needs a major change in leadership in order to become successful again.

    3. Re:Shocked That Elop is the Front Runner by Kingkaid · · Score: 2

      Microsoft has made keyboards, mice, and other products for years, in addition to printing and distributing their software since the beginning. Physical products aren't new to MS.

      You're right! That is why they were so successful with the Kin. No wait... Oh there is the Zune... crap. Surface RT? .... Ah the Xbox! Yes that made it, although the first one was run entirely in the red and cost billions to gain the market share it has. So yes, they do have experience in marketing some types of physical products, but the integrated hardware/software ones appear to be not their strong suit. Also note the examples you gave, they were physical products that supported the software they sold. That does make for a large difference.

    4. Re:Shocked That Elop is the Front Runner by lgw · · Score: 2

      Boeing is a research company first, doing "real engineering". Fords success came from introducing new models and features - perhaps not very geeky R&D, but still new engineering.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  7. NONE OF THE ABOVE by PortHaven · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:NONE OF THE ABOVE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >Former Ford CEO - hey at least Ford has been doing well. But does this guy know a wheel from a mouse?

      Well, let's see:

      Mulally was hired by Boeing immediately out of college in 1969 as an engineer. He held a number of engineering and program management positions, making contributions to the Boeing 727, 737, 747, 757, 767 and 777 projects. He led the cockpit design team on the 757/767 project. Its revolutionary design featured the first all-digital flight deck in a commercial aircraft,...

      Yeah, probably.

  8. Re:another candidate by drfred79 · · Score: 2

    John McAfee

  9. 'internal' hire by globaljustin · · Score: 2, Insightful

    There's no way this goes to anyone but Elop.

    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
  10. Only Elop could replace Ballmer by GameboyRMH · · Score: 2

    He's the only worse CEO, and the only one nearly crappy enough.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  11. Consider versus choice by Kingkaid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Consider versus choice by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Informative

      No, he did not consider it. He was going to use WinPhone no matter what.

      If you have no other options a knife fight is a fine choice. LG seems to be doing fine as well. Dell is trying again and moto finally seems to have some traction with the X.

      The N900 could have been the beginning of going their own way. It at least would have given them a chance at something.

      Elop wanted WinPhone to succeed, Nokia was secondary to that.

    2. Re:Consider versus choice by Richard_at_work · · Score: 3, Informative

      What the hell do people see in the N900 - I had one, my wife had one and we both hated it (but for different reasons). It was flimsy, slow and buggy - what am I missing that other people got?

    3. Re:Consider versus choice by preflex · · Score: 2

      What the hell do people see in the N900?

      The n900 doesn't try to pretend it's not a computer. Maemo is a real linux distro, using X11 as its display server. Everything else is a dumbed-down toy.

      If you don't see the value of this, then I guess the n900 just isn't for you. Have fun with your fart apps.

  12. Hope for Elop by devent · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  13. Re:recruiting a Captain for the Titanic by Voyager529 · · Score: 2

    Let's count the issues here...

    1.) Microsoft backing CD-ROM at the time isn't as horrifying at it might seem. If they were backing CD-ROM in 2013, yes, that's dumb. In 1992 though, when 28.8kbps was considered "pretty quick" for a home user, there was no way that a browser-based Encarta would have been a good thing. Steam couldn't have gained any meaningful traction in a dial-up world, and anyone who would want to go online to write a book report for school would have been laughed out of the room in 1992. Proliferant broadband makes backing optical media a bad idea today, but check out some of the software that Microsoft made in 1992 - CD-ROM was the only way to do it.

    2.) Microsoft "missed the boat" with search because they started out following the "Yahoo Model" instead of the "Google Model". Each had good points and bad points, but they tried selling a landing page to customers that wanted more advanced and powerful search parameters, and assumed that people would search in computer-friendly ways, rather than adapting their computers to searching in people-friendly ways. Bing is still pretty good for pop culture searches, but pathetic at searching even Microsoft's own knowledge base for Windows and Office errors. Depending on what you're looking for, this might be an acceptable tradeoff.

    3.) If you're referring to freely available operating systems, office suites, and server software, you're half-right. An alternative OS is free. An alternative OS that runs Serato or AutoCAD or ProTools or Photoshop is not. An alternative office suite is free. An alternative office suite that supports any one of the dozens of very-expensive, business-running plug-ins like F9 or Crystal Reports is not. Server software is free. Server software that runs Exchange is not. "Free" is great where it can be great, but "free" can also be "incredibly expensive" as well.

    4.) Xbox does indeed worry me with regards to its ability to spy. I wonder if some sort of simple mechanism that gives a physical on/off switch to an ethernet port will catch on...

    5.) I have been hoping that ReactOS would gain solid traction for some time; in my opinion it's the thing that has the most possibility of actually dethroning Windows, because it's intended to be a drop-in replacement for Windows itself, using the same drivers and software models, for better or worse. However, their inability to get out of the "alpha" stage (something I'll certainly blame Microsoft for making difficult) means that the title giving Microsoft an honest run for their money is still a long way's off. Additionally, what Microsoft has going for them is a whole lot of people with a whole lot of procedural memory. People who understand the concepts of word processing have a minimal learning curve going between Microsoft Word and WordPerfect and LibreOffice Writer and Abiword. People who "know Word" will never switch. The OSS groups have diametrically opposed objectives here: the more they look like Office, the more flack they get from existing users who "would have used Word if they wanted Word", while the more uniquely designed the program is, the greater learning curve from users who only know to "click the blue 'W'".

    6.) "Fast enough" processing seems to creep up more quickly than most people seem to realize. Anyone here want to give their mom a P4 with 512MB of RAM for a main desktop? A few might, using Puppy Linux or similar, but for the most part, single-core processors aren't powerful enough for things anymore. For most people, Flash is indeed the most CPU intensive application their computer realizes, but even casual users will notice choppiness on Candy Crush Saga. "Good Enough Audio" is effectively free now and offboard audio interfaces are indeed a niche space, but that was one of the first problems solved with desktop computing; "good enough audio" easily existed in 1994; the only place left for it to go was miniaturized and priced to nothingness; audio playback processing has been minimally processor intensive for decades. GPU performance st

  14. Rumors from Redmond suggest a surprise candidate by MiniMike · · Score: 2

    The rumors I heard suggest the new CEO will be a strong contender from the 'unnamed' list: Clippy.