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Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

recode.net

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Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#161

Post by alex_c »

bshimmin wrote: post #37
worldpeace wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone talks like 'Last week in my email to you I synthesized our strategic direction'? This guy is trying too hard to sound smart. Everything that's written by him reads like a try-hard freshman English major.

It's just typical big-company-CEO babble, which I think they must teach you when you do an MBA. (And yes, Satya Nadella has an MBA.)

It's funny, I'm doing my MBA right now and many of our profs specifically warn us against using "MBA speak" or "MBA jargon" in presentations and assignments.

It's much easier to retreat behind MBA speak, especially when you don't have a clear grasp of what you're trying to communicate or are saying things you don't want to be heard saying. "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit".

It CAN be a useful tool to deflect and confuse, but sadly I think 99% of the time it's not used intentionally. It's simply much, much harder to communicate complex ideas in a simple and clear way - it takes a lot more effort and deeper understanding, and many people are simply incapable.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#163

Post by wes-exp »

pierreio wrote: post #112
untog wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any large acquisition that succeeded in the last 10 years? You might have the wrong criteria for acquisition success. I'm sure both Nokia and MS knew these layoffs would come before they agreed to the purchase.

Did MS? Including the cost of the lay off ($1.6b says Recode), Nokia price was actually $8.8b. What was their business case that was so easily scrapped just months into the purchase? It may be successful on a tax/accounting perspective since the purchase was made in € with cash that couldn't be brought to the US. Yet this does look like a gigantic waste of assets. Warren Buffett says that a successful business is all…

Don't underestimate the value of the Nokia brand. Until recently, IIRC, Nokia was the world's largest seller of mobile phones. That brand image is worth a ton to help MS sell its phones.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#164

Post by brational »

ggreer wrote: post #128
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subject: Important Company-wide Announcement Dear Employees, For our business to continue running, we must reduce the number of staff. This is an unfortunate but also inevitable reality. [insert details of layoff here] [insert honest platitudes] Senior management wishes all of you the best of luck, and has every confidence that you will be even more successful at your next job.

The only bit I would disagree with is, "For our business to continue running..." Last year, Microsoft made over $20 billion profit on almost $80 billion in revenue. The truth is that Microsoft has accumulated many useless employees over the years, and they could be even more profitable by laying off those people.

"For our business to remain competitive... "

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#165

Post by fenomas »

sitkack wrote: post #81
scrabble wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> most people who work at a big company know _exactly_ whether they're in danger or not Sometimes. I used to work at RIM (BlackBerry) and they announced huge layoffs for August 2012. I knew at that time that my whole team was gone. The rest of the team just talked about how valuable they were and how no one could do the job we were doing. I think they honestly thought that. A lot of people have a tendency to over-val…

> A lot of people have a tendency to over-value their work and roles. I think most people are shitty at it on either side. You can be great at your work and role and still get the axe. Management doesn't often take that into consideration.

In companies and layoffs of this size, it's often not "people" being cut, just teams and divisions and products. In many cases it makes no difference at all who on a given team is and isn't good at their role.

When it's not whole teams, it's generally managers being told they're losing N reports but they can choose which N. Then, effectiveness at one's role is at least part of the equation.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#166

Post by hyperliner »

untog wrote: post #50
bshimmin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just typical big-company-CEO babble, which I think they must teach you when you do an MBA. (And yes, Satya Nadella has an MBA.)

Can HN lay off the MBA hate? It's getting really old. It's abundantly clear that no-one even knows what an MBA is.

You are being downvoted, but really should not.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#167

Post by MrDosu »

headgasket wrote: post #160

Is it me or this guy is trying hard the SteveJobs look in that picture? Simple solution to all of microsoft's woes: Drop the WINNT kernel and replace it by a unix based variant. Is there any value in keeping the kernel closed source ? Hasn't that fight been lost a long time ago? Windows is going byzantine fast; there's no value in compilers and in os kernels anymore, the open source ones are better but MS still think…

Implying the WINNT kernel doesn't have the best device driver support in the world by a huge margin...

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#169

Post by mkr-hn »

hyperliner wrote: post #159
roc wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political tap-dancing has been parodied for generations and that still happens. Heck, Cheney all but quoted Reagan's "I don't recall"-defense as a 20th anniversary tribute and that had been lampooned specifically .

Or, for balance, Obama saying "I am acting alone on the border" and then at the border "Congress does not do its job."

That's not really "being political" since both statements are true. Congress didn't act on the immigration problem, so he acted on his own with the limited power of the Executive. This isn't a good example.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#170

Post by pistle »

pierreio wrote: post #94

So MS Bought Nokia and ~30k employees for ~$7.2 billion last April. 3 months later, MS may now be firing ~half of the Nokia group. The executives who drove that catastrophic deal stay. What a testament to how disastrous big M&A really is. Is there any large acquisition that succeeded in the last 10 years? I'd feel sorry if I was a Nokia guy there, they pulled out the best non-Apple phone hardware in the last years. P…

Your logic and worldview are all inverted.

You buy ailing companies and then cut fat. That's the plan, not evidence of a bad decision.

What was happening to Nokia WITHOUT getting bought and gutted? They were in a tailspin and had major internal friction issues getting good tech to the top of the consumer heap. They would be another Blackberry...

Oh wait, you also suggest Blackberry fight it out with their wet noodle of a product line?

As an employee, when you are acquired, you either are indispensable (and will not be made redundant) or you should probably head for the door so you aren't competing with your coworkers for spots when a flood of you are dumped into the market.

Microsoft got the products, IP, licensing deals and will be keeping a block of very productive employees. This is an obvious move and good for MS, MS shareholders, and, indirectly, consumers.

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