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Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

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Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#31

Post by Keyframe »

thorin wrote: post #24
anticorporate wrote: post #18

I guess it depends on your measure. Personally, the Ballmer era represents Microsoft going from being "the" software company to just another dying giant that wasn't relevant to me. I used fewer Microsoft products in 2014 than I did in 2000 when Ballmer took over. Sure, they expanded the product categories they competed in, but any company with that kind of capitalization could have chosen to do the same.

Yet still most enterprises use windows, O365, teams outlook, AD/entra etc. Azure has like 30% of market share. Copilot, visual studio, Dotnet framework, Microsoft dynamics, Power Automate are massive. I prefer the current incarnation of MS to any of the previous ones TBH, experience of Xbox has been pretty good as well.

I think the question posed is whether that's due to Ballmer or despite him.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#32

Post by maximus-decimus »

FrankWilhoit wrote: post #3

We need to be asking who the most overrated are. They are the ones who can exploit their positions to do real harm. (Lookin' at you, Sloe Mnuk.)

I find that Elon Musk statement funny. How can he be overrated if 99% of people think he's an idiot who's incapable of anything?

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#33

Post by actionfromafar »

scosman wrote: post #30

Having worked on mobile there 2008-2011: no, I would say he’s properly rated. Had years head start on the Android model (hackable OS+vendors+wide HW support), and threw it away. Chased iPhone model briefly without the commitment to actually win. Took smartphone market share from 20-30% to 0% when it mattered most. Invested more in XBox and Business intelligence platforms.

Threw Mobile 7 developers under the bus. The most ambitious and commited.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#34

Post by throwaway4pp24 »

rbanffy wrote: post #10
AlexandrB wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to have Ballmer back. The Microsoft products I use (Windows) have become increasingly crappified under current leadership.

Ballmer was there when Longhorn/Vista happened.

Vista was good, just slow on the older contemporary computers. I bought a new properly specced machine when it was released and it was a significant improvement over XP.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#35

Post by maxehmookau »

mentos wrote: post #21

Developers are the seeds in your garden so I believe his laser focus on "developers, developers, developers" while now a meme is spot on.

I agree. Which is why its such a shame the current Microsoft era is hacking down the trees to the tune of thousands of layoffs.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#36

Post by ghaff »

throw0101c wrote: post #6

"Steve Ballmer played a powerful part in Microsoft’s comeback" (2019): * https://qz.com/1551842/steve-ballmer-played-a-powerful-part-... "Satya Nadella credits Steve Ballmer for pushing Microsoft into the cloud": * https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/16/satya-nadella-credits-ballme... I think the biggest knock against Ballmer was not being able to figure out a (smart)phone strategy that ended up working. Having more than ju…

Microsoft absolutely whiffed on mobile generally and that has to be on Ballmer to a significant degree. As with Intel with x86, they relied far too heavily on Windows being their essential beachhead. That said, he put the financial and some of the business/technical foundation in place for Nadella to be able to re-establish Microsoft as an important/relevant player with Azure (and Linux) which was by no means a given.

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#37

Post by knighthack »

This was such an an enjoyable read. My view of Ballmer has completely changed, in retrospect. Am also impressed that he was a mathematician by training and outscored Gates, and went quite against norms by his own business judgment (which is commendable - it means he made his own path, and didn't just chase after trends).

Re: Is Steve Ballmer the Most Underrated CEO of the 21st Century?

#40

Post by sk11001 »

keiferski wrote: post #25
ko_pivot wrote: post #8

The latest Acquired episode makes a pretty strong case for Ballmer, implying that he led the Microsoft move to own all enterprise software, not Gates.

The link: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/microsoft-volume-ii I haven't listened to this episode specifically, but I have listened to probably 20 of their other ones. It's a solid podcast, although I wish they were a little more critical and not always so laudatory.

I got into Acquired through the Jim Simons episode which was great but the rest of their content is hit and miss.

Sometimes they get hard to listen to because they treat every company as something incredible and many of them aren't - the luxury brands episodes are completely bizarre, no idea who the target audience is for a four podcast on a handbag manufacturer.

And their SBF episode didn't age well at all - so much ass kissing. Credit to them at least for not removing it entirely.

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