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Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

danluu.com

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Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#151

Post by AdieuToLogic »

carabiner wrote: post #142
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

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…

Servers make minimum wage in WA, but you weren't a server. I also don't tip if I order at a register.

> Servers make minimum wage in WA, but you weren't a server. I also don't tip if I order at a register.

And I assume you do not expect any non-required service from those transactions. Which is understandable, yet different from:

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

If this additional service were provided during your patronage, would that warrant a tip even though interaction was at a register?

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#152

Post by not_a_bot_4sho »

corobo wrote: post #136
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

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 :(

Now I feel bad.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#154

Post by p_l »

ipaddr wrote: post #33
analog31 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if Windows is even their flagship app any more. I think people will give up Windows before they give up Excel. And they might not even notice a different OS, so long as it had the same file manager. In fact Excel is the last non-FOSS app that I still use, even if sporadically.

Give them LibreOffice - Calc and most won't care.

Default UI configuration in LibreCalc is such that until recently it always resulted in enraged searching of the MS Office support status in Wine.

Funnily enough recently I found out the UI style switch and lo and behold, when you switch from default to emulating Excel 2007 ribbon, the critical "cell data type" button is front and center just like it was in every version of excel since 1997 that I have used.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#155

Post by julianeon »

RandomThoughts3 wrote: post #44

It’s funny how all the comments here are falling in the trap described in the beginning of the article of disliking Ballmer because he comes from the sales side and they can’t fathom someone not coming from the tech side leading a tech company. What’s undeniable in the article is that Ballmer literally built what remains Microsoft best asset even before being a CEO there: it’s incredibly good relationship with its co…

I wouldn’t use that language exactly. I think they’ve set up a very effectively profitable relationship with the industry - part carrot and part stick. But I don’t think AWS usage would’ve exploded as it did if their clients truly felt both respected and understood.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#156

Post by D13Fd »

snowwrestler wrote: post #143
legitster wrote: post #75

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…

This is hindsight bias. Because other people took some of his later initiatives and made them successful, it’s tempting to look back and grant him these as wins. We should resist that temptation and judge him on the results he delivered. MS was the essential tech company, king of the world, and under his leadership their innovation stalled, they lost in markets where they were leading, the stock stagnated, and huge p…

One of the points in the article is that he made many bets, some of them panned out really well, others didn't, but on the whole he set Microsoft on a really good path.

Buying Yahoo would have been a bet that didn't work out, probably, but I don't think it goes against the point in the article.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#157

Post by 01100011 »

pensatoio wrote: post #145
not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #124

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…

[flagged]

We allow wages you can't live on but then expect customers to randomly make up the difference but only for some jobs.

Make too little to afford an apartment, healthcare and food and you work in the food service industry? You deserve a tip. You work in a meatpacking plant? Oh, get screwed.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#158

Post by adabyron »

What Dan doesn't mention is that Steve was given the reins to a sinking ship if I recall.

The US Govt was just finishing it's trial on Microsoft & was watching them closely.

Tech bubble just burst.

On day 1 of the transition after Steve, the stock jumped like crazy & continued that momentum. The stock was, as Dan mentions, at an unfairly low p/e ratio too.

Idk if Steve was great but seems he was given the role of transition CEO. Plus did Bill ever really leave?

It'll be interesting to see how Satya finishes his career & the first few years after. Microsoft was making really good software the first few years after Satya took over & a lot of people were wanting to work there. Since Covid though, their software quality & updates have crashed imo.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#159

Post by dvt »

fnord123 wrote: post #59

A rare miss by Mr. Luu. > Ballmer wins... 2010: Microsoft creates Azure The Azure project was run by Nadella before he became CEO. And it succeeded despite Ballmer. Azure was seen as the Microsoft cloud, where people ran Windows Servers. But Microsoft had long lost the battle for the server space to Linux. When Ballmer stepped aside, only then could Nadella drop the limiters and push the Microsoft <3 Linux perspectiv…

Azure launched as (and still is) a complete dumpster fire. Unless your company has business ties to MS (e.g. your usage is heavily subsidized, which is most of their large clients from what I understand), I would never in a million years use it over GCP or AWS.

Re: Steve Ballmer was an underrated CEO

#160

Post by bigstrat2003 »

stouset wrote: post #132
arandomusername wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

[flagged]

Bro there's no "wait staff" involved in this transaction. He purchased an item, the person handed it to him. This is well outside the bounds of what should be tipped.
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