Should Ballmer Be at The Rudder of Microsoft?

It’s more than a joke now. With the removal of Mr. Gates from the day-to-day business of Microsoft, the ability of Steve Ballmer to keep Microsoft on top is  a serious question.

The articles cite his tenure at Microsoft, and his time as CEO – few of the top CEOs today stay around for very long (however, I personally think this has little to do with capability – but what do I know, I’ve never run a Fortune 500 company). I would, instead of looking at his time at the company, look at the dismal performance of Microsoft in the time he has been CEO, Let’s face it, the last victory for Microsoft was Windows XP, and that was pretty much in the can before Ballmer took over.

Also, the demeanor of Ballmer runs against the flow of the others in the same position – can you imagine anyone, known by more than 5 people  as ‘Monkeyboy’, heading General Electric, IBM, or GM?

Still, performance is what counts, and what does Mr. Ballmer have to point to as his personal ‘win’? I can’t think of anything. CEOs are supposed to be idea men – not necessarily knowing how to implement what they think of, but having ideas that make a difference to the company they head. How has running around like a mad politician at sales meetings changed the world? Those who would point out his cheerleading abilities should be reminded of how much those who are considerably better at cheerleading make. Microsoft could get the squad of just about any sports team for considerably less, and they probably could get more work out of the employees as well!

from ComputerWorld

The fire to Gates’s ice, Ballmer emerged long ago from Gates’ shadow — and more recently became a YouTube star thanks to stunts such as jumping out of an oversized birthday cake on Microsoft’s 25th anniversary, dancing and shrieking frenetically at a Microsoft employee meeting to earn himself the nickname “Monkeyboy” and almost rupturing his vocal cords while shouting Developers!” 14 times at another Microsoft meeting.

Former Sun Microsystems Inc. CEO Scott McNealy derisively called the Microsoft brain trust “Ballmer and Butt-Head.” Ray Noorda, the late Novell Inc. CEO, had a perhaps even less flattering nickname: “The Pearly Gates and the Em-Ballmer: one sets you up for heaven, and the other prepares you for death.”

This is what we find under the ‘complementary’ section of the article.  On the reverse side of the argument -

But critics say that the only embalming work Ballmer has done lately is on Microsoft itself. The company’s revenue growth and profit margins may remain the envy of the industry, but its stock price is up just 7% over the last 5 years. Apple’s stock, by comparison, has risen 1,500% in the same period, while Google’s is up nearly 500% since that company’s 2004 IPO. Even IBM, the ultimate blue chip, has seen its stock price rise 47% since 2003.

Thus far, Microsoft has failed to duplicate the success of its certified hits — Windows, Office and its server software (think Exchange and SQL Server) and development tools (Visual Studio) — on any of the many bets it has made in recent years: search, Web advertising, mobile phones, video games and others.

Worse than the comic insults that hint at the underlying mistrust of his abilities, there are articles that state an opinion that Ballmer simply doesn’t have the intelligence to run a company such as Microsoft.

I don’t claim any extraordinary powers, nor have I made any deals with Lucifer, but I believe that one of the reasons that Carl Icahn will pursue the Yahoo board changes in August is to once again ignite the Microsoft-Yahoo merger/buyout fires, and after accomplishing that, he will then undertake his next adventure, the insinuation of his agenda inside Microsoft, and then the removal of Ballmer will most likely be at the top of his list of things to do. 

I’ll be watching for this – how about you?

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Quote of the day:
As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use. - William James

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