Which Officer Do You Want to Be Today?
The Daily Probe - January 17, 2000
The context for this and other Daily Probe articles is provided here.
REDMOND, WA (DPI) - In a stunning move that sent industry analysts
scrambling for their Bartlett's Book of Awestruck Exclamations,
software giant Microsoft this past week announced a management
restructuring at the very top of the company. Steve Ballmer,
Gates' Harvard roommate and 20-year Microsoft employee, was named
President and Chief Executive Officer, while company co-founder
Bill Gates named himself Chief Software Architect. Gates retained
the position of Chairman of the Board. "This is big; really big,"
said habitual Microsoft commentator Terwilliger Throckmorton.
He added, "We can only guess at the myriad changes that will now
take place in Microsoft's corporate culture."
The move makes Ballmer the titular, repeat tit-u-lar, head of the
company, but of course Gates still runs the show. This is similar
to the structure that was implemented several years ago that
featured Gates and Ballmer at the helm of the company, and several
other guys also running some departments. Before that, the company
experimented with a structure that had several guys running major
departments, but with Gates and Ballmer basically in charge.
Before that, Gates had introduced the innovative "Office of the
President," which featured himself and Ballmer and a couple other
guys as co-presidents; at that time there were also other guys who
ran other lesser parts of the company. Prior to that, Gates hired
a series of presidents, each of which was mocked and ignored from
behind by Gates and Ballmer and the other guys who actually ran
the company. At the announcement party, a grinning Gates told the
assembled throng, "I have an Excel spreadsheet where I've worked
out all the possible permutations of me and Steve in charge, and
a few other guys putzing around in the Executive Suite. We're now
on permutation number 58, with 127 more to go. Let's do Number 59
next month."
- Reported by Chris Jones
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