Microsoft has announced that Bill Gates will have stepped down from his day-to-day responsibilities of running Microsoft so he can spend more time in the "Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" by July of 2008.
Do you think this will have an impact on Microsoft, how it is run, how it is presented to the public? If so- how would it be different? If not- give your reasons?
I think that there will be some impact- probably especially in the way its still seen somewhat as somewhat of a geeky thing (that is computers) and I'll be most intrested in seeing how the new personalities running Microsoft deal with rivals like Google and Apple.
Posts: 980 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I think it'll be a dramatic improvement for Microsoft, actually. The whole Friends of Bill culture was dragging middle management to a halt.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Honestly? I think that the impacts would only occur in the long run, being as it's happening over the next two years.
Two years is a lot of time for change in the computer world, and while he is giving away positions now, he will still have quite a say for a while.
Posts: 1831 | Registered: Jan 2003
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quote:Originally posted by TomDavidson: I think it'll be a dramatic improvement for Microsoft, actually. The whole Friends of Bill culture was dragging middle management to a halt.
What else exactly does middle managment tend to do- except allow itself to be dragged to a halt? Call me cynical, I just find the idea of there being "middle" management as a little funny. I suppose it does serve a purpose, but it drags all kinds of dilbert/office space/American Beauty images from my mind. Its kind of an odd space in the corporate culture: I don't actually DO anything per se, and I don't actually run things per se- I middle manage. Perhaps I am being far too dismissive- I would appreciate your input.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I don't think it will hurt long term development at all. While he's stepping down from day to day decisions, you can bet he'll still be the most powerful voice behind the scenes guiding major decisions. Microsoft has a multi-billion dollar warchest right now. And whether they go on a buying spree (talk was going around about them buying everything from Yahoo, to AOL (from TimeWarner), to Nintendo), or do a major stock buyback, will be a decision I think he'll play a major role in.
I think it's good that he's stepping back from any of the minor micromanaging, and is going to let someone else handle that. I trust that any new innovations, or new markets they attack, will come with a lot of Gates' input. He's set up a great company with a lot of unique practices and takes on innovation, it'll be interesting to see how they do without him holding on so tightly.
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quote:What else exactly does middle managment tend to do?
Microsoft's an enormous organization. And in between the high-level decisions and the low-level implementations, there's a need for people to manage, schedule, and oversee the projects that it undertakes. Microsoft currently has too many levels of these people -- its tree is something like 70 people deep -- but certainly couldn't function if all of them were stripped away.
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