Steve Ballmer: Microsoft’s incompetent youth
As most successful companies evolve and expand they develop some nostalgic sense of romance around their freewheeling early days. An exchange here at D with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer suggests that Microsoft is atypical in this regard. Perhaps one root of Microsoft’s paranoid corporate DNA — its collective sense that no matter how successful it is, the roof could cave in any minute — lies in an inferiority complex that goes back to its formative years.
Here is what Ballmer said, responding to a question from Walt Mossberg about managing such a huge company today: “Don’t think the early days of Microsoft, when I joined, were so great. We didn’t have great agility.”
Mossberg: “What, it was small but ossified?”
Ballmer: “The people we had weren’t as good — they just weren’t pushing as much.”
Mossberg: “Like Paul Allen?”
Ballmer: “Paul was good. Bill was good. Four out of 30 were good — and believe me, the rest are gone.”
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May 31st, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Wow, that is arrogance beyond the pale…..
June 1st, 2007 at 12:56 am
I posted about this on C9, but of course the apologists started with the “It’s only because everyone hates Ballmer”.
It doesn’t surprise me in the latest however that he said that - what surprises me is that he is *still* in charge.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:19 am
[...] 1 Jun 2007 Ballmer: Blame the employees Posted by innerdaemon under Microsoft Scott Rosenberg: As most successful companies evolve and expand they develop some nostalgic sense of romance around [...]
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:26 pm
[...] Scott Rosenberg’s Wordyard » Blog Archive » Steve Ballmer: Microsoft’s incompetent youth “Ballmer: ‘Paul was good. Bill was good. Four out of 30 were good — and believe me, the rest are gone.’ ” - wow (tags: SteveBallmer interview executives Microsoft culture history) [...]
July 10th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Talking about steve ballmer, have you ever wondered how his office looked like from the inside? The capital of his empire from where he supposedly rules?
Check this out:
http://abhishek-myspace.blogspot.com/2007/07/microsoft-ceo-steve-ballmers-office.html
March 10th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
[...] he’s damning Apple with faint praise, threatening open source, or denigrating former employees, I’ve long argued that Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer generally does more damage than good [...]