Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is not the right leader for
the world's largest software company but holds his grip on it by
systematically forcing out any rising manager who challenges his
authority, claims a former senior executive who has written a book about
his time at the company.
"For Microsoft to really get back in the
game seriously, you need a big change in management," said Joachim
Kempin, who worked at Microsoft between 1983 and 2002, overseeing the
sales of Windows software to computer makers for part of that time. "As
much as I respect Steve Ballmer, he may be part of that in the end."
As
a senior vice president in charge of a crucial part of the company's
business with direct access to co-founder Bill Gates, Kempin is the most
senior former Microsoft executive to write a book critical of the
company, which is famous for the loyalty of its ex-employees.
His criticism echoes that of investor David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, who called for Ballmer to step down in 2011.
Kempin
left Microsoft under a cloud in 2002 as some of the aggressive
contracts he crafted with PC makers were seen as fodder for the U.S.
government's antitrust prosecution of the company, which started in 1998
and was largely resolved by 2002.
His book, titled 'Resolve and
Fortitude: Microsoft's "secret power broker" breaks his silence', is
scheduled to be published on Tuesday. He talked with Reuters by phone on
Monday.
Defend the throne
Kempin charges Ballmer with
purposefully ousting any executives with potential to wrest him from the
CEO seat, which he has occupied since 2000.
He said he saw the
process first with Richard Belluzzo, a former Hewlett-Packard executive
credited with launching the Xbox game console who rose to chief
operating officer at Microsoft but left after only 14 months in the
post, in the same year Kempin left.
"He (Belluzzo) had no room to
breathe on the top. When you work that directly with Ballmer and Ballmer
believes 'maybe this guy could someday take over from me', my God, you
will have less air to breathe, that's what it comes down to."
Microsoft representatives declined comment. Attempts to reach Belluzzo were not successful.
Several
leading executives, touted by outsiders at one time or another as
potential successors to Ballmer, have left the company in the last few
years, most recently Windows unit chief Steven Sinofsky, who departed in
November.
Before Sinofsky, Windows and online head Kevin Johnson
went to run Juniper Networks Inc, Office chief Stephen Elop went to lead
phone maker Nokia Oyj, while Ray Ozzie, the software guru Gates
designated as Microsoft's big-picture thinker, left to start his own
project.
"Ozzie is a great software guy, he knew what he was
doing. But when you see Steve (Ballmer) and him on stage where he
(Ozzie) opposed Steve, it was Steve's way or the highway," said Kempin.
Kempin
said he spoke to Ballmer around two years ago and expressed his
concerns about his management style and direction of the company, but
has seen no changes since. He said he sent Ballmer and Gates copies of
his new book but has yet to get a reply.
"Steve is a very good
business guy, but make him a chief operating officer, not a CEO, and
your business is going to go gangbusters," said Kempin. "I respect that
guy (Ballmer), but there are some limitations in what he can and can't
do and maybe he hasn't realized them himself."
Missed opportunities
In
his book, Kempin writes about how Microsoft foresaw the major moves in
technology in the last decade, but bungled its entry into tablets,
phones and social media, ceding leadership in the technology world to
Apple Inc and others.
"They missed all the opportunities they were
talking about when I was still in the company. Tablets, phones we had a
tablet going, we had tablet software when Windows XP came out, it was
never followed up properly," said Kempin.
He also claims the
decline of PCs is partly due to Microsoft's mismanagement of hardware
makers, an area that Kempin oversaw at Microsoft.
"Just think
about the insult of Microsoft coming out with a tablet themselves,
trying to mimic Apple, and now they are going to come out with a
notebook on top of it," said Kempin, referring to Microsoft's Surface RT
tablet and soon-to-be-released Surface running Windows Pro.
Several PC makers went public with their unease about Microsoft's decision to make its own computers last year.
Kempin reserves his most pointed criticism for Ballmer.
"Is
he a great CEO? I don't think so. Microsoft's board is a lame duck
board, has been forever. They hire people to help them administer the
company, but not to lead the company. That's the problem," said Kempin.
"They
need somebody maybe 35-40 years old, a younger person who understands
the Facebook Inc generation and this mobile community. They don't need
this guy on stage with this fierce, aggressive look, announcing the next
version of Windows and thinking he can score with that."
© Thomson Reuters 2012