I didn’t expect Steve Ballmer to break news when he spoke at the Northern Virginia Technology Council’s Tech Titan’s breakfast Thursday morning.
And he didn’t. Instead he gave a speech that was part a vision of technologies future – big data and the cloud – and part Microsoft sales pitch – the coming release of Windows 8.
As part of his talk he had Ryan Asdourian, a Microsoft senior product manager, give a demo of Windows 8 and how it works on a smart phone, tablet and PC. The cloud and apps are the backbone of the new operating system.
It looked good and seemed like it should be intuitive to use. Your various devices would work together. Asdourian took a photo of the audience and a short time later it appeared on his notebook computer; because all of his devices are connected to the cloud and photos are automatically shared among your devices.
It was nice, but as Ballmer spoke about things such as how machine learning is the next big thing in big data and how data center technologies are rapidly advancing, I couldn’t help but think that Apple and Android have won the war on how we interact with data and computing.
Ballmer acknowledged that Microsoft is playing catch up and is unveiling its version of computing that has been so rapidly adopted by Android and Apple users over the last few years.
With Windows 8 and the Microsoft Store --- an online market for users to buy and download software and apps – Microsoft is “reimagining computing.” It is the biggest change at Microsoft since the company’s earliest days when its goal was to put a PC on every desk, Ballmer said.
The company is entering a very competitive market, he said.
It’ll be fun to watch that competition. Ballmer put in a few subtle digs at Apple when he made a crack about the ease-of-use of his Microsoft phone and its tiles versus a phone with a “sea of icons.” He also praised the battery life on Microsoft-based devices.
There also was mention that Microsoft has a retail store now.
So as all of this piled up in my head – the Microsoft retail store, the online store, the cloud connectivity between devices, the reliance on apps – I couldn’t help but think that there is a bit of “Me too” going on at Microsoft.
But I’m not accusing them of not being innovative or original. The stories of Apple usurping other people’s ideas and running with them are legion; after all, the iPad was not the first tablet computer.
It is perfectly fine to steal ideas. The challenge, though, for Microsoft, is to make its products run better, easier and cheaper, than the established players.
He also touched on a true area of strength for Microsoft and that is its dominance in the enterprise and in productivity tools.
For the most part, smart phones and tablets are great for consuming information, but not so useful as tools for producing it.
I think bringing those two uses of computing together on a single platform is where Microsoft has its greatest opportunity.
Ballmer said he no longer has any analogue devices in his office, that is, no more paper and pens. He doesn’t even have a printer anymore. Instead he has a huge slate computer – I think he said 80 inches – with a stylus.
He can take notes, crunch numbers, communicate with colleagues and partners and run the biggest software company in the world.
I’m sure he can then access any of that information from his mobile devices wherever he is.
That is the vision of computing that Microsoft is trying to create. But so are Apple and Android.
The competition will be fierce and nasty between them, but we, the users, should benefit from it.
Posted by Nick Wakeman on Apr 19, 2012 at 9:31 AM0 comments
A few weeks ago I was moderating a panel of industry executives when a member of the audience turned the tables on me and asked me a question:
What kind of merger and acquisition activity do you think we’ll see? What is going to drive the deals?
As the moderator, I don’t usually think about answering questions, so I was caught off guard a little and fell back on my standard answer: Yes, there will be lots of activity. The large defense companies have a lot of cash, so we’ll see some of that used to buy other companies to offset losses from defense cuts. We’ll also see companies making acquisitions to crack new markets, pick up new customers, or gain access to contracts.
Not really the most brilliant answer but after the session was over he came up to me told me the answer he was hoping to hear.
“I think we’re going to see deals that are either strategic or desperate,” he said.
His point was that there are a lot of companies running scared and making moves they might come to regret.
It was a great point and wish I had gotten his name. I only know he works for TASC.
Over the last few weeks I’ve thought about that comment and I think it applies to more than just M&A.
With the current market conditions driven by the budget, the deficit and shifting defense spending priorities, companies are scrambling to figure out how to continue to grow if they can or simply to survive.
The challenge from my perspective is how do you tell if a move, say a new hire, an acquisition or a contract pursuit, is a strategic act or an act of desperation?
M&A might be the easiest to spot by looking at the price tag and how it matches up with what is being acquired. For example, is the company moving into an adjacent market where it will have some familiarity with the customer and its mission? If the answer is yes, then to me that is strategic.
For me, it is a little tougher to separate the strategic from the desperate in the other areas. How can you tell if it is a good hire? When is a company overreaching on a contract pursuit?
I guess one sign is how many contracts a company bids on. It seems to me that in tough times, a company might need to be more selective about pursuits to make sure it gets a better return on its bid and proposal dollars. You might be wasting a lot of resources if you are trying to bid on everything that crosses the wire.
I wonder too if determining whether something is strategic or desperate is a matter of hindsight. Did the new hire bring in new business? Did the company win the contract and realize revenue from it?
The answer to those questions will only come with time, but in these tough times, the smart companies need to be asking now if their decisions are being driven by strategy or desperation.
How do your actions match up with your core values and objectives? You need to look at your decisions and be able to say definitively, this will help us build the company we want to be.
And those answers need to hold true whether the market is in a crisis or not.
Posted by Nick Wakeman on Apr 11, 2012 at 11:11 AM0 comments
My Uncle John died in March and I flew down to Florida this week for his memorial service.
He was 90 years old and his was a life worth celebrating. He grew up in Broward County, Fla., at a time when it was mostly truck farms and swamps. He served in World War II and survived being overrun by the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.
Before he was shipped overseas, he married Lois, my dad’s sister. To do that, he had to face my grandfather, a minister in the Church of the Brethren, a strict, pacifist church. He showed up at the farm in his uniform to ask for her hand. And anyone who knew my grandfather knows that took guts.
After the war, he returned to southern Florida and started a family. In 1952, he opened an office supply business in Hollywood, which is nestled between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Over the next 40 years, the business flourished.
To me, Uncle John was always the quintessential businessman. He treated his employees with respect, with several having careers with him measured in decades. As Hollywood grew into part of the metropolis of Miami, he fought off the big box stores for longer than anyone thought possible because he understood his customers' needs. He loved his community and served on multiple civic organizations.
The big box stores eventually carried the day. Uncle John sold his business to be part of a larger regional organization, which eventually was taken over by a national office supply operation.
I know his preference would have been for his business to have continued on as an independent operation but he also understood the dynamics of the market and that change is going to come, whether you agree or not.
I’ve met a lot of entrepreneurs and executives in the government market and the really good ones always remind me of Uncle John.
Like him, what they do and why they do it isn’t about them. It’s about building something. It’s about being part of the community. It’s about respecting employees and customers. It’s about giving back.
The financial rewards and other more quantifiable measures of success come if you do those other things the right way. They are never the sole motivator.
You have to have a greater purpose. For Uncle John, it was his family and his community. You can't ask for a better legacy than that.
Posted by Nick Wakeman on Apr 05, 2012 at 9:46 AM5 comments