14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer believes that the death of Microsoft is highly improbable. During a Q&A at the London School of Economics in London, England on October 5, 2010, Ballmer noted that the Redmond company would have to start performing extremely poorly in order to fail.
He revealed that while the software giant virtually holds its future in its own hands, the future is not guaranteed in any way.
“The demise of Microsoft should be a very difficult thing to have happen. And in some senses, the demise of Microsoft will require our complicit behavior because we’re not getting our job done. I view it like this … that our future is in our hands,” Ballmer said.
At the same time, this perspective is valid not just for Microsoft, but also for additional companies in the software industry.
Fact is that no product or investment that the Redmond company does will guarantee that it will be in business for decades to come. In this context, the only way to ensure that the software giant has a future is to keep innovating, Ballmer explained.
“We’ve got to create, we’ve got to create, we’ve got to do new things. We’ve got to, you know, sometimes look to the future and try to ignore our past because our past can be a help but it can be a hindrance,” the CEO said.
Ballmer noted that it isn’t uncommon for companies in the technology industry to fold, and that a variety of examples do exist.
“We’ve seen technology companies come from nothing to something overnight. We’ve seen very few companies stay at a high level for a long time. I’d put Microsoft, I’d put IBM on the list,” Ballmer revealed.
At the same time, he pointed out that there is life after death. There have been companies which managed to come back after they fell apart. “I’d put Apple in that category because they almost disappeared,” Ballmer said.
The conclusion is that Microsoft has a responsibility in investing into its own future.
Looking at the most recent products released by the software giant, including Windows 7, Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Internet Explorer 9 Beta, Microsoft certainly appears to be on the right path.
“So the truth of the matter is: our future is up to our good work. It’s not really up to what anybody else will do; it’s up to what we do. We’ve got all the advantages to work with, but if we don’t work with them we won’t realize those,” Ballmer added. “And I kind of like what we’re doing right now.”