Major Microsoft Re-Organization

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

[ackthpt (218170)]

• Johnson
• Allchin
• Raikes
• Bach
• Ozzie

Take the first letter of each name and you get Jarbo. I think they were going for Jar-Jar,but couldn't quite pull it off without ESR [slashdot.org]

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

[Zemplar (764598)]

No thanks. I'd rather NOT be in a room full of chairs at Microsoft just in case Ballmer walks in.

Re:Find a Chair Before the Tune Stops

[ackthpt (218170)]

No thanks. I'd rather NOT be in a room full of chairs at Microsoft just in case Ballmer walks in.

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

[Jesus_666 (702802)]

But Steve Ballmer can bury anyone he wants! Steve Ballmer throws chairs all the time and doesn't even think twice about it. This guy is so crazy and awesome that he flips out ALL the time. I heard that Steve Ballmer was eating at a diner. And when some dude dropped a spoon Steve Ballmer buried the whole town. My friend Mark said that he saw Steve Ballmer totally throw a chair at some kid just because the kid opened a window.

And that's what I call REAL Ultimate Power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same old story...

[FyRE666 (263011)]

Typical corporate reaction to a Death March Project: "This is taking too long! I know, we'll throw more managers at the problem - that'll fix it!" MS is following in the footsteps of most big tech companies. When it started, it grew rapidly and pushed out a lot of code (really! MS used to write code!) because most of the staff, including the management were working on projects. As companies "mature", and more layers of mostly useless management come in, the actual percentage of staff producing paying work diminishes and growth slows.

Re:Same old story...

[ben0207 (845105)]

Yeah, it's just adding extra bureaucracy, rather than looking at the real problems.

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...

[bigman2003 (671309)]

Then again, Microsoft is a corporation (as is Apple, and Google). They are trying to make money. The re-organization is really a financial strategy.

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...

[adpowers (153922)]

You are correct. I'm not going to compare the last five years, since the economy had just taken a downturn and Apple's stock plummeted about five years, but if you look at the last two years [yahoo.com], you see Apple doing amazingly well compared to Microsoft. Of course, in this time period Apple has released at least one new version of their operating system and sold lots of iPods, while Microsoft is currently between OS releases. Also, this isn't quite accurate because Microsoft has given its investors billions in d

Re:Same old story...

[Pharmboy (216950)]

Why do I have these images from "Office Space" running through my head? So who at Microsoft has a red stapler anyway?

Re:Same old story...

[RollingThunder (88952)]

Ballmer used to, but then some guys swiped it and took it to Google.

Re:Same old story...

[sconeu (64226)]

So what's he going to use to staple the proper cover on his TPS reports?

Re:Same old story...

[sgt_doom (655561)]

My first contract job at McSoftware:

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......

Conspiracy theory

[Strudelkugel (594414)]

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

[Soko (17987)]

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.

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...

Management in tech businesses

[einhverfr (238914)]

I personally think that managers in tech firms are ideally like programatic glue for holding components together. They are indepsensible, but adding too much makes things unmanageable. So management needs to be minimalistic and focused on interfacing productivity groups rather than controlling them per se.

I think that this is a *really* bad sign regarding Microsoft's possibilities going forward.

Re:Same old story...

[Sanat (702)]

Reminds me the story of ancient China when the great wall was being constructed and it was proceeding too slowly with 500,000 workers to satisfy the emperor. So the emperor has 300,000 workers put to death and the project moved along faster with the remaining 200,000 workers.

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!

Re:Same old story...

[xgamer04 (248962)]

Brooks' Law:

"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...

[sirmalloc (648119)]

Linus Torvalds, ESR, and RMS were all appointed as heads of the Window's product group.

Going the wrong direction

[the_mighty_$ (726261)]

the appointing of three new officers

Adding more bureaucracy doesnt help anything, especially in an organization already totally overbloated.

Re:Going the wrong direction

[Osrin (599427)]

There is some poor wording in the article, this actually appears to be 4 less business units over all, not 3 additional ones. There used to be seven.

Re:Going the wrong direction

[Spy der Mann (805235)]

Adding more bureaucracy doesnt help anything, especially in an organization already totally overbloated.

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! :)

Wikipedia scoops it.

[by Anonymous Coward]

And wikipedia reported it before MS put it on the wire service.

Going Down!

[JossiRossi (840900)]

Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic? Might be like the day or two before the actual sinking, but still just moving stuff around before the sink.

Money in the Bank

[Danger Stevens (869074)]

don't forget that MS could fail to turn a profit for two or three years and continue to make its payroll in full. There's some level of security when you have $20bil+ in the bank.

Re:Going Down?

[Len (89493)]

I doubt it. Somehow they've managed to survive the previous 17 reorgs.

I wonder.....

[8127972 (73495)]

..... If this will stop the chair throwing?

Lost its responsive time...

[Dark Coder (66759)]

The best way to push a new product out is with loosely coordinated small engines (team leaders) with appropriate small gears (coordinators) interleaving in between the cogs.

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...

[sapped (208174)]

Apparently, they haven't tried eXtreme Programming for the Business Manager (yet).

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

[Jazzer_Techie (800432)]

This reminds me of a Dilbert Cartoon
--
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

[crimethinker (721591)]

I remember that cartoon. (In fact, I cut it out of the newspaper and laminated it. I still have it in my home office.) The strip was part of a series that was published right around the time Word Perfect was whacking 20% of its Utah-based workforce. Everyone who worked there was nervous, and everyone who didn't work there was worried that the newly-unemployed 20% were going to glut the local market and make it harder to find decent jobs. (There's a whole sidebar here about how tech jobs in Utah Valley are TEH SUX0R compared to almost anywhere else. Let's just say I doubled my salary by leaving, and not to an area with 2x the cost of living. Supply and demand, my friend.)

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!"

/me sheds a tear

-paul

What is Vista anyway?

[Ckwop (707653)]

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?

[by Anonymous Coward]

How apt, because I'm struggling to see through the Microsoft PR to see what Vista really is.

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_ 2005.asp [winsupersite.com]

Secret to no Malware

[lilmouse (310335)]

The secret to avoiding MalWare on Windows platforms is to use a version of windows so old that it doesn't have enough functionality for the virii to exploit! If you're running 98, you're pretty safe - most things in the wild that hurt 98 have died off due to XP (and ME and 2000 and NT). What's left is a pretty small threat. All the great new virii running around? 98 can't run 'em. Too old. Doesn't meet the requirements.

Pretty nifty, actually :) I'm quite happy with my 300 mhz machine - I can still play Dungeon Keeper II and browse the web.

--LWM

Re:What is Vista anyway?

[Carnildo (712617)]

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.

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.

Oh...okay.

[GillBates0 (664202)]

Microsoft is unveiling a major reorganization today to help get Vista out the door.

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?

[soft_guy (534437)]

They could release MacOS X instead of Vista.

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?

[molarmass192 (608071)]

Ok, now that's scary. It'd be a great coup, but scary becuase the software would be that good. As a bonus, they get to lock the music market with iTunes. Only problem is AAPL's market cap is $44B, they'd need to reach about 20% above that to get the board to sign on and MS "only" has about $40B on hand. I doubt they'd be keen to try and raise $20B to finance the buyout.

A Quick Comparison

[JordanL (886154)]

Many small start up companies succeed because they do nothing but what they do best. That was why MS succeeded at first, (among other things).

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

[Dink Paisy (823325)]

I agree, which is why I think this reorganization will probably be very good for Microsoft. Realigning the divisions to match Microsoft's strengths, and cutting the number of divisions in half at the same time, seems to be the right track to make the company grow again.

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

Steve Balmer's new title:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Chair-man.

Tip your waitresses! I'll be here all week!

This is kind of sad...

[dtjohnson (102237)]

M$ is officially reorganizing but really they are ossifying. With Allchin being superseded by a marketing/sales guy, it's suddenly become a lot less likely that Windows will ever evolve into the kind of system software that is needed in the future. Most of the world, to this day, uses the Windows NTFS and its fragmentable master file table to store their data on ever-larger disk drives. Probably now we'll just see 'better and better' defragmenters as the innovation of the future. The Windows user interface will further solidify as a 2D 'click on the icon on the desktop' and the Windows computer will further 'evolve' into an appliance that plays multimedia, reads web pages, email and AIM, and plays games. Windows ossification. The only slightly interesting thing will be how Microsoft will get users to pay bigger license fees than they are paying now for the new Windows.

Much, much needed

[Overly Critical Guy (663429)]

Anyone who's been following Mini-MSFT's blog [blogspot.com] (highly recommended read, especially the comments from anonymous Microsoft employees!) is aware of the dire need for some reorganization in this company and the plague of overmanagement that has taken root since Ballmer took over as CEO. Of course, it remains to be seen if they'll actually make the necessary changes or if this is just more shifting around to put on a show for the shareholders (the stock's been flat since '98). But Vista has been, to put it nicely, a debacle.

Project at risk? Reorganize!

[mpaque (655244)]

Suggested reading for Microsoft Management:

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, by Fred Brooks. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0201 835959/103-6695899-7729413?v=glance [amazon.com]

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.

Brilliant.

[Onan (25162)]

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.

This week's Business Week

[Anonymous Meoward (665631)]

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?

So THAT'S why closed source is better than FOSS!

[RenQuanta (3274)]

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.....

The main response I'm left with

[mcc (14761)]

The main response I'm left with is that this will make it somewhat more difficult for an interested company outsider to determine exactly how much money the XBox is losing. Before, this was easy, since the Home and Entertainment division was pretty much the "XBox and everything related" division. Now they are combining divisions, so as the XBox 360 is released the financial numbers for the XBox venture are going to be combined with other stuff and thus somewhat obscured.

What exactly goes into "entertainment and devices"?

No, No, No.. you misunderstand..

[schon (31600)]

To truly understand the changes here, you must learn what the titles were before they were announced:

CELarry,
CECurly,
and CEMoe.

Umm.. OK, that sounded funnier in my head.

Re:Difference between American and Asian companies

[winkydink (650484)]

Infosys and Microsoft aren't in the same business. Outsourcer vs sw mfg.

Re:How funny. Split is half way to...

[amliebsch (724858)]

*Cough* Marketing and sales people at the top. Yeah, that'll fix things.

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.