The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jul
16
Steve Balmer – An Illustration of his “Genius”
Filed Under Computers & Tech on July 16, 2012 at 7:32 pm
Listeners of the various podcasts I pop up on from time to time may well know that I’m far from a fan of Steve Balmer. I didn’t like Bill Gates because of his hostile business practices, but I (perhaps grudgingly) admired his obvious talents. As CEO, Gates took Microsoft to the very very top. Balmer on the other hand, has always struck me as a rude and short-sighted bully who got to where he is now by being in the right place at the right time more than anything else. I just can’t see him as a visionary. I’ve been arguing for a long time that he is steering Microsoft down a dead-end path, and the fine folks over at MBAOnline.com seem to agree with me. They’ve put together a great infographic that really drives homes the point. Since a picture says a thousand words, I’ll leave you with the picture they paint of the Steve Balmer era at Microsoft.
Created by: MBAOnline.com
To be fair the Xbox has been a spectacular success. Oh wait, wasn’t there a gazillion dollar recall on that? When I’m bored I like to plot Apple Stock vs. Microsoft over time. Here it is from ’00 when Balmer took over to today: https://skitch.com/nosillacat/e846n/aapl-vs-msft-00-12. 2100% growth vs. -32% for Microsoft. Oh – and Microsoft just reported it’s first loss as a publicly traded company in its 26 year life (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48248172/ns/business-us_business/#.UAjTLDGe7AI)
Thanks for the graph Allison – dramatic to say the least!
It really is staggering that MS have been forced to report a loss. That simply should not have happened. Under good management MSFT would have led the way forward in mobile computing, not followed stumblingly after.