The other day, Satya Nadella releases a sprawling memo, ostensibly to clarify Microsoft’s strategy under his leadership, and it positions the company as a ‘productivity and platform’ company, not the ‘devices and services’ orientation that Ballmer introduced in 2012, and reorganized the company around.
As a result, we should expect another top-to-bottom reorganization of the company, but Nadella only hinted at that, not really revealing any specific plans. And not announcing a departure from any line of business, either (see Satya Nadella wants to focus on the core of Microsoft’s business, which is… everything).
Jean-Louis Gassée took a look at the memo, and tried to break it down, and he found a lot of smoke but little fire. But then he tried to decode it:
Tortured statements from CEOs, politicians, coworkers, spouses, or suppliers, in no hierarchical order, mean one thing: I have something to hide, but I want to be able to say I told you the facts.
With all this in mind, let’s see if we can restate Nadella’s message to the troops:
This is the beginning of our new FY 2015 – and of a new era at Microsoft.
I have good news and bad news.
The bad news is the old Devices and Services mantra won’t work.
For example: I’ve determined we’ll never make money in tablets or smartphones.
So, do we continue to pretend we’re “all in” or do we face reality and make the painful decision to pull out so we can use our resources – including our integrity – to fight winnable battles? With the support of the Microsoft Board, I’ve chosen the latter. We’ll do our utmost to minimize the pain that will naturally arise from this change. Specifically, we’ll offer generous transitions arrangements in and out of the company to concerned Microsoftians and former Nokians.
The good news is we have immense resources to be a major player in the new world of Cloud services and Native Apps for mobile devices. We let the first innings of that game go by, but the sting energizes us. An example of such commitment is the rapid spread of Office applications – and related Cloud services – on any and all mobile devices. All Microsoft Enterprise and Consumer products/services will follow, including Xbox properties.
I realize this will disrupt the status quo and apologize for the pain to come. We have a choice: change or be changed.
Stay tuned.
With or without the clarity that Gassée would have him use, Nadella definitely has something up his sleeve, and he only hinted at it so far. But this is going to be a rough time to be a Microsoftie, I bet.