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Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

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Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#91

Post by r00fus »

rbanffy wrote: post #46
mastermojo wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure Microsoft is a pretty big player in Enterprise SaaS already.

They are, but that's also the market where their lock-in has least effect.

That sounds like an opportunity to me. Get real cloud-based software solutions that compete with Google SaaS officeware, but tie it into desktop office in a way that synergizes without forcing people to subscribe or upgrade.

Apple is good at the monetization angle of this. There's no reason Microsoft couldn't do the same (except with software, not hardware).

Example: 90% of the time I'm on a webex/gotomeeting, I'm looking at one of three things: 1) Powerpoint, 2) Excel/Word or 3) a Browser.

Why can't Microsoft make that kind of sharing easier? My guess is that they were too arrogant to make things work for the folks not on the latest versions, or on different OS's.

It's 2014, that's not good enough. People expect your product to be sociable and flexible. And that's why it's Cisco/Citrix software that's showing the MS docs.

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#92

Post by r00fus »

blah32497 wrote: post #72
exelius wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft really isn't a consumer company: they make all their profit from enterprise software. Ballmer's biggest mistake was trying to convince an elephant to become a mouse. What he left was a mess that needs a lot of cleaning up. It doesn't help that he reorganized the company 6 months ago, effectively preventing his successor from making any substantial changes from the Ballmer way. Given the number of people tha…

"Microsoft really isn't a consumer company" yeah, except the video game market and the whole hardware market... It's definitely the most obvious area for growth that they have available. The enterprise market is more or less saturated by them already. They're sorta trying to push their cloud solution, but they're late to that game. They aren't going to sell a whole bunch more of MS Office... It's a segment that will…

Microsoft can't rely on dominating markets. They have to get back into the, and do as Apple and Google have done and invent markets.

I feel Microsoft will only have the confidence to attack the consumer market when they feel their enterprise market position is a competitive advantage.

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#93

Post by onezeno »

alienfluid wrote: post #64
barce wrote: post #62

His twitter seems to suggest he really is into keeping up with the latest trends. https://twitter.com/satyanadella The article states there was a 5 month search. I'm glad they are hiring within the ranks.

Is there a strong correlation between being active on Twitter and being a successful CEO?

I think the point was "keeping up with the latest trends".

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#94

Post by Maarten88 »

r00fus wrote: post #91
rbanffy wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are, but that's also the market where their lock-in has least effect.

That sounds like an opportunity to me. Get real cloud-based software solutions that compete with Google SaaS officeware, but tie it into desktop office in a way that synergizes without forcing people to subscribe or upgrade. Apple is good at the monetization angle of this. There's no reason Microsoft couldn't do the same (except with software, not hardware). Example: 90% of the time I'm on a webex/gotomeeting, I'm lo…

> Why can't Microsoft make that kind of sharing easier?

What makes you think they haven't done so already? Ever heard of Office 365, OneNote, Lync?

> My guess is that they were too arrogant to make things work for the folks not on the latest versions, or on different OS's.

My guess is that you haven't really looked into Microsoft's products for the past 5 years. I can tell you that they are doing quite well in the product development of their cloud and SaaS offerings lately.

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#95

Post by deletes »

VladRussian2 wrote: post #88
exelius wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is going to get hired as CEO of an $80 billion a year company with just an MBA. It would be an MBA plus 20-30 years of business experience, and these days it's almost impossible to avoid technology completely. I'm not even sure domain knowledge is important for a CEO of a company that size: once you become a $50 billion plus company, you don't have time to get involved with the details of the business.

>I'm not even sure domain knowledge is important for a CEO of a company that size: once you become a $50 billion plus company, you don't have time to get involved with the details of the business. Steve Jobs and CEOs in-between kind of make a counter-example.

Read the biographies of Steve and Steve; Jobs was not an expert, but was familiar with technology of that era. His father taught him electronics, and Jobs was working at Atari as an technician.

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#96

Post by jzwinck »

Maarten88 wrote: post #94
r00fus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That sounds like an opportunity to me. Get real cloud-based software solutions that compete with Google SaaS officeware, but tie it into desktop office in a way that synergizes without forcing people to subscribe or upgrade. Apple is good at the monetization angle of this. There's no reason Microsoft couldn't do the same (except with software, not hardware). Example: 90% of the time I'm on a webex/gotomeeting, I'm lo…

> Why can't Microsoft make that kind of sharing easier? What makes you think they haven't done so already? Ever heard of Office 365, OneNote, Lync? > My guess is that they were too arrogant to make things work for the folks not on the latest versions, or on different OS's. My guess is that you haven't really looked into Microsoft's products for the past 5 years. I can tell you that they are doing quite well in the pr…

Lync doesn't even have an option to pop up notifications when new chats come in. How well do you think that works on a workstation with four screens and no sound?

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#97

Post by kyberias »

jzwinck wrote: post #96
Maarten88 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why can't Microsoft make that kind of sharing easier? What makes you think they haven't done so already? Ever heard of Office 365, OneNote, Lync? > My guess is that they were too arrogant to make things work for the folks not on the latest versions, or on different OS's. My guess is that you haven't really looked into Microsoft's products for the past 5 years. I can tell you that they are doing quite well in the pr…

Lync doesn't even have an option to pop up notifications when new chats come in. How well do you think that works on a workstation with four screens and no sound?

Care to elaborate? When I get new messages in a IM window on Lync, and the window is not active, the icon on the taskbar is being blinked.

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#98

Post by gtirloni »

lmg643 wrote: post #75
exelius wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. Technology people tend to focus on the shiny, which really isn't what Microsoft needs at this point. They're just too big and they play in too many fields where they end up competing with themselves in half of the markets they play in. After ten years of Ballmer, what Microsoft needs now is a professional manager to sort out the mess he left. They have no shortage of great technology people; what they nee…

I totally disagree on the "professional manager" - that's what ballmer was. and this is coming from someone who thinks ballmer is unfairly criticized. (eg - what google and apple unleashed on the world in the past 10 years was a major historical shift - coming from product/technical people at their core. arguably, this shift was one that only a newbie or outsider could pull off. 20/20 hindsight to say "microsoft coul…

I always thought the amount FB/GOOG spend on servers is a tiny fraction, when compared to the sum of what all the other companies in the world spend. Do you have a source where I can verify this claim that Dell/HP are having a hard with their server divisions because FB/GOOG isn't buying from them?

This is a honest question as I often am not aware of the whole picture (and have a hard time picking the right sources for that kind of information -- not sure who to trust in a marketing war).

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#99

Post by gtirloni »

dredmorbius wrote: post #53
rbanffy wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are, but that's also the market where their lock-in has least effect.

Quite. The biggest lock-ins are from Office formats, and Active Directory integration with network and communications services. Crack either of those and the bulwark starts to crumble rapidly.

I will agree with Office but I've a hard time seeing AD disrupted by anything else. The alternatives aren't better and/or are a support nightmare.

And with Office, it seems the Office 365 offering with the web clients has a very good shot at technically beating Google Apps... if they can sell it efficiently is another matter.

Re: Microsoft Said to Be Preparing to Make Satya Nadella CEO

#100

Post by gtirloni »

chc wrote: post #38
keithwarren wrote: post #17

Background != Direction All this banter about it being a bad choice or a good choice because Satya's current role is enterprise focused is just goofy. Had Elop been chosen we would not be acting as if Microsoft is only a phone company now and is abandoning the enterprise.

I think the unspoken logic here is that Microsoft is already doing great in the enterprise and poorly on devices, so hiring somebody with the same distribution of strengths and weaknesses will just exacerbate the weaknesses without helping the strengths all that much (since they're already strong there).

Does a CEO have to have a long background in all areas a company as big as Microsoft has a foot in? Aren't we looking for the magical unicorn that has excelled in the enterprise, consumer devices and who knows, green energy all in a single lifetime?

I think it's a fallacy to think a CEO with an enterprise background wouldn't (or couldn't) let the consumer division prosper. That he/she would hinder it or something.

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