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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Innovation killed by culture...the Microsoft way


Ok, so this is an interesting story that I stumbled across while doing some of my more "wonky business consultant" type reading.

It's the story of how the short sighted business culture in Micky$oft caused them to blow a good chance at stalling the Apple market dominance in the tablet market at the early days of the 1st iPad.  The thing is, it's not so much a technical story, but a story about company cultures and management mindsets that actually limit their business' opportunities for success.  An indicator of why some businesses succeed and others fail.  Many of you may have seen similar instances of this sort of thinking in places where you have worked.

Anyway, there is a short piece about the Microsoft Courier Tablet.

Link to article here.


posted by The Mad Builder of Periwinkle at 20:57

1 Comments:

Blogger Jar(egg)head said...

"When it was pitched to Mr. Ballmer he did not know what to do, so he polled the VPs. Where it was not universally liked or disliked. So he took it to Gates. When Gates found that it would not run the Windows OS (it did not even look like windows), it would not run MS Exchange email, and it would not run the office products he said NO."

And that right there is the crux of their problem. Ballmer is a money CEO, not a product CEO. He is steadily running the company into the ground, throwing worn-out business cliches over his shoulder the entire time. He is unfortunately typical of modern American CEOs; he's a businessman who thinks understanding business is how your run a business. Which it's not, of course; you have to understand your product first and the money will come.

Those who create and run successful companies are the innovators. Which, ironically, is what Gates was three decades ago. Now he's stuck in his money-filled rut and can't even see the sky anymore, let alone reach for it. Microsoft's time has come and gone. They'll still be here in thirty years, but like Atari, they'll be only a pale shadow of their former glory.

I don't know that Apple has the leadership in place to step up and take a bite out of MS market share. Google might be able to with Android, but the latter suffers from the same problem as Linux: it has an identity crisis. Pick up any three Android devices from different manufacturers, distributors, or providers and you'll find three completely different back ends. The interface is standardized only by the politest of conventions.

Well, whatever happens to the OS market, at least it'll be more interesting than "Oh look! Another version of Windows/DOS!"

08:09  

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