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Bold Ambition and Our Core

microsoft.com

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Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#41

Post by AnimalMuppet »

nealabq wrote: post #34

My take is that Nadella's Microsoft will push more products that work with already existing products in a continuing effort to create/enforce a closed ecosystem. This might be a shift in emphasis for MS, from revenue to user-experience, but the underlying instinct seems the same as it always was: lock-in the customers. And this has proven to be a great money-making strategy in the past. But for it to work it seems yo…

Here's the thing: To get to the point where they could start trying to lock people in, Microsoft first had to build the platform that everybody wanted to be on. That was 30 years ago, but they knew how to do that, once upon a time.

That's where they need to go now. Not back to locking people in, but back to building stuff that's so good, everyone wants to use it.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#42

Post by EdSharkey »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #41
nealabq wrote: post #34

My take is that Nadella's Microsoft will push more products that work with already existing products in a continuing effort to create/enforce a closed ecosystem. This might be a shift in emphasis for MS, from revenue to user-experience, but the underlying instinct seems the same as it always was: lock-in the customers. And this has proven to be a great money-making strategy in the past. But for it to work it seems yo…

Here's the thing: To get to the point where they could start trying to lock people in, Microsoft first had to build the platform that everybody wanted to be on. That was 30 years ago, but they knew how to do that, once upon a time. That's where they need to go now. Not back to locking people in, but back to building stuff that's so good, everyone wants to use it.

Nobody's put more good software into more people's hands than Microsoft. But since the early 2000's, I feel like they've lost their hardcore productivity edge. Their software has become this endless march of shiny things and fads. I rely less and less on their products every day.

The old microsoft that didn't mind being hated was a good thing. They relished being the target and they drove competition whenever they didn't succeed in outright squashing it. I can't see how Microsoft can get back to being the big bad enemy again. Maybe they still are that for folks, I dunno, as a software guy, I don't feel them in my life and I haven't for years.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#43

Post by autodidacticon »

jasode wrote: post #38
kirinan wrote: post #3

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…

It may be unfair to Nadella's abilities, but his 3000 word essay reads like typical techno fluff. This can be a red flag because other innovative CEO's write in a much more straightforward manner instead of corporate doublespeak: Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Reed Hastings, Elon Musk. 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 manag…

Venkatesh Rao wrote an excellent piece on this 'baby talk'; internet classic.

http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-o...

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#44

Post by jessaustin »

goodgoblin wrote: post #14

props to any CEO who references Rilke in his rally-the-company-speech-that-gets-forwarded-to-the-world: 'Rainer Maria Rilke's words say it best: "The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.'

Sounds like a Lady Gaga tattoo to me.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#45

Post by lloeki »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #15
kylec wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not required, but Windows 8.1 pushes you very strongly to log into your Microsoft account, and to create one if you haven't already. If you don't, most of the built-in Metro (er, Modern) apps won't work, including some like Calendar which you'd think shouldn't need it. Further, if/when you finally break down and sign into your MS account, you have to use it to sign into your computer from then on, instead of usi…

If Microsoft wants to fix something, fix the thinking behind that. Microsoft has an awful history of trying to "leverage" assets like Windows to try to get people to use things like IE or Bing or whatever. But when Microsoft uses leverage , customers feel forced . I don't want Microsoft to force me to have an online account! I just want to do what I want with my computer, not what Microsoft wants me to do, and I don'…

This time it seems it's the other way around: people are asking for more cloud and mobile, thereby dragging Windows on PC towards that unified cloud ecosystem their two leading competitors already have, possibly at the cost of those not wanting that.

The core of the message is an admission that, while still a massive component of their business due to sheer inertia, Windows on typical PC hardware is not what makes Microsoft relevant anymore. IOW Microsoft clearly aims at not becoming the next IBM.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#46

Post by danudey »

jasode wrote: post #38
kirinan wrote: post #3

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…

It may be unfair to Nadella's abilities, but his 3000 word essay reads like typical techno fluff. This can be a red flag because other innovative CEO's write in a much more straightforward manner instead of corporate doublespeak: Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Reed Hastings, Elon Musk. 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 manag…

I think that practitioners of corporate-speak are surrounded by so many other people who corporate-speak that they don't realize how idiotic it sounds to everyone else. To them, they're normal words that actually mean real things – because they are normal words that actually mean real things.

I think the real issue it people who use them as buzzwords. They say 'synergize our corporate efficiencies to maximize our value proposition…' in the same way that someone else might say 'make things better': it conveys meaning, but only in the most vague and useless of terms instead of going into specifics.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#47

Post by mikelat »

chaostheory wrote: post #21

If Xbox is so important, they need to open up its API and app store. It feels like a dinosaur relic from the last decade. It's behind Google Play, Amazon and Apple App Stores, and even the Windows App Store.

They've been trying for the last few years to copy apple's walled garden model when realistically their greatest strength was the fact that they weren't an overly restricted platform.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#48

Post by chaostheory »

mikelat wrote: post #47
chaostheory wrote: post #21

If Xbox is so important, they need to open up its API and app store. It feels like a dinosaur relic from the last decade. It's behind Google Play, Amazon and Apple App Stores, and even the Windows App Store.

They've been trying for the last few years to copy apple's walled garden model when realistically their greatest strength was the fact that they weren't an overly restricted platform.

I'm not talking about Windows. Xbox is different. Xbox has always been a walled garden. The difference is that Xbox is a lot more exclusive than the app stores that everyone is now fond of.

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#49

Post by nojvek »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #39

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. Ten bucks says there'll be big layoffs. On the plus side of things, I'm looking at buying a property in Seattle and this should make things just a bit easier[1]. [1] The incredible influx of new hires at Amazon has made renting generally more expensive than buying in my neighb…

Not Really. I work at Microsoft. MS has mountains of cash and they're hiring like crazy.

I agree Microsoft might not have the sexiest product that make everyone drool, but they have some products that make a ton of money and not sexy at all. e.g SQL Server

Re: Bold Ambition and Our Core

#50

Post by aaronbrethorst »

nojvek wrote: post #49
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #39

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. Ten bucks says there'll be big layoffs. On the plus side of things, I'm looking at buying a property in Seattle and this should make things just a bit easier[1]. [1] The incredible influx of new hires at Amazon has made renting generally more expensive than buying in my neighb…

Not Really. I work at Microsoft. MS has mountains of cash and they're hiring like crazy. I agree Microsoft might not have the sexiest product that make everyone drool, but they have some products that make a ton of money and not sexy at all. e.g SQL Server

I spent four years working on Visual Studio. Your product's management UI is one of the key things I worked on. You're going to be fine. Your peers in Bing, MSN or Nokia are not likely to be so lucky.

Also: I bet you ten bucks (USD) that major layoffs are announced by the end of the month.

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