Restructure on the way for Microsoft, but should Ballmer reconfigure himself?
Jun 5, 2013, 7:16 AM | Updated: 3:40 pm
According to Swisher, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was disdainful of the smartphone and at one point mocked the tablet. "He's been very dismissive of things before jumping into them." (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
A plan to restructure at Microsoft has been in the works since CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in an annual shareholder letter last fall that the company would focus on devices and services in the consumer and electronic space.
“The way the company is configured now is not working, so they need to make some changes,” says Kara Swisher, co-executive editor of the AllThingsD blog.
Swisher tells Seattle’s Morning News however, that some of Microsoft’s biggest missteps in recent years, have been of Ballmer’s own doing.
According to Swisher, Ballmer was disdainful of the smartphone and at one point, mocked the tablet. “He’s been very dismissive of things before jumping into them.”
Even though Microsoft was such a juggernaut in the PC business, things were changing and Microsoft and Ballmer needed to respond much more quickly to the mobile environment.
But does that mean Ballmer should be restructured out of the company he leads? Swisher is unsure – he did help build the company. But she sees more success in tech companies that are led by tech leaders.
“When [Microsoft] had [Bill] Gates there, they were a lot more successful. Most of the competitors are led by technical leaders such as Larry Page at Google and Mark Zuckerburg at Facebook,” says Swisher.
Restructuring for Microsoft could allow the company to be more nimble and, according to Swisher, retain employees that could be sucked away from other nearby tech giants – like Amazon.
