Microsofts Executive Exodus -
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
You are reading the wrong newsletters: Microsoft to hike salaries for employees[^]: "Like many other companies, Microsoft too is grappling with the possibility of talent being poached by competitors. Also, increasing competition and rising number of start-ups are also posing problems, especially in terms of talent retention."
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
Nice post. I personally think that many, many people have investments in Microsoft both financially and software licenses and products and they don't want to jinx anything right now...too much is at stake. I think Microsoft is on the way out big time as a software giant. I feel that they have no real direction, no motivation, and as a result, morale is low. There are other brilliant companies emerging and have been for a while and a lot of these ex Microsoft employees are going to these other rivals. my 2 cents
-- ** You don't hire a handyman to build a house, you hire a carpenter. ** Jack of all trades and master of none.
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
You get what you pay for. I think their off-shoring is biting them back now.
Craigslist Troll: litaly@comcast.net "I have a theory that the truth is never told during the nine-to-five hours. " — Hunter S. Thompson
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
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Nice post. I personally think that many, many people have investments in Microsoft both financially and software licenses and products and they don't want to jinx anything right now...too much is at stake. I think Microsoft is on the way out big time as a software giant. I feel that they have no real direction, no motivation, and as a result, morale is low. There are other brilliant companies emerging and have been for a while and a lot of these ex Microsoft employees are going to these other rivals. my 2 cents
-- ** You don't hire a handyman to build a house, you hire a carpenter. ** Jack of all trades and master of none.
Slacker007 wrote:
I think Microsoft is on the way out big time as a software giant.
Microsoft has been on a downhill roll ever since Gates turned it over to Ballmer. It will continue to accelerate downwards until Ballmer leaves.
"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them." Eric Hoffer "The failure mode of 'clever' is 'asshole'" John Scalzi
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Slacker007 wrote:
I think Microsoft is on the way out big time as a software giant.
Microsoft has been on a downhill roll ever since Gates turned it over to Ballmer. It will continue to accelerate downwards until Ballmer leaves.
"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them." Eric Hoffer "The failure mode of 'clever' is 'asshole'" John Scalzi
:thumbsup::thumbsup:
-- ** You don't hire a handyman to build a house, you hire a carpenter. ** Jack of all trades and master of none.
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Slacker007 wrote:
I think Microsoft is on the way out big time as a software giant.
Microsoft has been on a downhill roll ever since Gates turned it over to Ballmer. It will continue to accelerate downwards until Ballmer leaves.
"People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them." Eric Hoffer "The failure mode of 'clever' is 'asshole'" John Scalzi
And the articles demanding that Billie come back and fire Ballmer are increasing.
The 3-legged stool of understanding is held up by history, languages, and mathematics. Equipped with these three you can learn anything you want to learn. But if you lack any one of them you are just another ignorant peasant with dung on your boots. R. A. H.
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
First off thanks to all for replying, I wasn't expecting but one or 2 responses. Second, I'm honored that CP felt this post was worth mentioning in the daily email. I guess both of these indicate that I clearly am not alone in noticing this and wondering what’s going on. Some replies have noted this exodus is being covered in other areas and while that doesn't surprise me it does help make my point about there being less then you'd expect coverage on this. When Bill Gates announced his stepping down it was noted everywhere you could find the word computer or technology in print (real and digital print) and while his departure is not on the same level as any of the recent departures from MS the fact that so many have occurred in so short a time is significant, at least I think it is. If you start digging around (going beyond the first page or 2 of Google results or using some search other than Google or Bing) you can find government related investigations into things like Microsoft's accounting practices. This was something I had never heard of before and still don’t unless I go look for it in the specialty publications on line. My point is that its hard to believe that the recent exodus of so many long standing and or high profile employees from Microsoft at or around the same time as these investigations that are kept fairly mum, can’t just be coincidental. If anyone does find out more about Microsoft that’s not making the mainstream media rounds please do share with us as I'd love to know more. Thanks again to all who have replied already.
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Am I the only one asking why the recent employee exodus at Microsoft isn't generating any more buzz beyound the annoucnement of the employee leaving teh company? The past 1 - 2 years has seen what I would call an unusually large number of long time employees and star employees leaving the software giant. I can't believe this is just normal turnover. Anyone else feel like the news is deliberately playing this dwon or is it that I just read all the wrong newsletters?
Microsoft as a company is about 30 years old. Maybe the execs who are old-timers are just tired of the rat-race and retiring to live on their $millions. Microsoft is less relevant than it was 20 years ago, so perhaps it's less newsworthy that they're bleeding executives. It is well understood that Ballmer is a problem for microsoft, so perhaps the executive exodus is not viewed as surprising enough to be newsworthy. I am interested in the notion of chasing away all worthy replacements as a job retention strategy for Ballmer. There's still the complete outsider, like Gerstner from PepsiCo being hired in to run IBM. But there's also a problem with Microsoft's DNA. Microsoft has never made any money by innovating. Microsoft's method is to follow trends and then outmarket and outspend its competitors, leveraging the huge, stable revenue stream from the Windows franchise. This strategy worked pretty well during the time that software came in a box. It worked long enough to chase away innovators at all levels of Microsoft's management hierarchy. But it's not working on the web. That's because (for instance), while anyone can build a search engine, only one such engine is called "google". The brand is the URL, and it has proven hard to get customers to type in your not-as-familiar-as-the-leader URL. Following doesn't work well in the web era. Once a competitor gets popular, they also have the brand/URL and the critical mass of users. Even if you duplicate all the features of their site, it's way hard to convince their users to switch. It must be near impossible to change a philosophy so deeply wired into your company. It certainly can't happen while the executives who were raised on that philosophy are still leading. So maybe they're leaving because they can't change Microsoft's course, and maybe they're leaving because they know Microsoft's course needs to change.