Major Microsoft Re-Organization 286
Robert Scoble writes "Microsoft is unveiling a major reorganization today to help get Vista out the door. Some of the major changes include the appointing of three new officers to the three major divisions. The Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division will be led by Kevin Johnson and Jim Allchin as co-presidents; Jeff Raikes has been named president of the Microsoft Business Division; and Robbie Bach has been named as president of Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division. In addition, the company said Ray Ozzie will expand his role as chief technical officer by assuming responsibility for helping drive its software-based services strategy and execution across all three divisions."
Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:5, Funny)
A reshuffle just prior to rolling out a major product launch. I think this bodes poorly. The Street may think this is very proactive and a good move, but I've seen these things from the backend often enough I think it'll only be a matter of time before they're circled like wagons with a bin lid over each's arse end.
Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, but maybe Jarbo is like a big transformer, you know, and can fend him off!
"Release that chair, scurilous villain!"
I think this should be called Microsoft: The Jarbo Era
Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:5, Funny)
And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:2)
Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops (Score:2)
Gates: "Easy does it, Stinky. I have drawn up a new plan."
Ballmer: "Does it involve human livers, master?"
Gates: "Eventually, Stinky. For now, just stick to chairs while I carefully reorganize our corporate structure."
Ballmer: "But I am soooo hungry, master. Might I just nibble on a few programmer's lower intestines?"
Gates: "Alright, Stinky, but don't disturb the Vista team. We'll cannabilize them later."
I think it's just "jorb" (Score:2)
http://www.homestarrunner.com/cantsayjob.html [homestarrunner.com]
Same old story... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Same old story... (Score:5, Insightful)
I still can't work out why nobody at MS doesnt look at their nearest (and very much growing) competitors: Apple, Google and Linux aren't innovative because they hire more managers, they're innovative because they let the designers design, the coders code and the corporate bullshitters sit at home unemployed.
Re:Same old story... (Score:5, Insightful)
And in that case, is Apple really one of their nearest competitors? Microsoft's quarterly reports show that it PROFITS more than Apple SELLS. And that is including all of Apple's hardware.
I really don't think that Microsoft aspires to be the next Apple...or Google...or Linux...COMBINED.
Re:Same old story... (Score:2)
But looking at Apple, I think it's quite likely that MS would like to be able to have their increase in profits (and, I assume, stock value) instead of being flatline in terms of financial gro
Re:Same old story... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Same old story... (Score:2)
Re:Same old story... (Score:2)
Re:Same old story... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Same old story... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Same old story... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Same old story... (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember how the HR young lady (kid?) walked me to a storage area and had me drop off my briefcase there. Then she walked me over to the PC station I was to be working at. The desk was empty and devoid of any pens, pencils, rules, paper, etc., etc.; exactly what I had brought with me in my briefcase. To me this will always typify M$ - thank goodness they had all those billions from DOS licensing pouring in......
Re: swingline (Score:2)
Conspiracy theory (Score:5, Interesting)
Indulge my conspiracy theory for a sec:
"The promotion of Ozzie, who will report directly to Chairman Bill Gates..."
"Rudder will take on a new role focusing on the company's overall technical strategy. He'll report directly to Gates..."
The others report to the CEO (Ballmer). Sounds to me as though the next CEO will be Rudder or Ozzie, but I'm on the record suggesting Ballmer was never the right person for the CEO spot in the first place. Maybe the Vista delays were the final straw for the board, so the directors are setting up for the inevitable succession.
Re:Conspiracy theory (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe they're setting up for Ballmer getting jail time for accidentally braining someone with a chair while ranting about how he's "going to fucking kill Google" or somesuch...
Re:Conspiracy theory (Score:2)
Management in tech businesses (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that this is a *really* bad sign regarding Microsoft's possibilities going forward.
Re:Same old story... (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe this has something to do with the 10,000 jobs MS is sending to China. They will get Vista working correctly in China or else!
It isn't just MS (Score:2)
The mentioned book was by the same guy who came up with The
Re:Same old story... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."
--Fred Brooks [wikipedia.org], The Mythical Man-Month [wikipedia.org]
(Yeah, yeah, it's a "re-organization". Call it whatever makes you feel better.)
in other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Look at the submitter! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Going the wrong direction (Score:4, Insightful)
the appointing of three new officers
Adding more bureaucracy doesnt help anything, especially in an organization already totally overbloated.
Re:Going the wrong direction (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Going the wrong direction (Score:2)
Re:Going the wrong direction (Score:2)
I bet all the developers working in Vista are groaning right now.
Re:Going the wrong direction (Score:4, Funny)
From the summary:
"...for helping drive its software-based services strategy and execution across all three divisions."
And what's their software-based services strategy? Overbloat, i.e. Office. Everything fits!
Re:Going the wrong direction (Score:2)
Because you read the article, and the story, and who knows how many comments, but above all, you responded!
Microsoft Reorganizes... (Score:2, Funny)
Microsoft announces major reorganization to open-source on their Windows Vista Product. Source's inside of Microsoft hint at a new CEO to replace the sometimes over-zealous Ballmer. Sources indicate the man's name may be Stallman, or Torvalds... No one would comment on the new CEO. However in a brief statement from a laid off programmer, "I think they let all of us programmers go because of the shift to open source. Because lets face it, everyone can make a better product with those vira
Wikipedia scoops it. (Score:3, Informative)
Code speak (Score:2)
So I guess this means this Ray Ozzie character is the new "Head of Monopolistic Practices"?
No, No, No.. you misunderstand.. (Score:4, Funny)
CELarry,
CECurly,
and CEMoe.
Umm.. OK, that sounded funnier in my head.
Going Down! (Score:3, Interesting)
Money in the Bank (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Going Down? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Going Down! (Score:2)
Didn't some people use the deck chairs on the titanic as floatation aids after it went down? I seem to recall stories about this and someone mentioned it was used in the recent movie.
Perhaps rearranging isn't so bad if you can later use those same chairs to survive
I wonder..... (Score:5, Funny)
Lost its responsive time... (Score:5, Funny)
Easy and fast to build up... Need more function? just add another wheel. Losing steam? Add another small engine.
What MSFT is doing is adding a gigantic, humonguous, caveman-styled stone wheels (CxOs) that plunders and thunders the country hillsides as it rolls, smothering and trampling all other wheels and cogs in name of progress!
Apparently, they haven't tried eXtreme Programming for the Business Manager (yet).
Re:Lost its responsive time... (Score:3, Funny)
They must be the only company not have gone that route yet. Every company I have worked for seems to think that having two managers watch me at the same time somehow improves my efficiency.
Reorganization (Score:5, Funny)
--
Wally to PHB: I don't understand how the new reorganization will help us "focus on our core business." Did our core business change? Or are you saying that *every* reorg prior to this was a misdirected failure?
PHB: Wally, when a car gets a flat tire, what do you do?
Wally: Well, if I'm you, I rotate the tires and drive home.
--
I think that pretty much says it all.
Re:Reorganization (Score:4, Funny)
One or two days previous to this strip, there was another one, a meeting of managers. I don't remember the dialogue, but it went something like:
"Hey, Bob, you don't look so good. Are you feeling okay?"
"No, all of my bad decisions are coming back to haunt me. Could we do a re-org?"
"Great idea! I've got a few skeletons I wouldn't mind burying, too!"
-paul
What is Vista anyway? (Score:4, Insightful)
Vista (n) -"A distant view or prospect, especially one seen through an opening, as between rows of buildings or trees"
How apt, because I'm struggling to see through the Microsoft PR to see what Vista really is. We had this problem about five years ago when the marketing team got hold of .NET. .NET was mentioned everywhere from in the server family, to Office, to
development tools. When PR gave way to reality, .NET was a only a development tool and was really just Microsoft's (good) answer to Java. Nothing
like the revolution the PR machine would have you believe.
They question is whether Windows Vista going to solve a problem for me? The one thing that made XP a solution to my family was the welcome screen. Once they could select their username from a list that made it possible to give each family member an individual and run them in low privileged accounts. This has turned the family computer maintainence problem from a daily hastle to a once in a year activity.
What is Vista going to give me to make my job any easier? The only thing I would have bought Vista for is IE7 because of its nice anti-phishing features but this is going to be available in XP too. Even if this was ever a reason to upgrade, Firefox will likely have these features too in the next couple of months negating the need for Vista.
Feature after feature has been culled from Vista. We've got all these security "enhancements" in it but I can achieve the same in XP by following the NSA's Hardening Guide [nsa.gov]. Okay, this same level of hardening may be easier for the laymen to achieve in Vista but the layman doesn't care about security. When his PC fucks up due to a huge malware problem he just buys a new computer [slashdot.org].
The man off the street does not need vista. In fact the man on the street doesn't even need XP. There are plenty of people still using Windows 98 and having a good time. Lord knows how they keep malware off their machine but they do it.
And what about business. WinFS might have been useful, but it was cut. Monad might have been useful, but it was cut too. They've wasted time with Maestro when the open, widely deployed PDF format already exists.
A reorganisation of Microsoft will not help these problems and I suspect the PR team will not save them from interia this time..
Simon
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:3, Informative)
If you don't really know what Vista is, you should take care to not comment too much on its feature set like you do later on.
Anyway, here's some known so far non-cut features:
http://winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_preview
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:2)
. The man off the street does not need vista. In fact the man on the street doesn't even need XP.
Is this really a problem then? Will Vista cost more than XP? Not in terms of upgrading vs not upgrading. If most people just buy a new computer when their old one has a problem do you really care whether the new computer is running Vista vs XP vs 98 vs DOS 3.11?
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:2)
Until then, I roll with XP and linux. And if the PC gaming world shits the bed, I roll with Mac and linux. It looks like this is the end of the road for me and M$. They better reshuffle fast if they want to see my money again.
Secret to no Malware (Score:4, Interesting)
Pretty nifty, actually
--LWM
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:3, Informative)
Speaking as someone who's still using Win98, it's actually quite easy -- keeping malware off my machine is why I haven't upgraded, and don't plan to. Simply don't use Internet Explorer, and don't use Outlook Express. Everything else just takes care of itself. 98 isn't like XP, where every service opens ports to the Internet at large.
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:2)
If they can get Paris Hilton to push it, and maybe license a Doors song for their ad campaign, people will buy it.
Hmmmm, Doors song... *blue screen comes up* "This is the end, beautiful friend, the end..."
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:2)
I switched from OS/2 to Linux about the time that Windows 95 came out.
Therefore I have taken separate user accounts for granted since then.
Did Windows not have this before XP? Sheesh!
Re:What is Vista anyway? (Score:2)
Oh...okay. (Score:3, Insightful)
For a moment I hoped they were doing a major code reorganization to finally rid their code base of all the design/security flaws.
But hey, whatever floats their boat...
Why don't they just buy Apple? (Score:4, Interesting)
It wouldn't cost them that much, and it would be the first really good product Microsoftt has ever shipped
They could put in compatibility box to run Win32 apps natively on OS X, kill Apple's hardware business, and ship OS X on standard PC boxes.
Re:Why don't they just buy Apple? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why don't they just buy Apple? (Score:2)
They could do a stock swap perhaps.
Re:Why don't they just buy Apple? (Score:2)
Re:Why don't they just buy Apple? (Score:2)
I guarantee you that Bill doesn't want a bigger personal investment in Microsoft. In fact, at Microsoft's current rate of growth and share price I bet that even Microsoft doesn't want a bigger investment in MSFT.
And that's assuming that switching Windows out for OS X would be good for business, and personally I think that's a very BIG assumption.
Resumes (Score:2)
A Quick Comparison (Score:5, Insightful)
But they lose that when they add management. Some people think that its inevitable that such a thing happens to large companies, but I give you a counter example: Pixar.
Pixar has become the number one name in computer animated movies, and have had at least half a dozen box office toppers. But they continue to produce quality and quantity quickly because they have relatively few mangement positions which do their jobs well, and there are fewer seperations between ideas and implementations.
That is the problem that needs to be addressed, not only in MS, but in other companies like Yahoo and even some non-profit projects.
Re:A Quick Comparison (Score:2)
In other words, you fail it.
Re:A Quick Comparison (Score:3, Insightful)
Of course, Microsoft has been successful in the past few years. But I think that is despite all the seemingly random new projects and acquisitions, rather than because of them.
In some ways, Microsoft seems like a tobacco company: they hav
Re:A Quick Comparison (Score:2, Insightful)
Steve Balmer's new title: (Score:5, Funny)
Tip your waitresses! I'll be here all week!
Nah! (Score:2)
This is kind of sad... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is kind of sad... (Score:2, Insightful)
If I were Bill Gates, besides permanantly sealing off the gateway to hell I have in my basement, I would break with M$ start a new company. Let's face it, the guy did some nice stuff way back in the day. By that I don't necessarily mean DOS either...we can forget how novel the concept of a "software company" or a "personal computer" was 20 years ago and he played a large part in changing that (...donning my asbestos now).
It's amazing what you can accomplish unencumbered by Suits
No Good Geeks (Score:2)
Either their HR department is stupid and toss all the good resumes away, or good people don't want to work there anymore.
I suspect that it is the latter.
Much, much needed (Score:5, Interesting)
Difference between American and Asian companies (Score:2)
Re:Difference between American and Asian companies (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Difference between American and Asian companies (Score:2)
Infosys builds cube farms, hires engineers, and buys equipment. Where, exactly, is the direction and leadership for software development coming from? The infrastructure you mentioned?
It's not as important to "get something done" as it is to do it right. Doing things right takes vision and leadersh
Re:Difference between American and Asian companies (Score:2)
Bill Gates, from all the evidence I've seen, is, at best, a mediocre engineer. So is Steve Jobs and Ross Perot. However, they are arguably talented leaders, and their successes are clear.
There have been too many examples of companies who developed a killer product because they were led by individuals who were technologically savvy. That said, havin
Project at risk? Reorganize! (Score:5, Informative)
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, by Fred Brooks. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/020
You've got a project at risk, scheduling and production issues, so the fix is to re-organize and add executive and middle-management incentives, as in:
If they meet incentive goals, the 120 or so vice-presidents will receive an eye-popping $1 million in salary a year, and general managers, the next level down, will get $350,000 to $550,000, according to a high-ranking source. But the rest of the staff is paid at market rates. -- Business Week
Granted, this upcoming train wreck will provide a certain amount of entertainment, but it will be pretty unpleasant to work through. Over a year of Death March time so your boss can get the Big Bucks. Eccch.
Allchin? (Score:2)
Leak Of Ballmer's Office Memo: (Score:2, Funny)
Brilliant. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've always found that when I'm working on a ginormous software project that's literally years and years behind schedule despite drastic pruning of scope, the _exact_ trick to speed things up is to reorganize the whole company and add a few more officers.
I experience unshakeable confidence that the one and only thing the visthorn development effort was lacking was enough officers.
Re:Brilliant. (Score:2)
And more status meetings. Many more status meetings - twice daily if possible.
Re:Brilliant. (Score:2)
This week's Business Week (Score:4, Interesting)
If you receive Business Week, read the cover story. MSFT is experiencing a brain drain (Kai-Fu Lee being but one example) due to its stifling bureaucracy.
While software development has become a fairly mature industry, its near-instantaneous economies of scale demand that any organization be fast enough to tackle the Next Big Thing. This is why very large software companies are doomed to lose at least a few battles, and why there will always be room in the marketplace for start-ups.. as well as for refugees from the mothership to staff them.
IBM couldn't be all things to all people, Oracle won't be (no matter who they acquire), and now we're finding that Microsoft is tripping over itself.
Large organizations have inertia. Is this really news?
Uh-oh (Score:2)
That can't be good for QA. I'd say wait for SP1 before taking on this puppy.
As always (Score:2)
So THAT'S why closed source is better than FOSS! (Score:5, Funny)
They can re-org to get their products out the door! A clear sign of the efficiency, productivity, and qualtiy that can only be achieved in a hierarchical, proprietary shop.
No wonder Windows is so much better than Linux. You don't see Linus doing that kind of organizational work, now do you? :P Wouldn't it be great if he could? Too bad he can't cause it's Open Source. (Damned hippie commies!) Maybe if he could, then Linux could keep pace with the Windows release cycle...!
I guess that means we'll be seeing Vista any day now.
...That's right! Annnny day now.....
Re:So THAT'S why closed source is better than FOSS (Score:2)
Have there been any studies on this that anyone knows about?
Actually, this could get interesting (Score:2, Informative)
Things could get interesting
solution: yell louder (Score:2, Funny)
lots of yelling and screaming, that always works.
maybe toss a chair. threaten some air supplies and such
that will get them over the hump
What's that they say? (Score:2)
I actually own some MS stock, so I hope it works. They've been pretty much sucking recently.
The main response I'm left with (Score:4, Insightful)
What exactly goes into "entertainment and devices"?
Re-organization? (Score:2, Funny)
Hasta La Vista, Baby! (Score:2, Offtopic)
Can you smell it? It's the smell of fear wafting in from Washington state. Either that or Ballmer is "fired up" again. Maybe both. Regardless, let's embrace this as an opportunity:
There may never have been a better time to dethrone Microsoft. If a large portion of the open source community dedicated themselves to a few extra hours a week towards the cause of "cutting off Microsoft's air supply," this would be a gre
Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson (Score:2)
Re:Not a good sign (Score:2, Interesting)
So do you suppose Steve Ballmer was later heard to say: "Now that that's done, where's the steering wheel on this train?"
I wonder how much faster the Microsoft insider's blogs are going to pick up. Reorg's usually start at the top and move down, ripping people from what they know and replacing them with people who don't. Dust usually takes a while to settle, which you can usually a
Re:How funny. Split is half way to... (Score:3, Insightful)
I hate to say it, but it's the right choice. Microsoft succeeds when it gives people what they want. As competition stiffens, its only edge is in providing a better user experience. You don't go about doing this by putting developers in charge.
Re:Scrubs moment... (Score:2)