Microsoft Reorg, Keith Richards, and the rest of us
Nicole Hemsoth comments in HPCwire about the "Text of an internal email from Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer to employees regarding changes in the senior leadership team at the company."
I don't know how an "internal memo" is splashed over Microsoft web News pages.. Maybe this is intended for the outside world, because Mr. Ballmer must show a skeptical Wall Street (see WSJ Steve Ballmer's Epitaph) that he is delivering something to keep Microsoft growing.
Here is my comment to Nicole's post on LinkedIn:
Nicole said: "We’ve been working -we at HPCwire - on getting someone with an HPC slant from Microsoft to chat with us but right now it’s all about the cloud.
Cloud is great, but this is not cloud. This is One Microsoft cloud slogan.
Lady Gaga is not Lady Gaga, in reality she is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. She uses this name to create music we love.
If you want to pass an interview with Microsoft. that's they want to hear; One Microsoft. You can not be anything else.
Keith Richards from Rolling Stones is probably the quintessential non-Microsoft individual. In his autobiography, Life. he writes
But how many people are Lady Gaga, Keith Richards, Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg? How many? Most people dream of joining Microsoft and stop thinking, for big money.
LinkedIn has a job advertised Director / VP, Business Development SAP Ventures By the time I write this post, there are 378 applications. Three hundred seventy eight individuals who day-dream to start ventures as employees of another company, with other people visions, with benefits and health insurance. It does not matter which one of the 378 applicants is selected. It does not matter the criteria of selection (they can run as well a lottery). But I can bet SAP Venture that their business will not be better or worst. It will be the same. Most probably SAP executives - who are themselves high level employees - will recruit a mirror image of them and a yes man, who could be replaced if things go South.
If I were in Microsoft, with all their cash, I would start a Microsoft Y Combinator, or even better, I will make a partnership with them. Paul Graham, who will never apply for a job in Microsoft, invented the anti-thesis of one-anything.
Paul developed a new model of startup funding. He says: Twice a year we invest a small amount of money ($14-20k + an $80k note) in a large number of startups (most recently 52). The startups move to Silicon Valley for 3 months, during which we work intensively with them to get the company into the best possible shape and refine their pitch to investors"
As I work with the best minds in High Throughout Computing, here are my personal ideas on what a Microsoft startup incubator might do.
But according to WSJ on July 12, 2013, there is no hope for HPC.
See the follow up post: http://my-inner-voice.blogspot.com/2013/07/teaching-microsoft-how-htcondor-can-be.html
I don't know how an "internal memo" is splashed over Microsoft web News pages.. Maybe this is intended for the outside world, because Mr. Ballmer must show a skeptical Wall Street (see WSJ Steve Ballmer's Epitaph) that he is delivering something to keep Microsoft growing.
Here is my comment to Nicole's post on LinkedIn:
One Microsoft? This is what Mr. Ballmer says; "We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies. Although we will deliver multiple devices and services to execute and monetize the strategy, the single core strategy will drive us to set shared goals for everything we do."I notice the creation of processes" that span groups to ensure we succeed against our goals". This - together with the slogan "One Strategy, One Microsoft ", reminds me of a communist manifesto. Mr. Ballmer good intention has no room for "creative chaos"If anyone has a bright idea, it will go against of a wall of managers tasked to say: this is not fit the the Big Boss dogma of One Strategy, One Microsoft.
Nicole said: "We’ve been working -we at HPCwire - on getting someone with an HPC slant from Microsoft to chat with us but right now it’s all about the cloud.
Cloud is great, but this is not cloud. This is One Microsoft cloud slogan.
Lady Gaga is not Lady Gaga, in reality she is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta. She uses this name to create music we love.
 |
| Lady Gaga, ageless |
If you want to pass an interview with Microsoft. that's they want to hear; One Microsoft. You can not be anything else.
 |
| Keith Richards, 69 forever young |
Like Rastafarians - the religious group of black Jamaican who consider themselves Jewish - when the grid and the irons and the bars closed on societies everywhere, and they go tighter and tighter, they loosened from them. They were not going to work for Babylon
But how many people are Lady Gaga, Keith Richards, Steve Jobs or Zuckerberg? How many? Most people dream of joining Microsoft and stop thinking, for big money.
LinkedIn has a job advertised Director / VP, Business Development SAP Ventures By the time I write this post, there are 378 applications. Three hundred seventy eight individuals who day-dream to start ventures as employees of another company, with other people visions, with benefits and health insurance. It does not matter which one of the 378 applicants is selected. It does not matter the criteria of selection (they can run as well a lottery). But I can bet SAP Venture that their business will not be better or worst. It will be the same. Most probably SAP executives - who are themselves high level employees - will recruit a mirror image of them and a yes man, who could be replaced if things go South.
If I were in Microsoft, with all their cash, I would start a Microsoft Y Combinator, or even better, I will make a partnership with them. Paul Graham, who will never apply for a job in Microsoft, invented the anti-thesis of one-anything.
 |
| Paul Graham |
As I work with the best minds in High Throughout Computing, here are my personal ideas on what a Microsoft startup incubator might do.
Nicole will not give up: Once the reorg dust settles, we’ll definitely follow up, she says.In HPC, Microsoft never had a real presence. But I am surprised, as kings of workstations, that they did not make some simple subtle changes in Windows to allow the creation of clusters for High Throughput Computing, as developed by the Center of High Throughput Computing and CERN and many other. It was the HTC technology that enabled the discovery of the Higgs particle . Most probably the Nobel Prize this year will reflect this success.Mac desktops and laptops are much easier part of extremely powerful clusters, as they are Unix based, HTCondor has a deep port for Windows (The best there is for cluster software - in my opinion - yet Windows has intrinsic limitations that can not translate to distributed computers.Imagine bringing what Microsoft does best , UX (user experience) to each Windows laptop which can create clusters easily from thousands of machines costing a few hundred dollars.Microsoft lacks cluster computing skill set. Now with all the processes and oneness they preach, an HTC voice will be lost in the jungle.
But according to WSJ on July 12, 2013, there is no hope for HPC.
"The first thing I expect is a more collaborative and unified Microsoft," said Patrick Moorhead, who heads market-research firm Moor Insights & Strategy. "What this translates to is a much more unified experience between the phone, tablet, PC, and Xbox."Unified?
Analysts and former Microsoft executives noted that the change will require more discussion and negotiation among managers, neither of which are necessarily conducive to speedy action.Yes. This is One-Microsoft today:
See the follow up post: http://my-inner-voice.blogspot.com/2013/07/teaching-microsoft-how-htcondor-can-be.html
Comments