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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

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131–140 of 714 posts

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#131

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#132

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

What frugality? He was paying the full price that it was being sold at.

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#133

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

Interesting that he would pay by cash

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#134

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

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I'm curious, which parts of my post come across as entitled? The fact that coffee bars have tip jars? I'd say it's a rather objective story.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#135
post #67
post #8

No he wasn’t haha. The only thing he did was slide the company sideways via pre existing illegal monopoly. In fact, they lost most of their monopoly under his supervision . At no point did the quality of their products improve, and that’s evidenced with this year’s massive massive Windows outage, or Garmins mega ransomware, out a hundred other people who’ve been hacked via Windows. If you’re running Windows for anyth…

Ballmer's tenure started with XP and eventually gave us Windows 7. Nadella gave us 10 and 11. Though 10 was largely developed under Ballmer before its initial launch, it's been under Nadella's stewardship ever since. I'll take Ballmer, thanks.

WinXP was developed mostly during Gates' tenure. Ballmer is responsible for the disastrous Windows Vista, Microsoft phone operating systems, and Windows 8.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#136

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

Maybe what he really wanted was a super duper whipped cream topped pumpkin spiced coffee and sprinkles but thought he'd save you guys the hassle and just order something that can be poured out of a jug

Poor misunderstood Ballmer :(

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#137

"When Ballmer became CEO in January 2000, Microsoft's stock was around $53. When he stepped down in February 2014, it was around $38." By that metric, no he wasn't underrated.

Unfair thing to measure him by in my opinion. Steve Ballmer inherited Microsoft when the stock traded at a P/E of 60. When he left it was 14, in line with many other tech stocks during that time. (Even Apple was lower)

He took earnings per share from $0.70 to $2.63 during his tenure. A CAGR of 10.5% across 13 years in one of the world's biggest companies. He couldn't control multiple compression following the dotcom bust.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#138

Funny story. I used to see Steve almost every weekday for a couple of years. I can't speak to his business skills, but I can attest that he never once offered a tip for his daily black iced tea. We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait! He would pay with cash, and I'd hand him his change and drink, and that was that. It's funny to me now: one of the richest men in the world and he n…

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>> We'd even have it ready for him before he showed up so he never had to wait!

> Man, your entitlement just makes me want to never tip.

Urban legend has it that the word "tips" is an acronym for "to insure prompt service." Whether or not this is true, the OP's optimization for "prompt service", as defined above, makes an assessment of same qualifying as entitlement puzzling.

> Just because someone has the ability to pay you money doesn’t mean you earned it.

See again the effort of having the drink ready before the customer was on premise.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#139

Having spent some time at the Microsoft campus, I can tell you this is basically the consensus view from employees today. Ballmer was not a cool, trendy, or fun CEO who people rallied behind - but he more or less "got the job done". He was the captain of a massive ship with a turning radius the size of a continent guiding it through icebergs. Azure's success was specifically set in motion under Ballmer. Owed to the f…

Azure happened because of Nadella (who led the project) despite Ballmer.

Would love some sources cited for both your take and the parent's take.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What frugality? He was paying the full price that it was being sold at.

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That depends on whether it's table service, or whether you yourself go to the counter to buy your drink. Until very recently, that was the dividing line for tips (except at bars).
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