* Microsoft creates new business units, shuffles execs
Last issue I called Microsoft’s recently announced mid-market server bundle (codenamed Centro) a marketing gimmick. While you were reading that, Microsoft was announcing a re-organization among its executive ranks. Some would say that the re-org is just another marketing gimmick, a way to distract attention from the fact that we’re still quite a ways from shipping another version of the Windows operating system.
That’s always a possibility and could be one motivation behind the timing of the re-org announcement. Annually, it seems, Microsoft either ships a new operating system (or a major rev of Office) – or announces a re-organization. But I don’t see that as the driving force behind this one.
Included with the re-org announcement was the news that Jim Allchin, currently group vice president of platforms, will be retiring at the end of 2006. Allchin has been involved with each version of Windows since Version 3 back in 1990. He’ll be leaving after shepherding Windows Vista onto the market late next year.
While Bill Gates might be “Mr. Microsoft,” Allchin is definitely “Mr. Windows.” There are many people in the industry who feel that Microsoft will have more trouble surviving the loss of Allchin than it would have if Gates or CEO Steve Ballmer left the company. By announcing (and doing) the reoorg now, Redmond is giving us 15 months to get used to new operating system honcho Kevin Johnson.
Johnson and Allchin will share duties as co-presidents of the new Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division, one of the three new operating units announced as part of the re-org. (The other two are the Business Division and the Entertainment & Devices Division.) Johnson is currently group vice-president, worldwide sales, marketing and services. Whether or not he also has the “vision” for the operating system that Allchin has had is yet to be determined. But it’s hoped that between now and the end of next year, Johnson will be able to both develop that vision and begin to sell it to not only Microsoft’s customers and partners but also to the internal product teams that will have to deliver it.
One place Johnson could look for inspiration is in the office of Microsoft’s CTO. Ray Ozzie was named to that post last spring when Redmond bought his Groove Networks company last spring, but hasn’t had any – at least publicly-acknowledged – role in guiding Microsoft. That has apparently changed in the reorganization, as Ozzie has been given responsibility for driving Microsoft’s strategy and execution across the three new divisions.
Ozzie was the man who almost single-handedly created Lotus Notes and drove it to success, overcoming major marketplace skepticism in the process. Groove took the collaborative aspects of Notes and built on them to create the “virtual office” best described as a way to bring together team members from both inside and outside the company, with no IT assistance required and no need to waste time thinking about firewalls, servers, security, or network access. That’s vision. That’s the kind of vision Ozzie shares with Allchin and – it’s to be hoped – the kind that will rub off on Kevin Johnson.
