It’s been a lazy summer, so I’ve had enough surplus time and energy to keep up to do something productive, as I’ve been in sort of a sabbatical from programming since May. Hence planned to develop a Windows Mobile app and started SDLC work from the scratches. When i designed UI for the same, i wasn’t impressed at all. The reasons are either my coding skills are too bad or Microsoft Technologies doesn’t provide edgy tools to create a flashy and entirely new apps. The latter reason was more obvious, my coding skills doesn’t matter as I will take Google’s help anyway.

I felt Technologically, Microsoft isn’t advanced as one expects it to be. It is unacceptable to a company which set benchmarks in personal computing two decades ago and had monotony over IT Sector for a considerable period. I believe any Computer graduate from my generation would have dreamed to work in Microsoft one day but it’s not anymore. Analysis was started from my side from all the little knowledge and resources i have.

Bill Gates, who has retired to a living sainthood, did a huge mistake when he left. He chose a Sales man to head his Tech INC. The CEO of Microsoft focused on Marketing and Sales and lost control over Innovation and Product-wisefocus like Apple on iPhones and iPads. The CEO of Micorosoft Steve Ballmer,is one funny personality he should have been a Standup comedian instead of Chief Executive of such huge corporation. His Famous jibe at Apple, when they launched iPhone in the beginning. He said 500$ for smartphone is too costly and he is healing his back pain ever since.

Under Ballmer, Microsoft’s well-known  fast-follower strategy becomes yet another “leadership” problem that prioritizes feature copying (which, it is uncritically implied, is somehow a vaguely dishonorable business strategy). He copied everything that was happening around, started a Search engine as Google was a huge hit and he failed, ventured into cloud computing as all other companies did, failed, released same OS with little UI and functionality changes, it bombed. Produced it’s tablet ranges as iPad’s were huge hit, started his own mobile OS as iOS and Android were doing wonders, failed yet again.

Few may argue,If Microsoft had succeeded rather than failed, and Apple and Google had failed to make their leaps ahead, similar (and equally contrived) stories could be written in reverse. If Gates had stayed, the story would likely have been the same. If Gates had chosen a technologist instead of a sales maven as his successor, ditto. Momentum and cultural inertia are facts of life, not matters of CEO choice.

I’d say strategical failure. and also remember, The direction of the wind matters a lot more than the captain of the ship when big technological forces are opening up new oceans of opportunity. There are enough ships waiting and positioned for every possible direction of the shifting wind. But ultimately it’s Captain’s job to direct.

Microsoft’s true problem is that it is caught in the “innovator’s dilemma”. That is, once it had captured the dominant position (Windows OS) it focused the majority of its energy into keeping that specific innovation at the top. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, technological dominance of any one product is fleeting, and Microsoft certainly did a great job of keeping its main drivers of earnings at the top of the heap for a very long time. But it must end.

There is always somebody in the right place, at the right time, with the right personality, within a company with the appropriate culture to sustain the successful strategy. That does not mean they fundamentally “cause” the success (or failure). Microsoft may or may not survive. But the grand narrative of technology deserves to be more than a series of Monster of the Week slayings of out-of-favor leaders.