Just what the doctor ordered for Microsoft?

[JMH]

More engineers at the top: Just what the doctor ordered for Microsoft?

Bloomberg Businessweek has an interesting report citing those infamous “people in the know,” claiming that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is readying a management shakeup which will “place more senior product executives who have a strong engineering background.”
The thinking: Microsoft needs more technology-minded top dogs to help the company compete (or at least to provide the outward impression that engineering prowess still matters in Redmond).
If this comes to pass, it won’t be business as usual at Microsoft. As I’ve blogged numerous times, since Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates retired from his day-to-day duties at the company, many engineering-focused Microsoft managers (whom I and others call “Bill guys”) have left the company, as the more management/sales-focused cadre of “Steve’s guys” have risen to prominence.

More engineers at the top: Just what the doctor ordered for Microsoft? | ZDNet

 

[Max Peck]

Might not be a bad idea. I've seen what happens to technology companies that become TOO market driven. It needs to be balanced.

-Max

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
MS is in a bit of a quandary here since its main business revenue Windows / Server software and MS Office has reached a fairly mature stage and its difficult to see what their next revenue stream might be.

They might go down the IBM route and start a fairly boring Global consultancy business - but I've no idea.

MS won't go under for many years yet but the "Gravy Train" days are definitely over.

It will still yield solid results for many years yet but unless it discovers and develops new products for markets as yet undiscovered then it WILL fade away in the long term.

I'd begin perhaps to look at Holographic projections and genuine Virtual Reality software -- we all know that 3D is a temporary phase which won't hit mainstream outside Sports Bars etc but Holographic projection which IMO will replace 3d has a great future once the hardware is cheaply available.

Decent Virtual Reality is also a real runner in the next few years -- not those stupid Wii gizmos but a true VR for example a Pilot taining Simulator for a living room or a place on a Mars expedition.

Getting together with "Gaming" software developers could make this an interesting area.

MS could develop software for these -- I don't think they should be messing about going big time these days into Hardware as they don't have history in this area.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TanyaC]

Hi there
MS is in a bit of a quandary here since its main business revenue Windows / Server software and MS Office has reached a fairly mature stage and its difficult to see what their next revenue stream might be.

...

Cheers
jimbo

Do you think they will go down the "periodic licencing of products" to bolster their bottom line?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
MS is in a bit of a quandary here since its main business revenue Windows / Server software and MS Office has reached a fairly mature stage and its difficult to see what their next revenue stream might be.

...

Cheers
jimbo

Do you think they will go down the "periodic licencing of products" to bolster their bottom line?

Hi there

That idea is already for NON corporate stuff a failed and discredited business model except in a very few cases and even then people turn to cheaper alternatives when they find them

You can see examples of this already in various Music provider services such as Spotify -- good to start with but once you've copied / recorded / saved your 10 zillion tracks why keep paying forever when you don't need the service anymore.

To those worried about DRM a simple A/V transmitter from the Audio Out connection on your computer / receiver strips off the DRM B/S if you need to record tracks although it will be an analog stream which you can then re-digitise and for bog standard mp3 players quality is more than adequate.

If MS really start doing this type of B/S then you just use a Virtual Machine with your old "PRE periodic licence" to run your applications for as long as you need to while you investigate cheaper alternatives.

Even businesses are beginning to see the dangers of going down this route -- especially as modern software tends to be a lot more robust and reliable than the previous versions meaning you don't really need to update.

Whoever would have thought that over 12 years after its introduction - in spite of the excellent advance of W7 that XP is STIILL the worlds nr 1 most used O/S.

No -- MS needs to develope new software BEFORE the revenue streams of the current (and on the whole excellent) products start to diminish as they always will in a mature market.

cheers
jimbo

 

[Fayla]

I believe point 1. would be an awesome example of short-sightedness and point 2. would be an example of "victim of your own success." Point 2 also becomes more of a stickler when the economy dries up.

Periodic licensing and or tying security updates into purchasable upgrades are things that would make me stop using a product.

Hi there
MS is in a bit of a quandary here since its main business revenue Windows / Server software and MS Office has reached a fairly mature stage and its difficult to see what their next revenue stream might be.

...

Cheers
jimbo

Do you think they will go down the "periodic licencing of products" to bolster their bottom line?

1. You can see examples of this already in various Music provider services such as Spotify -- good to start with but once you've copied / recorded / saved your 10 zillion tracks why keep paying forever when you don't need the service anymore.

2. Even businesses are beginning to see the dangers of going down this route -- especially as modern software tends to be a lot more robust and reliable than the previous versions meaning you don't really need to update.

 

[bobtran]

Finally a business decision that make sense for a software company......Really tired of bean counters making decisions based on squeezing the last dollar out of the customer instead of squeezing the best customer experience in for the least dollar.

One can hope......right?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all
the main success in countries like Germany is that they have always regarded Engineers with respect and have STILL maintained a decent Manufacturing base without "Offshoring" and selling off everything possible to India, China etc just for a few quick bucks.

BMW, Audi and Mercedes are still amongst the most desirable cars -- if you ver get a chance to see the development Labs in Stuttgart (Mercedes) or Munich (BMW) you will see how Engineers should be treated.

Relying totally on one sector such as the Financial services sector and then trying to run an economy totally based on supplying Cheap Credit to consumers is bound to fail -- the banking crisis with the "Sub Prime Slime" fiasco showed how dangerous this business model was.

Good to see some positive thinking by MS but it's no good just employing Engineers -- you need to have some type of development / research going on too.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Layback Bear]

Counting pennies while dollars drift away seem to be a habit of many companies. It looks good on the P and L statement for a short time and bad on the customer satisfaction reviews for a long time.