What are his five suggestions?
- A guaranteed Terabyte of Internet-based storage space for EVERYTHING and for EVERYONE running Windows in the world.
- buy every [Microsoft] employee a top-of-the-line Dell machine with dual monitors running Windows Vista. And do it now.
- Change employee behavior through public compensation change logs.
- Get rid of corporate speed bumps.
- Force marketers to explain their decisions — in public on their blogs.
It is a fascinating post and certainly one which will generate a lot of discussion within Microsoft - any one of those changes would certainly change perceptions of Microsoft for the better.
Here’s hoping he doesn’t fall foul of the ‘corporate speed bumps’ he referred to when trying to move this agenda forward.
Now how can this perpetuate Microsoft:
Microsoft is famous for spicing up the technology wave to greate a decade long gorund swell for the technology. It re-created the good old 'point-and-click' based graphical user interface and created the windows madness. It fed the fire with Moore's law and Intel's obsession with growth.
Now flat screen TFT monitors are falling in prices. There is a emerging HDTV market that will see more multi-bullion dollar investment into display making. Now Robert Scoble is paving the way for 3-headed Vista as "productivity" and this frenzy will catch on and perpetuate the nexus, like the Intel-Microsoft nexus for another half a decade. In my opinion, at such a short distance 3-headed displays are a major health hazard and delink form the real world.
And Microsoft lost its battle in search to Google. And wants to start the war afresh with an offer of a TB for everyone and everything. More than anything, the challenge value for the Microsoft employees will make this work. To get such a thing working needs a lot of smart talent. And converting it to revenue will also need smarts. Once figured out, there will be market domination - which is the goal indeed. Nice try!
Ok that is immensely thoughtful and smart considering that he is attacking the top management and the mini-microsoft with single stone.
But what is in it for the Indian Software and IT sector.
First, is there anyone or any institution setting the agenda for the IT industry here like this. Challenging and teasing?
Even in the choosen domain of excellence - outsorrced IT services, is the Indian IT good enough to perpetuate itself with grace. Is the Indian IT majors like Infosys, Wipro, TCS happy to recurit hapless freshers our of shady engineering colleges and convet them into farm animals doing the oursourcing Charade.
Poster child success venturist like Sabeer Bhatia are too happy to settle for investing in travel portals.
While the long tail folks like Gaurav and Ashish fo Tekriti or happy to complain about Infosys Vacum cleaning the market for IT engineers.
Is there an agenda, is there a stragegy, is there a plan? Will it start from the top, bottom or from the middle?
Where is the damn discourse happenning?
Anyone any clue?
Update: Robert Scoble has left Microsoft. Bill Gates is leaving Microsoft in 2007. On hindsite, it is clear that this agenda(high/borderening impossible) setting by Robert Scoble is an indication that leaving Microsoft was in his mind while writing this.
