One year after Bill Gates' 'retirement': What's different?
It was just a year ago (June 27 was the actual date) that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates relinquished his day-to-day responsibilities at Microsoft. Has much changed as a result?
It’s a tricky question. Would Gates have pushed through the same kind of cost-cutting measures as CEO Steve Ballmer has? Would Microsoft have settled as many lawsuits as it did over the past year if Gates were more than a figurehead? Would Gates have been any more forthright about the company’s Azure plans/strategy? Would he have OK’d the Apple-targeted Laptop Hunter ad campaign (given his reticence for publicly acknowledging the competition)?
In the past year, we’ve seen a number of FOBs (Friends of Bill) hang up their Microsoft hats. We’ve seen Microsoft spend a lot of money and energy into trying to establish itself as a consumer brand, not just an enterprise- and/or a developer-centric one. Microsoft seems like a very polarized workplace right now, with employees in its newer businesses (search, advertising, Xbox, Zune) pitting themselves against those in the established money-making units (Windows, Office, tools).
