Teaching Microsoft to Dance
Posted: April 28, 2014 Filed under: Change, Technology | Tags: IBM, Lou Gerstner, Microsoft, Satya Nadella 1 Comment
Image courtesy of Aduldej / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Twenty-one years ago this month, Lou Gerstner came from RJR Nabisco to take over at IBM. He cut billions of dollars in expenses and made tough decisions that no insider would have made easily, including cutting OS/2 (IBM’s PC Operating System) and eliminating the dress code (pinstripe suits, white shirts, wingtip shoes) and the “no alcohol” policy. At the time, IBM was perilously close to running out of cash. It was expected that Gerstner would oversee the company’s dissolution, but, instead, he executed an extraordinary turnaround that has become a classic business case study.
Certainly the situation today is different at Microsoft, but perhaps no less challenging. Which begs the question: can recently-named CEO Satya Nadella teach Microsoft how to dance?
Satya Nadella certainly forged new ground in his first public speech at Microsoft. For example, he was using an iPad on stage and referencing Android, while there was a relative absence of plugs for Microsoft Hardware.
Here are some of the dimensions of his challenge as I see it:
| Old Model | New Model |
| Desktop or Laptop PC | Mobile and Cloud |
| Enterprise I.T. Support | Cloud Support |
| Multi-year Large Enterprise or Package Software | Pay-as-you-Go and micro-transactions |
| Multiple years between major releases | A few days (or less) between updates |
| Focus on I.T. Professional Experience | Focus on Consumer Experience |
| Vertical Stack of Technology | Part of a Horizontal Ecosystem |
| Thick, feature laden client side software | Thin mobile or zero footprint services |
The list could go on. Probably the biggest elephant in the room is the culture. How do you reshape the hide-bound Microsoft ways fast enough to capture market opportunities? The reshaping of Microsoft has begun—it should be interesting to watch.
In the meantime, I’ll be dusting off my copy of Teaching Elephants to Dance. You can get yours on Amazon for a penny, or spend up for Gerstner’s first-person account, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?
Weekly Download 14.3
Posted: April 23, 2014 Filed under: Change, Leadership | Tags: Blue Ocean Leadership, CIO Magazine, Peter Drucker Leave a comment
Here’s a recap of news and notes from around the Web that caught my attention over the past week or so.
IT Leader or IT Manager? How to Be the Best of Both. Lessons from Peter Drucker never get old. CIO Magazine applies them to IT professionals and executives.
Change leader, change thyself. Change: it’s a tough job that starts with looking inside.
HBR Blue Ocean Leadership. Focus on the Right things = true leadership. An interesting way to map “as is” activities versus “to be” activities. It was a good reminder for me!
History Redux
Posted: April 11, 2014 Filed under: Change | Tags: CSC Exchange, Peter Drucker 2 Comments
Photo by Mark Baker
While cleaning out some old files over the holidays, I was instantly transported back in time—more than 20 years, in fact. In April 1993, I attended a CSC Exchange conference called “Achieving Market Leadership Through Reengineering” in Cambridge, Mass. This invitation-only event featured over 100 sessions over four days organized in five tracks:
• Reengineering Critical Processes
• Managing Large-Scale Change
• Rethinking the I/S Function
• Capitalizing on Technologies
• Considering the Outsourcing Alternative
I had no idea at the time how big reengineering would become, how significant the content would prove to be, and how the speakers would make a lasting impact on the business world. Funny, considering the slides looked they were created on barely more than a typewriter, a far cry from the multi-media extravaganzas that you see at most events today.
One session that has stuck with me all these years was by Peter Drucker called “Institutionalizing Change within the Organization.” I was so taken with him that I even got his autograph on my copy of his book “Post Capitalist Society.”
The thesis from his plenary session holds true today. From the conference agenda: “We talk a great deal about ‘overcoming resistance to change’; Peter Drucker argues that this is the wrong perspective. Instead, organization must become organized for change, must be managed to welcome change, and must be structured to lead change.” Well said.
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