“One Microsoft”: Ballmer Finally Announces “Far-Reaching Realignment” Around Devices and Services
Microsoft announced today what CEO Steve Ballmer calls a “far-reaching realignment of the company that will enable us to innovate with greater speed, efficiency, and capability in a fast-changing world.”
In a memo to employees titled “One Microsoft,” Ballmer wrote, “We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies” and that the changes “will enable us to execute even better on our strategy to deliver a family of devices and services that best empower people for the activities they value most and the enterprise extensions and services that are most valuable to the business.”
In another strategy memo titled “Transforming Our Company,” Ballmer noted, “As the times change, so must our company.”
In practice, that means a significant shift in management, including eliminating the company’s many unit president titles, changing them all to executive vice presidents, and requiring more collaboration across the new divisions. “We will see our product line holistically, not as a set of islands,” wrote Ballmer. “All parts of the company will share and contribute to the success of core offerings, like Windows, Windows Phone, Xbox, Surface, Office 365 and our EA offer, Bing, Skype, Dynamics, Azure, and our servers.”
Ballmer outlined the new organization by functions: Engineering, Marketing, Business Development and Evangelism, Advanced Strategy and Research, Finance, HR, Legal, and COO.
The four engineering units — Operating Systems, Applications and Services, Cloud and Enterprise, and Devices and Studios — are vital parts of the new set-up and are headed by a group of current top execs.
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