For Microsoft, 2006 was a year of new product introductions: the Windows Vista operating system, a new version of Office, and the Zune music player, to name a few.
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's job: Convince customers that Microsoft's latest products are ground-breaking enough to purchase, transform a company with $44 billion in sales into an agile innovator, compete against new business models that challenge Microsoft's traditional approach to software development and recruit enough talent to keep the software giant relevant 25 years from now.
Ballmer joined Microsoft in 1980, five years after its inception. He has witnessed the company grow from 30 employees to almost 80,000. In 1998, he was named president of Microsoft, responsible for day-to-day operations, and two years later was named CEO. With a management style that he characterizes as "more bubbly" than most, Ballmer says leadership "requires a heavy degree of personalization" and the ability to adapt to new conditions.
The day before Microsoft's Vista launch for business customers in New York City, Ballmer spoke at Wharton as part of the school's Leadership Lecture series. During his talk, Ballmer emphasized that Microsoft's style is to focus on the long term: His troops target a market and work until their products are competitive -- an ethos that has been apparent in nearly every Microsoft product from Windows to Xbox and, most recently, Zune.
"We're going to bet on our long term. We don't do things for the short term. And if we don't at first succeed, we keep trying," he says. "If we don't get what the customers really want, we keep going. It took us three attempts to get Windows right and if we had given up after attempt one or attempt two, Microsoft wouldn't look anything like" it does today. "Leaders have to set the tone that says, 'We'll be patient.'"
Leaders Must Continuously Adapt
Ballmer's patience will be crucial as Microsoft targets new growth areas.
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