Problem: When Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates as CEO of Microsoft, the company was dominant in all its markets, was growing revenue and profits, and was expected to continue to excel. Unfortunately, the exact opposite happened. Microsoft became sluggish and ineffective as product launches stalled. The main beneficiary of Microsoft's ineffectiveness was Apple, and the company gained a significant share of the PC market and out-innovated Microsoft with the introduction of the iPod, iPad and iPhone.
Read the article on Microsoft (Microsoft's Lost Decade Once upon a time, Microsoft dominated the tech industry; indeed, it was the wealthiest corporation in the world. But since 2000, as Apple, Google, and Facebook whizzed by, it has fallen flat in every arena it entered: e-books, music, search, social networking, etc., etc. Talking to former and current Microsoft executives, Kurt Eichenwald finds the fingers pointing at C.E.O. Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates's successor, as the man who led them astray. By Kurt Eichenwald, watch the video on the four types of organizational culture and then let's discuss how Ballmer changed the culture at Microsoft and the effect it had on the company and its performance.