More on myMicrosoft/miniMicrosoft
Lots of comments on the Mini-MSFT blog about the employee ratings changes.
Yesterday, I pointed out that the curve was always psychological, but I don’t want to lose sight of the fact that what happened yesterday was incredible and laudable:
- Towels got the big applause? Why? Because it shows that management is listening, paying attention, and responsive. Some people are cynical, but consider what happened — management made some changes, mounted a campaign to sell the changes to the employees. And then, open criticism of the policies erupted, a minor employee revolt that was not only tolerated by the senior management, but even remarked upon favorably, and eventual capitulation. I challenge you to find any company, in any industry, where this would happen — where a Mini could hop up, build a constituency, and actually change things. Far from being recalcitrant and grudging, senior management has taken the whole Mini thing with good humor and even some genuine appreciation. (”Thank God, these employees have finally developed some assertiveness!”)
- Totally in the open. OK, I am quite frankly amazed at how much Matt Cutts has been able to get away with in blogging for Google. Google seems to be making some genuine moves toward transparency, and I applaud them. But Google is still like Stalinist Russia compared to Microsoft when it comes to transparency. Think about it — employee morale is the primary competitive edge for any company in the tech industry, and Microsoft has been willing to let all of this dirty laundry be examined and debated in the open. The first blogger to question Google’s benefits structure was fired. When we say this is a great place to work, you have all of the information out in the open, to make the decision yourself. That’s a big deal.
- Stock price. All I can say is, the people who want Ballmer’s head are insane. Microsoft is not a bubble stock anymore, it never will be. Get over it. If you want bubble stock growth (and risk), go buy Google. At this point in life, a company focuses on earnings growth, market share, and hopes that the stock price follows. Yes, surprises are bad, but Microsoft has way outperformed what anybody was predicting 5 years ago, and the company is incredibly strong on fundamentals. This is not a company in crisis; not even close. Ballmer has succeeded beyond what anybody expected and put the company in strong competitive shape. Furthermore, he’s presided over the transformation of the company into a kinder, gentler, more open and transparent organization. Don’t forget that he supported blogging when other senior execs desperately wanted to see it killed. Don’t forget that he was the one to continually bring the customer voice into the battles between senior execs for empires (he ran the field organization). If he had not been CEO, you would not see Lisa Brummel having so much latitude to respond directly to employee concerns, and you certainly wouldn’t see Kevin Johnson in his current role (we all had two or three people we thought would get the spot, few expected Kevin — it’s a good thing, and all because of Ballmer). Just imagine the nightmare today if we were considering transfer of power from one of the other orgs (for example, the powerful org where I speculate that Mini works). I don’t want to sound like a sycophant, but I think the critics are blind. The guy did a lot for the company; if you realistically think about the alternatives you’ll agree. Frankly, I think all of the angst comes from people comparing Google Apples and Microsoft Oranges. OMFG!!! Google stock is $350 and Microsoft is $21!!! Fire the CEO!!!! Fine, let’s do that and watch the stock languish at $12 while earnings growth is a “mediocre” 9%. Whatever…