31–40 of 56 posts
> First, we will obsess over our customers. I bet that not every customer of MS wants the mobile-first and cloud-first experiences. In order to push forward, they have to slam down a lot of existing models and platforms, e.g., the Windows before 8 and Office before 365, and doing these does not feel painless to MS, IMHO. They must be facing difficult choices in the years to come.
> First, we will obsess over our customers. I bet that not every customer of MS wants the mobile-first and cloud-first experiences. In order to push forward, they have to slam down a lot of existing models and platforms, e.g., the Windows before 8 and Office before 365, and doing these does not feel painless to MS, IMHO. They must be facing difficult choices in the years to come.
Does he define who they consider to be a "customer?" This has been a problem with MS (et al) in the past.
And this has proven to be a great money-making strategy in the past. But for it to work it seems you have to control the dominant platform, and/or have a few really-great products, and/or have a killer brand. And MS has some of these: the desktop platform, workplace tools, a pretty-good brand.
But the dominant platform has shifted, the brand is waning, and MS is losing its lock-in. A truly radical MS strategy would be to build products that communicate using standard protocols. To build tools that are part of an open ecosystem. That really would be customer focused.
But it's not gonna happen. It's not a business model MS grew up with. It's not in their DNA.
After working many corporate jobs over the years, this kind of rhetoric seems trite and overused. "We are stream-lining our processes and going to empower our employees to change the world!!!!". So many corporations that fell behind the trends and are just trying to reinvent themselves to that they can get back on track use the same words. However, in this case, it seems different. Microsoft has over the past few mon…
I feel jargon like this is particularly unfortunate when used in a rousing team-building speech. Maybe these words capture some nuance which could not be expressed as concisely without them, but language is also used to separate in-groups from out-groups. To me, this use of "synthesize" gives off a strong visceral sense that "this man is not one of us, he spends all his times in insular CEO-only circles". He could at least have had someone else proof-read his speech and point out things like this.
Productivity is a bit of an odd duck for Microsoft to focus on. Not that it's not a worthwhile thing, but there are contradictory demands in that regard with respect to the expertise of your user. A system that a novice might find intuitive an expert might find incredibly irksome.
After working many corporate jobs over the years, this kind of rhetoric seems trite and overused. "We are stream-lining our processes and going to empower our employees to change the world!!!!". So many corporations that fell behind the trends and are just trying to reinvent themselves to that they can get back on track use the same words. However, in this case, it seems different. Microsoft has over the past few mon…
I read a book[1] about corporate speak and it opened my eyes to the fact that it's actually the lingua franca of middle managers and not visionary CEOs. I'm also convinced that practitioners of corporate-speak are truly not self-aware of how vacuous it sounds.
I wonder if venture capitalists look at corporate-speak from a founder as a red flag signaling mediocrity.
[1]http://www.amazon.com/Business-People-Speak-Like-Idiots/prod...
On July 22, we'll announce our earnings
results for the past quarter and I'll
say more then on what we are doing in
FY15 to focus on our core.
[1] The incredible influx of new hires at Amazon has made renting generally more expensive than buying in my neighborhood. Of course, buying sucks too, as many properties are going for 10+% over list, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $1700 for a 350 square foot studio (http://www.urbnlivn.com/2014/07/06/sunset-electric-taps-into...).
The world is a better place without microsoft.
Shills can downvote me into oblivion all they want but that doesn't change the fact that when monopolies don't exist, we vote with our wallets, and both Apple and Samsung are getting all my money nowadays, Google gets my eyeballs, Ubuntu gets my love.
Microsoft? my middle finger.