Steve Ballmer and the Problem With Rock Star CEOs | To build a Great company, Rock ON

To be or Not to be… A Rock Star CEO.

For old fashioned corporate honchos, Rock Star & CEO may be an oxymoron.

  • First of all, was Balmer really a Rock Star ? Was the image creation of media & also, may be, by Microsoft ?
  • Microsoft missed the boat on search, on mobile, and on the cloud, thankfully did not miss on gaming with Xbox (my son is a proud owner!)
  • Or is it a problem with the culture at Microsoft, which does not develop leaders ?
  • In the specific case of Balmer, wonder if he had a Coach

One of the most successful and flamboyant CEOs, Sir Richard Branson, says ‘To Build A Great Company, Rock On‘. But, he gives a twist to it…

He says, ‘as an entrepreneur, it is up to you to create the kind of workplace and company culture that will attract great talent‘.

  • Can professional CEO’s ever step into the shoes of an entrepreneur, esp if his predecessor is someone like Bill Gates in the case of Balmer ( even Cook after Steve Jobs) ?
  • Can Microsoft really stake claim to having ‘great talent’ or have they been riding on the “product”, even though their product was indeed a ‘service’, software ? The fact they had such a dominant presence, did they really create a company culture like GE ?
  • Of course, the beautiful “twist’ Sir Branson gives is the CSR angle. Involve staff, during their official time, with the company’s charity events. Let the event be a musical one… Is that not a wonderful thought ?
  • Very relevant to India when there is a renewed focus on CSR & iCSR (individual CSR, at employee level).
    Just ROCK ON!!

Steve Ballmer and the Problem With Rock Star CEOs | Inc.com

http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/LcMCoVrLC5VDwqswQZOTCO/To-build-a-great-company-rock-on.html

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