14 DAY TRIAL // Apple’s arch rival, Microsoft, doesn’t like to put an emphasis on the individual. Nor does the company encourage free thinking. It’s sort of like “the McDonalds of computing,” according to a person who got fired by Microsoft after five years of nothing but meetings and strategy reviews.
Max Zografos says “Microsoft culture expects you to be in meetings. Calendars need to be decorated with sufficient colourful blocks, to signal over-activity.”
Max held various tenures at Microsoft for the past five years, according to TechCrunch, the tech site that published his story.
Max says the time he spent at Microsoft made him realize that meetings are nothing more than “a way to diffuse and evade responsibility for decisions.”
“Yes – let’s spend weeks on weeks ‘reviewing with stakeholders’. It’s so much safer that taking swift decisions ourselves. The company places no trust on the individual to make the right decision on their own,” he writes.
“There is no creative tension, no vision these days. Left to Microsoft’s hands we’d still be toiling on overheating Vista desktops,” Max continues.
After getting sacked, Max sees things as they are: “This company is becoming the McDonalds of computing. Cheap, mass products, available everywhere. No nutrients, no ideas, no culture.”
He makes an example out of Windows 8, stating that the new Metro UI displays “nonstop, trivial updates from Facebook, Twitter, news sites and stock tickers.”
“Streams of raw noise distract users from the moment they login. In an already loud world, all Windows 8 does is increase the decibels,” he opines.
Max had decided to let the management know what he thought of the company, and how they could improve it. Below is an excerpt of his email to a Corporate Vice President:
Naturally, large teams are expected to have overheads. However, I’ve never witnessed such a systematic waste of company’s time and resources.
…
including its execs—spend much of their time in informational meetings with no agenda or purpose. Let me cite an example from today’s newsletter. A senior exec talks about what he will do in March:
‘March is going to be a busy month! I will be representing at the first ever and then will representing at in San Diego on . Then back in the U.S. again the week of for the LT Strategy Planning Workshop. In March, I have 1:1s lined up with and several of her LT: , , , and .”
I struggle to discern what will actually be achieved in March by this exec. All I can see is a series of expensive trips and endless hours spent in gatherings with no outcomes or deliverables.
Can Microsoft afford that? …
Entire days spent on meetings about meetings, drafting and re-drafting ‘team stories’ and participating in endless informational conference calls. I am confident that could achieve the same actual results with just 10 percent of its current funding. Given the opportunity, I can provide more clarity on this topic.
…
In a time of disruptive new technologies and competition, I believe Microsoft, and each organization within, should lead by example. We cannot afford not to.
Max tells TechCrunch that within hours of sending this email he had been “summarily fired and escorted to the door”.