NEWS
A roundup of the latest Everyday News from the world of electronics
Microsoft’s Ballmer at Oxford – report by Barry Fox teve Ballmer stepped down S from his role of Microsoft CEO on 4 February this year – dogged
Dean Peter Tufano admitted he was nervous – once thanking ‘Bill’ (Gates) for his time. Ballmer tackled head-on the issue of his ‘leadership style’ as captured in the now famous YouTube clip of him at a Microsoft event careering round a stage proclaiming, ‘I love this company’ (http://youtube/wvsboPUjrGc). ‘I am involving, energetic and passionate. I am a salesman by nature.
‘The worst advice I ever got was not to drop out of Business School after a year and join Microsoft. That by criticism of Windows 8, his pet was cosmically the worst advice.’ new version of Windows that is What advice would Ballmer give so uncomfortably different from new business ventures and web all previous versions that it deters start-ups? ‘Make mistakes, but fix people from replacing aging PCs. the mistakes. If you have a failure Exactly one month later, and billed you have got to fix it. If you don’t as the man who tripled Microsoft’s succeed, don’t give up and go home. revenue and doubled its profits, ‘To succeed you need adaptability, Steve Ballmer agreed to a question tenacity, capacity. Companies like and answer session on 4 March at Microsoft, Google, Facebook all the Saïd Business School of the took time to succeed. You don’t University of Oxford. just fall out of bed a success. The modern Nelson Mandela ‘You need to decide what sucLecture Theatre of the Saïd (process looks like. Sometimes havnounced Saheed) was packed, ing a lot of people sign up is a mainly with MBA students, to false metric. Take WhatsApp hear Steve Ballmer answer queswith 450 million users. Is it a tions for half an hour put by fad? Probably not. It may generSchool Dean Professor Peter Tuate revenue. There’s no reason to fano, and then for half an hour doubt Zuckerberg’s judgment. from the floor. Much of what ‘In the old days, if you wanted Ballmer said, prompted by mainto know if someone was any good ly business-oriented questions, you asked how many thousands was a stream of spontaneous wit, of lines of code they wrote in a wisdom, thoughts and soundbites month. It didn’t matter that the based on his career with Microlines were full of bugs.’ soft since 1980, when he joined as Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO, taking questions How did Ballmer handle projects at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School the company’s first business manthat didn’t much interest him? ‘If But I was painfully shy as a kid. ager, before becoming CEO in 2000. you are running a company you Like a football manager, I like to can’t not like anything. You are not bring groups with me. Microsoft is Don’t mention Win 8 allowed to. If you can’t embrace like a child to me. I love Microsoft But there was one very notable omissomething you will screw it up. like my children. My greatest joy sion; Ballmer never once mentioned ‘In the early days I wrote a few will be to see it flourish with me Windows 8 and its lack of popularsimple programs in Basic, but I am gone. Of course, I can’t say that all ity. No questioner asked directly not an engineer. I have never writ100,000 of our people all say they about it, either. Ballmer behaved as ten a single line of production code. love Microsoft.’ if Windows 8 (and the 8.1 version reI never was an expert. But I engage leased to try and stem criticism) had by asking questions. You have to Best advice never existed. The closest he came learn to ask the bright questions; to ‘The best advice I ever got was from to an admission of failure was to actriangulate.’ my father. If you are going to do a knowledge that ‘in the last ten years job, do a job. If you are not going to there are some things that did not go More than a one-trick pony do a job, don’t do it. He meant, be all so well. We would have a stronger Reminded by a BBC reporter that in or all out. I am someone who is all position in phones if I could re-do Microsoft had been early with touch in and stays in. the last ten years’. screen devices, tablets and phones,
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News May 2014.indd 8
Everyday Practical Electronics, May 2014
13/03/2014 10:29:42