It was clear that Balmer had nothing left to give Microsoft, so the announcement of his departure didn’t come as a surprise to many in the digital world. And having Satya as the emerging CEO, coming from within is beginning to create this momentum around Microsoft.
image from digital trends
First, the background – Satya is a en engineer, and Balmer was a Salesman – that should tip the scale towards the innovation instead of the cash cow approach. Hopefully this will mean the fresh blood that know a big change is required will have their chance at changing the culture of microsoft. Curiously enough, Yahoo did a similar move with the hiring of Marissa Mayer, putting performance ahead of short term revenues.
Big corporates like microsoft, seem to have built a bubble that disables them to see how innovation and entrepreneurship has changed the way new businesses are created – and when they do realise this, they are threatened by 5/10 employee companies.
Second, the experience – the work with enterprise and cloud solutions seems to be the origin of a revolution that has begun to show big attitude changes form the giant – selling office apps through non-windows devices. This could be the heart of a paradigm shift (a no brainer in every digital economy expert’s opinion) that could get Microsoft to focus where it should, and where its strengths lie.
Third, the Nokia test-bed – Nokia’s mobile phone division has been a huge investment, and maybe e far too expensive one, but it has happened. Now it needs to prove itself, and because of this, maybe its a place where Microsoft can be bolder. A sign of all of this is the launch of an android-powered Nokia. Maybe the smashing success that these phones could have – Nokia is still Nokia (and with the right software, a worthy competitor to Apple’s late efforts at keeping up with Samsung) will be the required revenue proof to build a no questions asked business case.
image from Business Insider
Forth, the Gates-wildcard – Bill Gates’ return should be the door opener instead of the surveillance mechanism. He can revitalise old agreements and define new ones with all the key players of all the relevant industries of the SOMOCLO age.
Exciting times ahead for Microsoft, and i hope they rise to the challenge and become one of the big players in the digital era, innovating and re-inventing our reality, side by side with the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook and a few others (like my personal favourite – Salesforce).
Other signals:
India believes in Satya! Like my home country (Much smaller Portugal), they are facing a talent-exodus and feel that could be a turning point to the loss of tech-hype India enjoyed a few years ago.
Satya believes in himself! He wants innovation to be the drive of the future mobile/cloud-first world. His first interview below.
Can you feel it with Microsoft or do you think i should check my meds?
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