Steve Ballmer - Microsoft CEO helps Microsoft enter its 30s gracefully

I am fortunate to be able to learn about Marketing & Sales, Import & Export, Wholesales & Retails business begining at the age of 7th.

During my childhood days, I have witness many social unrest, arsonal activities, killing between difference ethnic group's. There is also a strong movement of National independance between late 50's & early 70's in South East Asia. Thus it available the opportunities for the situation or circumstances (Political) Leader's to be born.

When I look into the word "Risk" in English term is just "Risk", However, in the Chinese Word, it is spell as 2 character "Wei Chi" translate to english mean "Danger Opportunity"!!!!

So these is the bases for a Nation to Renew Itself for Longevity that need what?? Leader....Leadership....

Stop the violence & barbaric action's...killing...Arsonal's..Murder....that called for redefinethe continuity culture to unite the people underone...

Now, recall back what the Chinese philosopher - Meng Tze said If the Nation is not at the risk of enemy, then there is no ground for a great leader to be born. If the family is not facing any crisis, then there is no opportunity for the Brother's & Sister's to united underone roof.

These theory his actually passed on by "Lao Tze" to "Confusius" then "Meng Tze" then "Kwei Ku Tze" the teacher of "Sun Tze".

As everyone know, Sun Tze is a great Military Strategist. Today his strategies not only applied in military battle front, it also have been used as the guild for political leader's to govern the nation.

In my paper works Creating Excellence Philips Corporate Culture(1989-1990); for Philips B.V.. I have made many reference into Prince Sidhata, Lao Tze, Jiang Tze Ya, Confusius, Meng Tze, Sun Tze, Chun Tze & Kong Ming...idealogy & philosophies, integrate with my exposure with US, Europe, Japan & Local as well as my family culture plus my own divine on Corporate Culture; Leadership & its relationship to Longevity of a corporation.

I believe Steve Ballmer bring along his foundation from P&G, a consumer products corporation. As the evolutions of PC & convergent of Computers & Communications. The timing is just right for him to brand it to the best interest of Microsoft for the present time.

As the Buddha said:

Because of The Past
There is A Present
Because of The Present
There is A Future
&
Nothing is Impermanent

Hence, be it a Nation, Society, Corporation & Family no entity would be excluded on the said phenomenal above.

I will write more on Corporate-Culture-Leadership of this Blog.


CEO helps Microsoft enter its 30s gracefully
By Kevin Maney, USA TODAY

REDMOND, Wash. — The clock says 8 a.m. CEO Steve Ballmer has been up since 4:45, has worked out and been in the office for a while. Tall coffee in hand, he's already his famous self: revved up, voluble, funny, charming and launching into a root-root-root for the home team.

Microsoft does 'amazing things on a regular basis,' CEO Steve Ballmer says.
By Ed Wray, AP

In an interview, Ballmer talks a lot about how, five years after Chairman Bill Gates made him CEO, he is redefining Microsoft for its next phase, making it more disciplined and decentralized. Though Microsoft (MSFT) has a reputation as a bully in the technology industry, Ballmer is trying to make it a better corporate citizen. (Related: Ballmer shares strategy on moving forward)

As the company enters its 30th year, Ballmer, 48, is nudging Microsoft to make a transition to an enduring corporation — a General Electric or an IBM — that can long outlive its founders. To get there, Ballmer has driven structural and cultural change through the software giant.

While it's clear that Microsoft is changing, old behaviors die hard. When Ballmer gets talking about how Microsoft must be first with technology innovations — which, so far in Microsoft's history, has not often happened — the exchange is more like vintage pugilistic Microsoft.

Ballmer: "You've got to be not just first in an area; you've got to be first with important innovations even in areas that you've pioneered."

USA TODAY reporter: "Well, you guys have proved over and over again being first is not necessarily ..."

Ballmer: "We love to be first."

Reporter: "You love to be first but ..."

Ballmer: "We love to be first."

Reporter: "You certainly weren't the first — you know, I mean, here looking at your ..."

Ballmer: "We love to be first. Well, our big success is Windows. We were first. Windows, we were first — and then everybody faded out because there was a period during which the concept was — I mean, Apple stuck around with their concept of that, but everybody else faded out, basically."

Tech people must be scratching their heads. Windows wasn't the first graphical user interface — that was invented by Xerox and was first made popular by Apple Computer. Microsoft didn't have the first browser or video player or cell phone operating system. Time and again, the company has come in late and, in many cases, won the day with tenacity. It is a strength Microsoft could boast about but doesn't.

The yin and yang — past and future — in Ballmer's remarks echo around Microsoft. In interviews with nearly a dozen Microsoft executives, the company sometimes seems to be grappling with which parts of itself to leave behind and which parts it can't live without. Change is happening. But it apparently isn't easy, and it's not yet evident what kind of company Microsoft is becoming.

"The problem isn't that Microsoft can't change," says Jeffrey Tarter, editor of influential newsletter Softletter. "The real problem is it's not at all clear how the company should change."

Four keys to its strategy

For one thing, Microsoft has a mission problem.

Until recently, its underlying strategy was fairly simple: Drive computer sales. Microsoft made most of its money when new computers were sold loaded with Microsoft's operating system and applications such as Word and Excel. Its well-known mission mantra was, "A computer on every desktop and in every home."

But by the late-1990s, computers had landed on most desktops and in most homes, and Microsoft had moved into other markets such as video games and handheld computers. Ballmer has come up with a new mission and strategy, but it's no longer so clear to employees or the outside world. For instance, asked to describe the company's strategy, the head of Microsoft Research, Rick Rashid, chuckles and says: "I'm not sure the company has an overall strategy. It has lots of different strategies."

Microsoft's new mission: "Enabling people and businesses around the world to realize their full potential."

"So you could say, 'OK, that sounds kind of soft and fluffy,' " Ballmer says. "But I would say it is galvanizing and allows us to think appropriately broadly. We know our core competence is software, and we can think broadly about where software can have this sort of big and broad and important impact."

Underneath that mission, Ballmer sees four keys to Microsoft's emerging strategy.

"First and foremost, we are a platform company," he says.

Microsoft makes software that others can build on. Windows is a platform. So are Word and Excel. Third parties build specialized applications on top of those Microsoft products. Microsoft's Xbox, cell phone operating systems and the Media PC are also platforms.

PC sales don't provide enough growth anymore, so Microsoft has to have its software in other devices that have growing sales. That's why it keeps expanding from PCs.

Next, all Microsoft platforms must embrace three capabilities: security (from viruses, identity theft, etc.), communications (helping devices connect to networks) and search and information management (which applies to everything from searching the Web to finding what you want to watch out of 500 TV channels). Microsoft has struggled with security and is behind competitors in search.

Finally, Microsoft products have to integrate with each other. In Microsoft's eyes, that's a benefit to users. The integration makes it easy to move among software programs and devices. In the eyes of many competitors and some government agencies, that can be a way for Microsoft to shut out competition.

A new culture begins to evolve

Ballmer, in a checked shirt, open collar and gray pants, leans way back in his chair and puts his feet on the edge of the conference room table. One-on-one, he's much different from Gates — more relaxed and garrulous. His personality is affecting the corporate culture more than ever.

He seems to want to do something about Microsoft's reputation as a brass-knuckled competitor and as an arrogant or uncaring supplier and partner. Part of the problem, Ballmer says, has been Microsoft's self-perception. It didn't understand how powerful it had become. Taking cues from Gates, Microsoft still thought like an underdog start-up.

"For many years, we did what we saw as our jobs," Ballmer says. "Then we went through a process where we kind of learned that people had expectations for us that were broader than that."

In the past year, Ballmer forged a rapprochement with former archenemy Sun Microsystems and improved a bitter relationship with the European Union. His message to employees is to play hard but be considerate.

"This is a very goal-oriented company," says Alison Watson, a vice president. "It used to be that the goal was to get X number of wins. Now there's more about winning with grace." Time will tell whether competitors feel they've been beaten graciously.

Ballmer seems to be showing Microsoft how to listen rather than dictate. "Since Steve has taken over, they've added a customer-facing DNA like they've never had before," says Mark Templeton, CEO of Citrix Systems, now a Microsoft partner but a company that Microsoft previously tried to crush. "They are listening and acting. It's more of a business point of view, where they used to want to get into a technical shootout."

On the campus, Microsoft's Darwinian culture of competition is easing a bit. One sign: Gates, famous for withering attacks on unprepared employees in meetings, has altered his approach a bit. "Bill still yells at people," research chief Rashid says. "But he's more thoughtful about what he says and how he will affect what will happen."

Going deeper than personalities

Ballmer gets talking about the two broad purposes of his job. First, he says, he's there to run the 60,000-employee company day to day. To describe the other half, he brings up a text that's probably not on most MBAs' reading lists: 19th century sociologist Max Weber's theories on "the routinization of charisma." It's about "how the transitions work from these sort of strong, powerful, charismatic leaders" to a next generation, when the leader is gone or in a different role, Ballmer says.

"That's what we're trying to do," he continues. "We have to be a place that can, with great energy and passion that's baked into the place, do amazing things on a regular basis. We have to be able to predictably do the amazing."

Ballmer recognizes that "predictably do the amazing" can sound oxymoronic. The challenge is to set up a structure and process that allow that to happen, without getting too bureaucratic or losing the passion of the founder, says Yale University's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who studies CEOs.

So what is Ballmer's tack?

One key is reducing the Bill and Steve factor inside Microsoft. Gates and Ballmer stay involved in business decisions and technology developments at a deeper level than top officers at many companies. But as Microsoft gets broader and bigger, Gates and Ballmer are trying to be less involved in details.

"I'm steering," Ballmer says. "I'm giving a nudge in directions that I think are important. But at the end of the day, it's not like it was five years ago, where I would have said I have my hands on the levers."

Ballmer in 2002 divided Microsoft into seven business units: business solutions, servers and tools, mobile and embedded devices, home and entertainment, MSN, client, and information worker. Each is responsible for its own profits and losses and even has its own CFO. The structure has helped push decisions out from Ballmer and Gates because managers run their units like somewhat independent businesses — to an extent.

"You don't run Microsoft the way you run General Electric," says Senior Vice President Will Poole. GE is an agglomeration of very different businesses, from jet engines to home appliances. "We have to drive integration across products so they work together and are greater than the sum of the parts," Poole says.

Still, executives say the reorganization is the most profound change Ballmer has brought. Microsoft has long been a product-focused company: Teams worked on Word, Windows, etc. Under the new structure, "People think about their business instead of their products," says Suzan DelBene, a marketing vice president.

"While Gates and Ballmer are still in the middle of the transition, I think they'll be successful in the same way they are with products," says J.P. Auffret, director of technology management studies at George Mason University. "They'll continue to make adjustments" until the company gets it right, he says.

Which, again, is how Microsoft works.

More immediate concerns

"I don't know if (Microsoft is in) phase one or phase two," Ballmer says about Microsoft's transition. "Maybe it's actually phase about three to phase about four, but at least as a bigger company, we're graduating from somehow a phase one to a phase two."

With that, Ballmer grins.

The evolution of Microsoft is not the most pressing issue on Ballmer's desk every day. Microsoft's business is healthy enough financially. Revenue was $23 billion when Ballmer became CEO in fiscal 2000 and hit $36.8 billion in fiscal 2004 — 60% growth in four years.

On other fronts, Linux continues to give Microsoft fits in server operating systems. Open source browser Firefox has been luring away users of Microsoft's Explorer. Microsoft faces powerful competition in cell phone operating systems, game consoles and TV set-top boxes. Read More....


USATODAY.com - CEO helps Microsoft enter its 30s gracefully

Corporate Leadership And Corporate Culture

Today I annouce the Birth of This Site

Corporate Leadership & Corporate Culture.

I shall share my experience & thoughts...Knowledge with everyone

Stay in tune..........