Gates and Ballmer Calm the Microsoft Troops
By Mary Jo Foley
Microsoft's top two executives share their thoughts via company-wide e-mails on Microsoft's 'New Era of Technical Leadership.' Here is the text of the Ballmer and Gates notes.
Microsoft's chairman and CEO sent e-mail to Microsoft's nearly 70,000 employees, explaining the latest management transition, announced June 15, via which Gates will relinquish his day-to-day Microsoft duties and Chief Software Architect title by 2008.
Here is the text of Ballmer's and Gates' missives:
From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:31 PM
To: Microsoft and Subsidiaries: All FTE
Subject: New Era of Technical Leadership
I wanted to share some important news with you, and talk a little bit about some of my top priorities in the coming months.
Today we are announcing the news that – effective July 2008 – Bill will transition to a part-time role at the company. While this is significant news, it's important to note that for the next two years Bill will continue full-time as Chairman, and that even after July 2008 he will continue as Chairman and an advisor on key development and business issues.
This is not a decision that either Bill or I take lightly. We have a solid transition plan, and Microsoft is well-positioned to make this transition given the depth of senior leaders we have, and our strong pipeline of products over the coming year.
As Microsoft has grown, Bill also has taken on another challenge – the amazing work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to confront critical issues like global health and education. The Foundation's efforts have begun to have a major impact, and there is growing need for him to spend more of his time on Foundation activities.
Bill and I have talked over the years about scaling the company's leadership and about succession planning. Our efforts to expand the company's leadership and delegate more authority to meet the challenges of our expanded scope of innovation are well underway. At the same time, we agreed that when the time came for Bill to reduce his time at the company, we would announce it far enough in advance to ensure a smooth transition, giving him time to work side by side with new leaders. Bill and I are confident this plan will ensure Microsoft's future and build from the steps we have already taken.
You can't replace everything that Bill brings to this company with a single person, but Bill and I are confident we've assembled a great team that can step up and drive Microsoft innovation forward without missing a beat.
Ray Ozzie will immediately take on Bill's role of Chief Software Architect. In Ray's expanded role, he will partner with the Presidents to drive technical, strategic and business decisions that have cross-divisional impact.
Craig Mundie takes the newly created position of Chief Research and Strategy Officer. Craig will assume Bill's responsibility for the Company's research and incubation activities and partner with Brad Smith to guide our intellectual property and policy work, in addition to his existing responsibilities.
Effective immediately, Rick Rashid and his organization will report to Craig, and David Vaskevitch, our CTO, will report to Ray and work closely with him on company-wide technical issues. Their roles are unchanged. Eric Rudder and Jon DeVaan will also stay reporting to Bill. In a year, we will transition all Bill's direct reports so we are fully in our new roles.
Ray, Craig and I will be instituting regular meetings with Technical Fellows, Distinguished Engineers, and other top development executives, to ensure that we are incorporating their insights into our strategic thinking and decisions.
About a year ago, we organized our operations into 3 major divisions and an operating group, and gave those units broad authority. This was a first step toward greater speed and agility, by pushing decision-making and accountability out to the individual businesses. We have great leaders in place to run our businesses including our COO Kevin Turner, our division presidents Kevin Johnson, Jeff Raikes, and Robbie Bach. And, of course, with Jim Allchin's remaining time here before retirement, he's focused on shipping a high-quality Windows Vista release. As we enter this second phase of transition, I am especially excited to see key product leaders like Steven Sinofsky, J Allard, Bob Muglia, and others step up to new and expanded responsibilities.
We have great teams running our businesses and spearheading our technical leadership. I am drawing from my direct reports and the people highlighted here on both the business and technical sides to form a kind of Kitchen Cabinet of advisers. They will help me make the right decisions that cut across all our businesses -- about where to innovate, where to invest, how to evolve our brand, how to manage our people and improve our effectiveness.
In the third phase, by the first of the year, many teams will have completed important milestones, giving our leaders the chance to take bold steps to further improve agility, focus on Live and other new priorities, and give exciting and expanded responsibilities to top performers.
As we move forward, there are some basic principles that will continue to be key to our success.
First, we take an incredibly broad view when it comes to innovation. We invest in long-term research and we invest in product features that are ready to come to market right away. We nurture small teams, and we do large scale projects. We innovate in development and incubation groups as well as through external acquistions. Innovation is the top priority for the company.
Second, we are a products and services company. We hire the most brilliant and passionate technical people, and give them the tools and environment where they can do their best work. We have never had a better year than the last one in recruiting. The number and quality of campus and industry hires was fantastic and our retention of good performers is near an all time high. Great products brought to market by first-rate business people is the key to our long term success.
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And third, we're patient, we're relentless, we keep working and investing and listening to our customers and improving our products until we rise to the top. Windows, Office, and Server all took a number of years to get to critical mass. We are applying the same tenacity and long-term commitment to break through in all areas from Windows, Office, business applications and servers, to advertising, search, TV and gaming, and mobility.
Perhaps most importantly, we will be tenacious and persistent in driving our Live initiative with all the technology and business model implications that it has.
We do also need to be relentless in improving our agility, quality, and impact as a company – ensuring our products come to market on a timely basis, decisions are clear and stick, and our time and energy are focused on customers and creating new software.
We have an amazing opportunity ahead of us. We have only scratched the surface of what software innovation can do for our customers, and the value we can create for employees, shareholders and customers alike.
Later this afternoon we'll be holding a company webcast to discuss our transition plans over the next two years and take your questions. Please join me, Bill and other senior leaders at 4:30pm for the Employee Town Hall webcast.
Thanks.
Steve
Read Chairman Gates' E-mail Missive on the Next Page
From: MSBILLG
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:41 PM
To: Microsoft and Subsidiaries: All FTE Subject: My Transition Plans
I wanted to take a moment to share some of my thoughts, as well.
As Steve's mail indicates, I've decided that two years from now, in July 2008, I want to devote more time to the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Right now and for the next two years, my full-time job is here at Microsoft, and my part-time job remains the Foundation. Beginning in July 2008, I will switch that, to be full-time at the Foundation, while remaining involved with Microsoft as Chairman and an advisor on key development projects on a part-time basis.
To prepare for this change, we have a well-thought-out transition process. Again, I will continue at Microsoft full-time for the next two years, but over the course of those two years, my day-to-day responsibilities will shift to a team of incredible technical leaders who are already doing amazing things at the company.
I feel very lucky that we've got extraordinary technical leaders at the company, like Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie, who can step up to assume the roles that I've played. I've known Ray for the last 20 years, and he has created some of the most important developments in the industry. Craig and I have worked together for nearly 14 years, and he's been a technical visionary and a leader on policy throughout his career. With Ray and Craig stepping up, I feel very confident that the technical stewardship of Microsoft is in very capable hands.
And I feel the same way about our business leadership. Our core businesses are strong and we have a clear vision for how we will meet new challenges and opportunities. We just had our first $12 billion quarter, and we continue to generate almost a billion dollars in profit every month. We are about to launch breakthrough versions of Windows, Office and Exchange, which are already generating a lot of excitement.
Six years ago, Steve and I made a major transition when he stepped up to be CEO. He's done a fantastic job by every measure, whether it's the people he's brought in, the new ways he's running the company, or just the objective results – like doubling our revenue in six years. Steve has driven us to make bold bets on things like Xbox, Real Time Communications, business applications, IPTV, and many others including the Live platform. Steve is the best CEO I could imagine for Microsoft – he is changing the company in ways it needs to be changed. He is bringing in new leadership at all levels. And, he is focused on the long-term – making Microsoft a great company not just today but for decades to come.
With Steve's organization of the company into three divisions led by our incredible presidents – Jeff Raikes, Robbie Bach, and Kevin Johnson – we've laid a solid foundation for greater autonomy, agility and entrepreneurial spirit in our product groups. And with the great addition of Kevin Turner as our COO, our leadership team has never been stronger.
Our deep technical strength is one of the key reasons I believe Microsoft is well-positioned for great success in the years ahead. I'm very pleased that in addition to Ray, Craig, David and Rick, Steve has asked J Allard, Bob Muglia, and Steven Sinofsky to play an expanded role in shaping the company's business and technology strategy. And when you consider all of our remarkable Technical Fellows, Distinguished Engineers, all of the brilliant researchers working at our MSR labs around the world, and all the technical people in the business groups, I can safely say that our technical talent has never been stronger or deeper.
Obviously, this has been a very hard decision for me. Microsoft will always be a huge part of my life, and I'm lucky to have two callings that are so important and so challenging.
On a personal note, I know that my work on global health and education issues at the Foundation would never have been possible without the enormous success of Microsoft, so I want to thank you and all of the employees past and present who have contributed so much to this company.
Will Microsoft Still Be Microsoft Without Bill Gates?
Gates Out; Ozzie Becomes Chief Software Architect
Bill Gates' Departure is Good News (PC Magazine)
So Long, Bill, and Thanks for all the Phish (ExtremeTech)
For these last 31 years, I've had the best job in the world. I've worked with some of the brightest and most passionate people in the world. Together, we've built a great company whose products have empowered people around the world.
We're only at the beginning of what software can do, and I'm excited about the impact that Microsoft can have. I'm going to take an extended vacation this summer with my family, but I'll be back in late August and I look forward to working with all of you for the next two years and beyond, to make those dreams a reality.
Thanks.
Bill
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