[opendtv] Some Microsoft workers call for heads to roll
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:49:08 -0500
I think it's bad form to complain about clueless managers and then
expect them to be clairvoyant.
I'm assuming these bloggers regularly complain about clueless management
(I may be wrong, but probably not). Had these senior execs and senior
managers been repeatedly warned by their subordinates that their
promises were way too optimistic? If not, then other heads than theirs
should more rightfully roll. E.g., the lower level manager who makes
lofty promises just to make himself look good, only to discover his
schedule can't be met even after his people are made to come in evenings
and weekends.
Or maybe some might say it's the job of the senior exec to know when
he's being lied to. Could be.
Since there is no gun to their head to deliver "on time," the delivery
date being self-imposed, the right thing to do is debug the product.
Heaven knows that the SP1 of most Microsoft products seems to come out
almost immediately after the thing is released.
Bert
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Some Microsoft workers call for heads to roll
Gregg Keizer
(03/24/2006 3:04 PM EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=3D183702787
Microsoft employees writing to an anonymous blog are calling for the
heads of high-level company executives -- including Steve Ballmer and
Jim Allchin -- after the double delay debacle this week when the
Redmond, Wash. developer shoved its two most profitable products into
2007.
On the Mini-Microsoft blog, which is maintained by someone who
identifies himself as a Microsoft employee and goes by the nickname "Who
da'Punk," an entry tagged "Vista 2007. Fire the leadership now!" has
accumulated over 325 comments from in- and outsiders.
The blog was a response to the Tuesday announcement that Windows Vista
would not ship in new PCs until January 2007. Thursday, Microsoft added
Office 2007 to the delay train.
"Who da'Punk" got things rolling Tuesday with this entry:
"After Allchin's email went out I imagined all the L68+ partners from
the Windows division gathered together and told, 'You are our
leadership. When we succeed, it is directly because of how you lead and
manage your teams. When we fail, it is directly because of how you lead
and manage your teams. We've had enough of failure and we've had enough
of you. Drop off your badge on the way out. Your personal belongings
will be dropped off at your house. Now get out of my sight.'"
Others commenting on the blog quickly took up the cry.
"[steve] ballmer: fired!
[jim] allchin: fired!
[brian] valentine: fired!
we cannot ship our OS. this is not a joke. if we don't take some radical
decisions, the company is over."
And:
"Ballmer has presided over the fall of Microsoft. [His] days are
numbered."
And:
"Accountability should start at the top. My commitment was to deliver on
my component. Allchin's commitment was to release Windows . . . . and he
failed to deliver."
But while the Thursday reorganization of Microsoft's Platform & Services
Division shuffled several executives -- notably Steve Sinofsky from a
position in the Office arm to head the Windows and Windows Live group --
no one was handed their hat.
Or were they?
Jim Allchin, who broke the bad news Tuesday and was set to retire after
Vista was delivered, seems to have been put out to pasture months
earlier than expected, said a source close to Microsoft. "Read what
Johnson said very carefully, " he said.
In a leaked memo sent to some Microsoft employees Thursday, Kevin
Johnson, the co-president (with Allchin) of the Platforms & Services
Division, wrote "As part of the next step of Jim's transition, we
discussed when it was appropriate to move his direct reports to me, and
decided that this organization change was the right time."
But even as some on the Mini-Microsoft blog wished for Maria
Antoinette-style retribution, other employees defended the decision, if
not the people who made it.
"Yes, it's painful. Yes, it's embarrassing," wrote Robert Scoble, a
company technical evangelist, on his Scobelizer blog. "But I'd rather
have a slipped date than a cruddy product."
"I certainly agree that lots of mistakes were made all the way up and
down the chain," wrote another anonymous Microsoft worker. "But this is
the right thing to do. In the longer view, 2, 3, 5 years from now...this
will have been the right call.
"Put it to you this way. At the end of this year, do you want Vista? Or
do you want XP SP2 ME? 'Cause it's god****** impossible to deliver Vista
by August...but we sure as heck can give ya XP SP2 ME any time."
The internal reaction may grow even hotter if, as some analysts have
predicted, Microsoft delays Vista and Office more than once.
"Microsoft's given itself some leeway," said Joe Wilcox, an analyst with
JupiterResearch, on Friday. "As far as selling season, January might as
well be July."
Thursday, Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, also
bet that Vista will be delayed again, and that the second (or third)
time, the pain would minimal. "The next delays won't hurt as much," said
Cherry.
But by the venom let loose on Mini-Microsoft, that's not a done deal.
All material on this site Copyright 2006 CMP Media LLC. All rights
reserved.
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