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Professor Steve Ballmer Will Teach At Two Universities This Year

Posted by samzenpus on from the teaching!-teaching!-teaching! dept.

redletterdave (2493036) writes "When Steve Ballmer announced he was stepping down from Microsoft's board of directors, he cited a fall schedule that would "be hectic between teaching a new class and the start of the NBA season." It turns out Ballmer will teach an MBA class at Stanford's Graduate School of Business in the fall, and a class at USC's Marshall School of Business in the spring. Helen Chang, assistant director of communications at Stanford's Business School, told Business Insider that Ballmer will be working with faculty member Susan Athey for a strategic management course called "TRAMGT588: Leading organizations." As for the spring semester, Ballmer will head to Los Angeles — closer to where his Clippers will be playing — and teach a course at University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. We reached out to the Marshall School, which declined to offer more details about Ballmer's class.

26 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. The first ever business course by silentcoder · · Score: 5, Funny

    that will include a chapter on how to select the most throwable chair.

    --
    Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    1. Re:The first ever business course by gsslay · · Score: 2

      You may laugh, but there's a lot of factors that need careful analysis. Weight, dimensions, material, grip, balance, available space, ceiling height, bounce, damage.. The list goes on. You could fill at least three hour lectures on it.

    2. Re:The first ever business course by lord_mike · · Score: 2

      There is a required lab course in the afternoon.

    3. Re:The first ever business course by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 2

      Apparently there was also to be a class on film processing, but only if he could get enough students to take it. Somebody took a video of his recruitment drive.

  2. I'd love to be in his class by 0xdeaddead · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and know what not to do. If anything Steve is the textbook example on how an MBA brought zero growth to Microsoft, and destroyed not only two biggest cash cows in history, Windows & Office, but doomed the company to failure by de-incentiving through MBA theory of the week games like bands, to constantly backdooring H1B1'ing the workforce.

    Gates made Microsoft, but Balmer destroyed it.

    1. Re:I'd love to be in his class by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Gates made Microsoft, but Balmer destroyed it.

      By what metric?

      http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/msft/financials
      $62 Billion in revenue in 2010 and 87 Billion when he retired.

      Compare these to win Ballmer first took over

      "REDMOND, Wash., July 18, 2000 — Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue of $22.96 billion for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2000, a 16 percent increase over the $19.75 billion reported last year. Net income totaled $9.42 billion."

      So under his 14 year reign, revenue damn near quadrupled. It would appear that the only place he failed is in your mind.

    2. Re:I'd love to be in his class by rmdingler · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Much like the coach in his new venture into the NBA,

      the CEO is often given too much of the blame when things go poorly,

      and too much of the credit when things go well.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    3. Re:I'd love to be in his class by the_B0fh · · Score: 2

      Isn't it the point that he single handedly pissed away Microsoft's lead in tablets, phones, office, windows and Xbox? Making lots of money is easy when you have an illegal monopoly you can leverage.

  3. Take away that fucking chair !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    No chair allows in the class !

  4. "...will teach an MBA class..." by Cornwallis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Guaranteeing yet another generation of assholes will be coming down the pike.

  5. Is he a scientist? by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Is he an actual scientist? Did he do any scientific research? Did he merit a the title of university professor? Sure, he did make money, but that doesn't automatically mean he should earn a title that few people get after working very hard, usually without extreme luxury or profit.

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    I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
    1. Re:Is he a scientist? by bsDaemon · · Score: 4, Informative

      Well, apparently he did score a perfect 800 on the maths section of the SAT, graduated Harvard magna cum laude with a degree in applied mathematics economics, and won some maths related awards in university. But yeah, go on hating him to hate him. That's very mature of you. That said, he did drop out of Stanford's MBA program to join Microsoft and having the MBA himself would seem like a necessary part of being able to teach in an MBA program. However, 34 years of experience at one of the largest, most profitable companies ever, including many years as President before becoming CEO would certainly seem to be more than enough field experience during which to have gained wisdom (that is, knowing what not to do just as much as what to do) with regards to organizational leadership.

    2. Re:Is he a scientist? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Did you even go to college?

      1. Chances are he will be an Adjunct professor not a full professor. Adjuncts don't need a Doctorate they are normally students who are working on their PHDs but for the most part they are people with enough experience in the topic.

      2. What the heck does being a Scientist have to be about teaching classes in Business Administration? Now the MBA program does have a lot of classes that talk about process management which uses a lot of Computer Science methods. However the MBA isn't a Science based study but a research/practical based study. MBA program is a lot about reading case studies and working to find better solutions.

      3. Microsoft is one of the major software companies out there. Even under Balmers rule Microsoft performed rather well considering factors such as a major recession, shift away from desktop technologies, move towards cloud/web computing. A lot of disruptive influences could have killed Microsoft the last decade but the company is still a force to be reckoned with. It takes good leadership to keep such a large company going threw such issues.

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      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:Is he a scientist? by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 2

      Like him or hate him the man assisted in creating one of the most powerful commercial entities in history, one that negotiated not just with whole countries but with entire continents. I'd personally pay good money to get a peek behind the curtains, that's the kind of experience you don't usually get in academia, or anywhere.

    4. Re:Is he a scientist? by metlin · · Score: 3, Informative

      B-schools often hire people who are not in academia per se, but have rich real world experience in solving business problems.

      For instance, you will often find senior partners from top consulting firms teaching classes, because they bring to bear not just academic knowledge but also practical experience.

      People who do their MBA are not there to just learn the latest and greatest management technique from academia -- they also seek to apply that to the real world.

      And this is not just true for MBAs -- it is also true for law schools, medical schools, and many other professional degrees. You'll find former judges and lawyers teaching classes, and you'll find doctors and surgeons with real world experience tempering your academic knowledge with their real world experience.

      Public policy is another area where you former civil servants often teaching classes.

    5. Re:Is he a scientist? by geekoid · · Score: 2

      I disagree. His total experience is with one company, during a unique point in history. You can't teach that because nothing else applies.

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      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  6. Lesson one by argStyopa · · Score: 2

    Lesson 1: if the company executives are bigger news than the company and more importantly, its products, then you're doing something seriously wrong.

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    -Styopa
    1. Re:Lesson one by quantaman · · Score: 2

      Lesson 1: if the company executives are bigger news than the company and more importantly, its products, then you're doing something seriously wrong.

      Like Steve Jobs?

      --
      I stole this Sig
  7. Step #1 Find a Geek by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 3, Funny

    Step #2, follow him into success.

    Step #4, take over the company when he steps down.

    Step #5, fail repeatedly throughout a decade.

    Step #6, teach MBA class at Stanford and USC.

    1. Re:Step #1 Find a Geek by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

      Silly man, everybody knows, "Step #3: Profit!"

    2. Re:Step #1 Find a Geek by Vitriol+Angst · · Score: 2

      He just followed Bill Gates example;

      Step #1, Join a group of geeks creating Basic

      Step #2, Copyright their openly shared work and then sue them.

      Step #3, Hire a hacker to steal CP/M and reelable the drive letters, then repeat the "steal IP and then sue them" procedure

      Step #4, Repeat the taking of other's ideas and then buy their stock when it collapses then stop suing yourself.

      Step #5, Act like a good lawyer repeatedly and have everyone call you a geek.

      Step #6, Retire in luxury and donate some money to some causes instead of pointing out that a thousand other millionaires might have allowed other people to feel achievement rather than put someone on a pedestal who was just a savvy predatory capitalist.

      --
      >>"ad space available -- low rates!!!"
  8. Those who can't... by MachineShedFred · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's been said many times - Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

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    Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    1. Re:Those who can't... by gsslay · · Score: 2

      And those who don't, comment on those who do.

    2. Re:Those who can't... by djbckr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's been said many times - Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.

      I know where that saying comes from as I have had numerous terrible teachers. However I have had many amazing teachers both in normal public schools and in the corporate world. These people could "do". I also used to teach a popular corporate class and my students always appreciated my insights into the product I taught because I actually worked with it in real life. I quit because of the travel and relatively low pay, but I can very much "do".

      I suppose what I'm getting at is, I don't like that saying - it implies that teachers can't do what they teach. I think that's probably the bad apples that create that sentiment. Along the same lines as "99% of the lawyers give the rest a bad name." I'm sure there are a few more percent that are good.

  9. Re:must be a mistake in the summary by GameboyRMH · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was thinking he looks like he was born to be a gym teacher. He has plenty of energy, a balding head, and he sweats profusely.

    --
    "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
  10. And MBA is not like other Master's degrees ... by perpenso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    However the MBA isn't a Science based study but a research/practical based study. MBA program is a lot about reading case studies and working to find better solutions.

    An MBA is not like other Master's degrees. One does not delve deeper into on particular field and do research.

    An MBA program is an overview of all the pieces of an organization. It covers statistics, organizational behavior (of people, psychology stuff), accounting, strategy, product development, operations, marketing, leadership, etc. Few of the students are coming from an accounting background, many are in fact coming from science and engineering backgrounds.

    An MBA program doesn't change you, if you were a software engineer going in you are still one going out. However you are now a software engineer who understands the perspective and concerns of those in accounting, marketing and operations and you can now communicate with them more effectively and are more likely to persuade them.