Comments on: Big Company. Little Company

By: mary

mary — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:19:20 +0000

I have not been fortunate enough to cross paths with any of these mega business execs but I do agree with what is said about the way MSFT manages their business (although this is all hearsay to me) This is a little off topic but I am curious to see with the manner in which google is being run, their extreme growth especially, if/when they will ever be stopped. You cannot question the authoritative pull google demands but when does it end or does it. What would happen if you take MSFT management with google authority?

By: sethlevine

sethlevine — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:00:01 +0000

i think that's completely right, gerald. i also think that at the same time they've figured out how to work cross divisionally more effectively than in the past.

By: Gerald Joseph

Gerald Joseph — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:31:59 +0000

Hey Seth, It's great that you recognized the interesting strategic mindset over at MSFT. I recently accompanied a friend to a dinner party with some folks from MSFT and was also pleasantly surprised at the alignment of their thinking – they're open to everything, even technologies that may be disruptive in some respects to their OS. The key thing to remember is that the evolution of MSFT's internal culture may be in response to criticism they faced during the dot-com era from arbitrageurs and speculators who demaneded that MSFT break-up into 4 or more companies in order to realize a higher valuation. At least as an outsider, it appears that the various divisions run far more independently then they used to in respect to strategic vision, r&d, and m&a.

By: sethlevine

sethlevine — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:29:19 +0000

great observation. and you're right – msft if well run and has tons of extremely smart people who are passionate about what they are doing.

By: Adil

Adil — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:41:33 +0000

Please excuse my ignorance … What is fluid thinking ?

By: Aziz Grieser

Aziz Grieser — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:07:22 +0000

I think your shock from observing MSFT is due to popular preference to bash them for non-inclusiveness, which is thought to be contrary to Google and other web 2.0 company's 'new way' of doing business, which is simply not the case, IMO.

MSFT is better managed than Google IMO. Their valuations have always been tangible, sustainable, and extremely defensible. I think that is due to their M&A arm, as you refer to. I've met several founders of companies bought by MSFT, and I can't stress enough how intelligent they have been, and how insightful the acquisition showed Microsoft to be.

The Zune and Windows Vista launches were bad performances, but MSFT was able to brush them off their shoulders, because they have so many other great acquisitions to lean on. In the past, Google has made MANY more weak R&D and M&A investments in their effort to gain more customer info.

Times of economic hardship crush the Yahoo's of the world, and force Google to scale back their pace of innovation, a must-needed attribute of their business model. On the contrary, MSFT can now use its big 'ol cash reserves to muscle the Yahoos, and steal market share from the Google. The extent to which this recession will hurt/profit one or the other of these companies will only be able to be seen in 2 years, when the survivors turn the corner ahead of the economy.

-- My two cents