Bill Gates Supports Ballmer's Parting with Sinofsky

According to foreign media reports, sometimes even in an extremely complex organization like Microsoft, people need to make simple choices. According to several senior Microsoft sources, Microsoft’s former CEO and co-founder, Bill Gates, stood in front of the current CEO in the sudden departure of Steve Sinofsky, the Windows director. Steve Ballmer's support for this controversial decision led him to parting ways with the talented Xinovski.

Cross-sector cooperation

What is their purpose? It is to allow the different departments of Microsoft to work more closely together. Although Gates, who is now the chairman of Microsoft, has made great friendships with Sinofsky, he eventually supported Ballmer's move: to allow the Microsoft Windows department to integrate more closely with other departments and let other departments Executives are more involved than ever in planning and developing the next generation of Windows.

This cross-sectoral cooperation is very different from that of Sinofsky's "order and control, or even secret approach" advocated throughout the company. In fact, many sources have revealed that cross-sector cooperation is something that Sinofsky strongly opposes.

"We can only follow the method of Sinofsky's method, or else there is no other way." An Microsoft executive spoke of Sinofsky's iron fist control of the flagship Windows business, "but now, in our In the new world of competition, we want to integrate all our products."

From this perspective, Sinofsky is not good at working with others. Although most people think that he is extremely efficient and he is very good at driving Microsoft's most important department, he also has a long-standing reputation: he is difficult to get along with people.

According to sources, even Ballmer had a conflict with Sinowski. Moreover, Ballmer has been worried that Sinofsky will threaten his status, especially since Hinovski was seen as a possible CEO successor.

Sinofsky's resignation has long been a hot topic. Microsoft sources also pointed out that this situation is similar to Apple's deported software executive Scott Forstall and the company's new CEO Tim-Ku The tension between Tim Cook.

Forstor was one of the favorite employees of Steve Jobs, the late CEO and co-founder of Apple. Under Steve Jobs's care, Frosty, the grumpy one, was protected from criticism. After Cooke took power, Faustor, who continued his involuntary behavior, ended in a sudden departure.

However, in the event of Sinofsky's departure, things did not actually seem so sudden on the surface. In the past few weeks, the tech blog All Things Digital has been informed by many inside and outside Microsoft sources that Microsoft is preparing for the departure of Sinofsky, even though he has hosted the Windows 8 operating system and the Surface tablet. Product release.

In fact, the author had asked Microsoft for the possibility of the departure of Sinofsky last weekend, but Frank Shaw, the company’s spokesman, declined to comment.

Sinanovski

However, even those employees who are happy about the departure of Sinofsky are also arguing that his departure has now left a gap in the top positions of Microsoft's senior leadership.

Sinofsky has demonstrated his ability to navigate Windows and deliver new products on time. Even if his personality is not likable, his achievements are undeniable. However, Sinofsky's arrogant attitude in disregard of other departmental executives eventually masked his great achievements. "Apart from those who work for him, he did not have friends who can live in peace with each other." One source said, "He will always provoke a fight."

This includes Ray Ozzie, former chief software architect at Microsoft. He left Microsoft in 2010, partly because he and Sinanovsky had left a comment on how cloud services were built and how Microsoft responded.

Similarly, Robbie Bach and J Allard, former heads of Microsoft's entertainment and equipment division, were also defeated in the fight with Sinofsky because Microsoft cut them off. The planned Courier tablet, and also the responsibility of developing the tablet to the Windows team. In the end, the two executives left Microsoft in 2010.

Sinofsky also had conflicts with Stephen Elop, the former head of Microsoft's business unit, who later moved to Nokia's CEO in 2010.

Gates also believes that Sinofsky is not suitable to lead the company. Although Ballmer stood on the side of Sinofsky in all those struggles, Ballmer eventually realized that Sinofsky was not suitable to lead. The company is moving toward the future. Sources said that Ballmer and Gates talked about this point of view, and Gates agreed.

The departure of Sinofsky is not without risk, because it is not yet clear that the company now has both commercial level and technical capabilities, can predict the development trend of the industry, and lead the company to move in the right direction.

What is also unclear is that since the company’s departments have long been princely separatist, as if Sinofsky only thought about the interests of his Windows department, would it be possible for all Microsoft employees to reunite? "The gap between Microsoft departments has been long-standing, but now it wants to implement cross-sector cooperation." Another source said, "A lot of things are easier said than done."

However, sources said that among all of Microsoft’s heavyweight executives, Qi Lu, the head of online services, and Satya Nadella, the president of the service and tools department, were the most prominent. All of them have deep technical strengths, and they are also very popular with Microsoft.