Ballmer fired! Jobs hired!

[VirtualRain]

What if the MS board ousted Ballmer (as it probably should) and then let's say Steve Jobs is offered the job to run Microsoft... and actually accepts... what would he do with it?

In all seriousness... I realize this is less likely than winning the lottery, but let's try to imagine what someone "like Steve" might do differently at Microsoft.

Would he sever ties with the PC manufacturers and focus the company on building Microsoft PC's?
Would he kill the dogs like Zune, Windows Mobile, etc. or try to make them competitive?
Would he focus MS on strictly back-office server software and kill the client?

What would someone like Steve do differently?

Or, if you have no idea what Steve would do... what would YOU do differently?

 

[macfan881]

I think Steve would rather retire than work for MS in my opinion

 

[Clete2]

A good CEO backs a company 100%. Jobs wouldn't be able to do that since he has worked for Apple for many years. That aside, here's what I think.

A CEO doesn't generally delegate what direction a company should move. That's up to the board AND the CEO and all of the other officers. Jobs, or anyone else for that matter, would only hurt Microsoft by severing ties with the OEMs. Not to mention killing the OEM industry and having the government after them even more for anti-trust reasons (which is dumb). Jobs would basically just come in where Ballmer left off. He would keep the company moving forward in the direction it is currently going.

Would he focus on the server market as opposed to the client market? Of course not! Microsoft has a dual front in the industry, as it should. Sure, B2B is more profitable than B2C, but if Microsoft were to shift its focus to servers, they would sink. Think about all of the money that is poured into Windows development for consumers that would go down the drain. Think of the people who would switch to OSX and Linux instead of using Windows because it was lackluster. That would be a suicidal move. The company wouldn't sink, but they would become a much smaller company. Think about Red Hat. They are server-only and they are entirely focused on the support that they provide to businesses. That is what Microsoft would eventually become.

The only major change I think Jobs would bring to Microsoft is a design change to the Xbox and the Zune. Those products are hideously ugly. He would make sure that they looked more polished and that the design team changed their focus. Jobs has seen how successful looks can be in terms of gadgets.

 

[Sun Baked]

I think Steve would rather retire than work for MS in my opinion

I think he would rather be hired to host a McDonald's TV show and dress up every day as a clown than replace Ballmer (aka, same job sans makeup).