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Microsoft's Steve Ballmer is 'worst CEO'

May 14, 2012 @ 9:41 am (Updated: 6:16 pm - 5/14/12 )

BallmerMicrosoft's Steve Ballmer is the "worst Chief Executive Officer of a large publicly traded American company today," that according to Forbes.

The Forbes article, 5 CEOS that should have already been fired, says Ballmer has destroyed shareholder value and jobs at Microsoft and "singlehandedly steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets."

While other CEOs on the list include the heads of GE, WalMart and Sears, the Forbes writer comes down hard on Ballmer ranking him as number 1 - the worst of the worst.

Here's what Adam Hartung writes about Ballmer:

Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today. Not only has he singlehandedly steered Microsoft out of some of the fastest growing and most lucrative tech markets (mobile music, handsets and tablets) but in the process he has sacrificed the growth and profits of not only his company but “ecosystem” companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard and even Nokia. The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value – and jobs.

Microsoft peaked at $60/share in 2000, just as Mr. Ballmer took the reins. By 2002 it had fallen into the $20s, and has only rarely made it back to its current low $30s value. And no wonder, since execution of new rollouts were constantly delayed, and ended up with products so lacking in any enhanced value that they left customers scrambling to find ways to avoid upgrades. By Mr. Ballmer’s own admission Vista had over 200 man-years too much cost, and its launch, years late, met users avoiding upgrades. Microsoft 7 and Office 2012 did nothing to excite tech users, in corporations or at home, as Apple took the leadership position in personal technology.

So today Microsoft, after dumping Zune, dumping its tablet, dumping Windows CE and other mobile products, is still the same company Mr. Ballmer took control over a decade ago. Microsoft is PC company, nothing more, as demand for PCs shifts to mobile. Years late to market, he has bet the company on Windows 8 – as well as the future of Dell, HP, Nokia and others. An insane bet for any CEO – and one that would have been avoided entirely had the Microsoft Board replaced Mr. Ballmer years ago with a CEO that understands the fast pace of technology shifts and would have kept Microsoft current with market trends.

Although he’s #19 on Forbes list of billionaires, Mr. Ballmer should not be allowed to take such incredible risks with investor money and employee jobs. Best he be retired to enjoy his fortune rather than deprive investors and employees of building theirs.

By LINDA THOMAS

AP file photo

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Comments (19)


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  • Dmaxx wrote...
    Message to Steve
    May 14, 2012 10:24 am
    If you want to save the laptop business or at least postpone it's demise, please make booting up or down MUCH MUCH MUCH faster. We can no longer wait while everything loads.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • MarkA wrote...
    Use an SSD or Hibernate
    May 14, 2012 1:49 pm
    Nowadays SSDs make boot times super fast. Or, use hibernate instead of rebooting, and save rebooting for things that really require it. Hibernation takes seconds and works great and has for years.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Alex Mason wrote...
    I run linux.
    May 14, 2012 10:29 am
    ... and everything RUNS, and runs faster than winblows. Who cares about the big gas bag that works at microsoft.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DesertRez wrote...
    Vista
    May 14, 2012 10:34 am
    Was the final straw for me. What a terrible steaming turd it was.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • myopinion wrote...
    Most People
    May 14, 2012 11:08 am
    Dont know how to install or run and maintain LINUX. Most people just want a laptop run and load/shut down at a resonalble speed. I have always thought that Ballmer is a crappy CEO any CEO that drives down stock value missed roll out dates etc, should have been replaced by the board a long time ago. If I owned Microsoft he would have been gone a long time ago, anyone that drives down the value of stock to 50% of it former value needs to be taken out and shot, or just told to clean out his desk. He has missed so may opporotunities to make Microsoft a leader in software developement and let Apple take the lead that yes its time for him to go.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Citizen of Krazy Town wrote...
    I think the problem at MS is much more complex than Forbes relays
    May 14, 2012 11:10 am
    1st off, Steve has alway thought MS's best best was in the enterprise. Rather than whipsawing back and forth through endless development cycles (like apple does) he wanted MS to focus on the whales, sell seats, sell servers, entrench in the enterprise and deliver consistent profits, like a real blue chip ought to. The problem with that is that it's not sexy, and in this day of e-trading idiots, sexy sell stock, not consistent, year over year growth.

    Second, Steve forgot that clients can drive IT. Even though MS came out 1st with Win CE and Windows mobile as well as tablet PC's, there was always a very intentional effort to target them at the enterprise: whole fleets using Windows Mobile to manage deliveries, WinCE in kiosks, gas pumps, military electronics. Thousands of Dr.s making their rounds with networked tablets. These devices were for games. The XBOX was for games. In some ways, MS hurt themselves more by developing the exchange connector for iPhones et. al. Because that just speeded up the adoption of personal devices in the enterprise, BUT it also sold licenses.

    Thirdly, the culture at MS is to LIE to the top execs. Nobody, NOBODY, has the guts to tell the flat out truth about their business, because in the backstabbing culture of Microsoft, there are 100 vultures just waiting for you to make a mistake and fall out of SteveB and the rest of the SLT's favor. So, they lie about their problems until a business is too far gone to recover and then the project line gets pulled.

    Contrary to Forbes statement, this is not what happened to Zune. Zune has arguably the best software in the industry and it's much more innovative than ITunes. Additionally, MS saw that smartphones were going to be powerful enough to integrate high definition media and therefore managed a port to the windows phone platform, where incidentally, one can also find Xbox companion software so you can have all of your business and personal needs on a single device. Apple is just behind the times with their dedicated iPods because they HAVE to sell devices, so they will keep pushing them even if it makes no sense.

    All of that leads me to the fourth facet, marketing message. Microsoft has been collosally bad at promoting a unified marketing message that rings true to consumers and enterprise alike, so that what they are trying to do is well understood. Unless you are following all parts of the MS business and keeping in touch with the myriad multi-year strategies, you can't see that there actually is a method to their current madness and MS is darn near an integrated cross-platform cloud-supported business, media and gaming ecosystem that will pretty much blow everyone else away. But they can't come up with a one-liner to articulate that, and most of the world, like the Forbes author, can't hang in for longer than the one liner.

    I think the next 12 months will be the make or break moment for Microsoft. They are poised for something quite extraordinary and if they pull it off, Steve will be the hero, and if they don't, he will be the goat.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • oldreliable wrote...
    ok Mr. Balmer
    May 14, 2012 11:45 am
    GET OFF THIS BLOG
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tommyR wrote...
    Good Comment - Too technical
    May 15, 2012 7:18 am
    While your comments are true, they are too technical. The Forbes writer only scratches the surface to reach his target audience. As the Talking Heads said, "Stop Making Sense". Your well written comment is wasted on the unwashed masses and the myopic author.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Neighbors wrote...
    Well said, Krazy Town Citizen
    May 15, 2012 9:51 am
    While I think it's fair to say Microsoft lost a big opportunity in not bringing out tablets a couple of years ago (their Courier two-screen tablet would still blow away the competition if they’d just green light the thing), they have been releasing some incredible products as of late. Windows phone is amazing, I honestly feel setting Bing as my homepage was one of the most rewarding things I’ve done (gaining points for searching has been nice, too), and IE9 is incredibly fast and visually streamlined. Plus, their free SkyDrive system puts Dropbox to shame. A lot is at stake in the next year or so, but once everything is connected and communicating through their cloud, I think people will realize how slow and steady their race handling has been. It’s may not be grabbing the mainstream attention, but I think it will gain the mainstream usage when all is said and done.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Rick1 wrote...
    mystery how they suceed
    May 14, 2012 11:25 am
    The products get more difficult to use. The systems are quirkier and run slower. The innovations (myspace, zune, mobile, etc) seem to get clobbered. Not sure why they bought skype when google is integrating the technology right into its simple email platform. Hotmail was first, but it was so full of spam and ads most have migrated away.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • roomtemp wrote...
    In some respects, Microsoft is a victim of their own success...
    May 14, 2012 11:37 am
    They used to be pretty light on their feet with a huge pool of creative thinking techies that had a wide latitude when it came to developing new ideas.

    Now they're a corporate leviathan with umpteen layers of middle management between creativity and profit. Their standard MO has become buying up companies with good ideas instead of creating them in house.

    In fairness to the shy, retiring, and soft spoken CEO. They tried phones and failed. They tried mp3 players and failed. Tablets are only now becoming viable hardware wise. There is supposed to be an ARM version of W8 in the works. So they haven't failed that, yet. I'm not sure you can really blame Balmer for not throwing more good money after bad.

    I got tired of the bleeding edge a long time ago. Paying to be a beta tester lost its thrill. Still running XP for the things I can't run in linux, like directX games. (A little fragging to vent the aggression, hehe.) Vista was a dog and W7 just added more of the eye candy stuff that I always turn off right after instal anyway...meh. We'll see what happens with W8, but I'm not holding my breath...

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • FreeRange wrote...
    Win- BAG Win-Bag Win-BAG!
    May 14, 2012 12:44 pm
    Steve Balmer had taken Microsoft from being driven by innovators to driven by WINBAG Politicers. MS has an internal Wall of Shame...countless products that would have been wildly sucessful that were killed by territorial managers and non-producing salesmen. It's reveiew sytgem rewards BIG talkers and not producers. This is so sad as there are so many smart people there. Microsoft NEEDS new leadership and bif time layoffs of non-producing members. So employees there have NEVER actually shipped a product. I hope i am hearing the Windows of Change!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • soo purletiv wrote...
    @ Dmaxx
    May 14, 2012 1:40 pm
    I talked to a guy who knows a guy......

    This was a few years or so ago, but he told me his guy told him that he is working on putting the entire computer, hard drive-like and all, in a flash type memory. The problem at the time, and it may still be so, is that flash is so volatile and can lose it's contents a lot easier than an actual physical hard drive can.

    It's not my field, as you can probably tell, but can you imagine opening your lap top and pressing the power button and your OS is loaded instantly as though you clicked on a file and BAM there it is ready to go?! Better than "hibernate" or "sleep" in your power settings.

    That's what my guy told me his guy was working on......

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tlmbrt wrote...
    Back in the 80's and 90's
    May 14, 2012 6:05 pm
    Microsoft took advantage of IBM's lack of vision and stagnation to revolutionize the computer industry and make Bill Gates a gazillionaire. But they are now the IBM when compared to Apple, Google and Facebook!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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