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Microsoft's Decade Under Ballmer

If you listened to this week's Redmond Radio podcast, you would have herad me mention in my IT Webgems segment that it was 10 years ago this week that Bill Gates announced his retirement from Microsoft. It took Gates a full eight years to pack up his boxes and abandon the Redmond campus completely, but Steve Ballmer, for all intents, was CEO when Gates made that announcement and handed over the reins.

What do you think of the job Ballmer has done so far? Is Microsoft better or worse off a decade later? Feedback to me at mdomingo@1105media.com or post here.

Posted by Michael Domingo on 01/14/2010 at 5:07 PM


Reader Comments:

Fri, Jan 29, 2010 Mike

Steve Ballmer hasn't been an effective leader. He's been mediocre at best. When one hears that Ballmer will be giving a speech about a new product, where is the ground swell of interest? Right, there is none. While I don't expect him to create as much interest as Steve Jobs, a Microsoft CEO should be creating as much interest as Bill Gates. Steve is not. In fact, people *avoid* his speeches. Recently we received an invite to watch the new Windows Tablet PC launch from HP with Ballmer giving the dog and pony show. Any interest created? None. It wasn't the product that was the only lackluster offering, it was the representative from Microsoft: Steve Ballmer. The name Steve Ballmer is synonymous with "vanilla" or "water". There's nothing to get excited about no matter how good the product in his hand may actually be. Steve Ballmer needs to step aside and let someone who is looked at as a leader and has their best interests in mind so that Microsoft will have a chance to regain that fire again from the pulpit of the CEO. Steve is not the right guy. He's not as destructive as Carly, but still...he's not the right guy.

Fri, Jan 15, 2010

Balmer has done a much better job then I thought he would have. I think Microsoft is in a good place and keeping up with the changes in the marketplace.

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