Steve Ballmer announced his retirement today to the delight of Wall Street and legions of geeks who feel as though Microsoft has lost its way. It's easy to point out the failings of Microsoft, and therefore Ballmer, over the last 10 years. Indeed, you could argue that PCMag has been keeping score of Microsoft's wins and losses for Ballmer's entire 32-year career at the company. The search for a successor is just starting, but I think people are going to miss the guy. And not just because of the great GIFs.
Ballmer had the misfortune to step in for Bill Gates, Microsoft's iconic founder and chief visionary. Since his retirement in 2008, Gates has remade his image as an international philanthropist who has literally saved millions of lives, while Ballmer has remained the sales guy who screams "I love this company" at the top of his lungs.
You can't have Ballmer without the bombast. By comparison, Ballmer's written retirement announcement is both underwhelming and poorly edited.
There is never a perfect time for this type of transition, but now is the right time. We have embarked on a new strategy with a new organization and we have an amazing Senior Leadership Team. My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company's transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction.
It sounds reasonable enough, but there is no avoiding that awkward phrasing. His "original thoughts on the timing" were clearly different than his current thinking. In the last 12 months, Ballmer has been cleaning house and reorganizing the company to break down the deep silos that have plagued it for years. As he put it:
We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies. Although we will deliver multiple devices and services to execute and monetize the strategy, the single core strategy will drive us to set shared goals for everything we do. We will see our product line holistically, not as a set of islands.
That is the right strategy, albeit long overdue. (Indeed, if these moves had come earlier perhaps Ballmer wouldn't be looking at retirement properties in Boca Raton right now.) Windows 8 has been out for almost a year, and we are just now seeing effective messaging from Microsoft on how it fits into your digital life. Windows is the one thing that extends across all of your devices—phone, tablet, PC. Microsoft is getting it, just as Ballmer is getting out.
It is easy to highlight Microsoft's missteps over the last decade. First, it underestimated how disruptive the Internet and Web would be to all of its existing products. Then it largely missed the smartphone and tablet revolutions. As a result Microsoft stock is roughly 40 percent lower than when Steve Ballmer took over as CEO. If you have a 401k, those aren't great numbers.
And yet, Microsoft remains an incredibly profitable company. Say what you will about the Windows 8 launch, but Microsoft remains dominant in the PC space. Windows Phone is gaining market share and passionate consumers. Microsoft productivity software is still the standard for business and personal use and the company is wisely moving to subscription models. The Xbox is already wildly popular and profitable, and the upcoming Xbox One is poised to give Microsoft one of the best living-room computing experiences out there.
There are really only two companies better positioned than Microsoft to ride the next wave of innovation: Apple and Google. Take them away and Microsoft remains an incredibly powerful firm with great products and huge market share. Ballmer deserves a lot of the credit for this.
Someday soon, we won't have Steve Ballmer to kick around anymore. Until then, bring on the GIFs.
