Microsoft chief operating officer Steve Ballmer announced on Thursday the company’s most comprehensive reorganization it ever had. The reorganization aims to improve the group effort and pace of modernization as the company shifts into a devices-and-services company.
Ballmer arranged the company based on its function with the organization which means they had to let go half of the product divisions and utilize the manpower and resources in a so-called centralized operations.
The Seattle Times was able to get a chance to interview the CEO after his announcement to get more details on how he plans to proceed with the restructuring, how the company’s performance review system will affect the allocation of the divisions, and his succession plan.
Ballmer discussed the four steps that the company will be doing to improve the group effort. First was coming up with a strategy that will roll down to the entire company instead of having it per division. That way, the company will grow altogether and if problems are encountered, will figure out how to resolve it altogether. The second step is setting a shared goal rather which is aligned to the first step. Third is to put up a single engineering team that will work for all divisions rather than have one for each division. Then finally, improving the culture within the company and having each employee follow the five key attributes: spirit, communication, collaboration, determination, and motivation.
He plans to start promoting the spirit of group effort or collaboration from himself and will play as a role model. “You role model it from the top, you talk about it a lot, you pinch yourself and remind yourself when you’re not doing better, you measure it in the employee poll,” said Ballmer in the interview.
Meanwhile, he clarified that the performance review system and reward system for the top performers will remain. These systems will be used to make sure that people keep their competitive attitude at work and stay motivated as they are being recognized by the company. However, minor changes may happen depending on the assessment of the head of human resources Lisa Brummel.
Ballmer was also firm that there will be no layoffs in the restructuring process. However, some may be moved to a different task or may take on more work.
Succession plans are also in the works but he refused to give details about it due to confidentially. However, he hints that the board is in-charge of it.
Whatever his plans are, Microsoft is indeed heading to a new direction sooner or into the next few months after they have shipped their major products Windows, Windows Phone, and Xbox One.
