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Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

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Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#11

Post by jarjoura »

I'm not so sure the problem with Microsoft was its toxic culture. So many of the key points in that article you could say ring true of Apple. Steve Jobs relished in the fact that people feared him. He literally built an entire company of yes men, right down to the chefs in the kitchen. It meant, when his strategy was right, the company did well. However, when it was wrong, it also hurt the whole company.

Tim Cook is the opposite of that in every way. He delegates, he wants efficiency, he is much more conservative in where the products go. Yet the culture of yes still exists.

The answer to all of these big corporations is just we need different theories of management and apply them across the board. Fire those unwilling to play along and grow a culture of collaboration.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#12

Post by gwbas1c »

jarjoura wrote: post #11

I'm not so sure the problem with Microsoft was its toxic culture. So many of the key points in that article you could say ring true of Apple. Steve Jobs relished in the fact that people feared him. He literally built an entire company of yes men, right down to the chefs in the kitchen. It meant, when his strategy was right, the company did well. However, when it was wrong, it also hurt the whole company. Tim Cook is…

> Fire those unwilling to play along and grow a culture of collaboration

Gosh that sounds like an oxymoron

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#13

Post by didibus »

> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to use.

Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or the lock in is too strong.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#15

Post by duaoebg »

vezycash wrote: post #10

>The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was almost exactly the opposite (of gates). >Bruised and battered by the consent decree handed down by the DoJ for the very same ambition that brought it to dominance, Ballmer’s Microsoft was sales-forward and CAUTIOUS. >It was... nervously clutching its pearls at the approach of Google in its rearview mirror People bash Steve Ballmer for missing Search, Social Networ…

Ballmer is a buffoon. Even if we are to accept that MS was caged. I remember being at a launch party during an internship. Suddenly half the people ran out of the massive tent. I thought it must have been a fire, I ran out too, grabbed someone and asked why the mass exodus. Their reply was that Ballmer just went on stage. With that response I figured I have to see this. I went back in and recorded it. I was not disappointed, the performance was very cringe worthy.

I do hope MS becomes a nice place for women to work, as a white guy I hated it so hopefully in the future they can do better.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#16

Post by jagged-chisel »

gwbas1c wrote: post #12
jarjoura wrote: post #11

I'm not so sure the problem with Microsoft was its toxic culture. So many of the key points in that article you could say ring true of Apple. Steve Jobs relished in the fact that people feared him. He literally built an entire company of yes men, right down to the chefs in the kitchen. It meant, when his strategy was right, the company did well. However, when it was wrong, it also hurt the whole company. Tim Cook is…

> Fire those unwilling to play along and grow a culture of collaboration Gosh that sounds like an oxymoron

> Grow a culture of collaboration by firing those unwilling to play along

I can see a misreading of the original. This is my understanding.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#17

Post by random_19980 »

vezycash wrote: post #10

>The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was almost exactly the opposite (of gates). >Bruised and battered by the consent decree handed down by the DoJ for the very same ambition that brought it to dominance, Ballmer’s Microsoft was sales-forward and CAUTIOUS. >It was... nervously clutching its pearls at the approach of Google in its rearview mirror People bash Steve Ballmer for missing Search, Social Networ…

>>This is the real reason behind's Ballmer's failure.

Yes, I am sure it had nothing to do with him lacking the basic vision one would expect in any tech CEO and saying idiotic things like "no one would buy such an expensive phone" (about the iPhone).

If you look like a buffoon, you act like a buffoon, and you talk like a buffoon...

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#18

Post by vezycash »

duaoebg wrote: post #15
vezycash wrote: post #10

>The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was almost exactly the opposite (of gates). >Bruised and battered by the consent decree handed down by the DoJ for the very same ambition that brought it to dominance, Ballmer’s Microsoft was sales-forward and CAUTIOUS. >It was... nervously clutching its pearls at the approach of Google in its rearview mirror People bash Steve Ballmer for missing Search, Social Networ…

Ballmer is a buffoon. Even if we are to accept that MS was caged. I remember being at a launch party during an internship. Suddenly half the people ran out of the massive tent. I thought it must have been a fire, I ran out too, grabbed someone and asked why the mass exodus. Their reply was that Ballmer just went on stage. With that response I figured I have to see this. I went back in and recorded it. I was not disap…

Well that "buffoon" trippled Microsoft's earnings and doubled profits. But let these new growth areas slide because of the antitrust suit.

If the market judged Microsoft by its earnings, it's stock would have been up. The internet, mobile was the blockchain and AI of the era.

Re: Reflections on My Career at Microsoft

#19

Post by username90 »

didibus wrote: post #13

> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money to use. Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or the lock in is too stro…

Good point, I have never once felt "Wow, a new Microsoft product, can't wait to buy it!".

Instead it is usually more like "Oh shit, a new Mirosoft product, I hope I wont be forced to buy it to stay compatible".

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