No, this is not a typo. What will we do without Kempin and his timely tough talk? The man who left Microsoft back in 2002 is back again and for more and this time took another jab at Steve Ballmer.
This time he was interviewed by KOMO 4 News, and said that Ballmer does not have what it takes to be a CEO, apparently not of any large company, let alone an important one like Microsoft.
In fact, Kempin said that Ballmer is actually a good man for the COO (chief operations officer, by the way) position, and he does not have what it takes to become the chief executive:
“I think he’s a great COO. As CEO I think he needs to have more of a technical vision.”
He went on to say that Bill Gates, on the other hand, was overly different and knew how to get the job done while he was leading Microsoft. Whenever Redmond started work on a new project, Gates knew exactly what was needed:
“Bill Gates was ‘let’s go and get this done.’ There is no real technical leader inside the company [now].”
Considering the number of times he has been criticized in the media, Ballmer probably is enjoying all this by now. It is such a regular occurrence now that he probably looks forward to it while he runs the software giant.
So what do you guys make of this new verbal assault? Do you agree with this new direction Microsoft has taken in recent years? Or what about the product launches that Ballmer has overseen, and whether they leave something to be desired. Sound off below.
All Comments
I truly disagree that the CEO has to have a techinical background. They do need someone under them with that skill, but their job is to ensure things are done, not do them. They need access to all information to make decisions, but they dont need to know everything. The difference between a good CEO and a great CEO is not one who has the knowledge, but the one who knows how to put the right people underneath them.
Well put.