InsightaaS: Leading software analyst Denis Pombriant, in the excellent Enterprise Irregulars blog site, provides a nuanced description of the IT industry, Microsoft’s place within it, and the challenges facing new CEO Satya Nadella. He references the book The Second Machine Age, saying that it should be mandatory reading for Microsoft employees, to help them understand that “we’ve passed a major milestone. Up to now we’ve built increasingly powerful and complex technologies that automate away huge hunks of everyday tasks…but the next phase will be all about how we leverage technology to do things that have never been thought of before. To invent things from whole cloth.” Pombriant goes on to note that “At this moment in technology Google is inventing Google Glass and cars that drive themselves; Apple has rung up a string of new devices…In this environment Microsoft looks positively dowdy with its suite of applications, Windows everywhere, and games.”
Microsoft announced its selection of Satya Nadella to be the third Microsoft CEO today and I wish him well. In a flurry of announcements, Bill Gates also stepped down as Chairman of the Board and will re-integrate himself into product development as a kind of guru in residence. I wish him well too.
Heck, I wish everyone over there well. Microsoft is too important to the technology industry generally and software in particular for them to continue the holding pattern they’ve been in for the last several years.
Nadella’s email to the company, which was widely distributed, contains a section headed, “Why are we here?” Among the reasons Nadella gives is this: “As we look forward, we must zero in on what Microsoft can uniquely contribute to the world. The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things.” Exactly.
I agree but I am not sure it’s enough…
Read the entire post: http://www.enterpriseirregulars.com/71615/satya-nadella-ceo-microsoft/
