REDMOND, Wash.—The decision by Chairman Bill Gates to transition away from working full time at Microsoft to assuming a part-time position has ushered in a new era and a new job for CEO Steve Ballmer.
“When Bill announced his role change, I felt like I was entering a new era and had a new job, given the uniqueness of my relationship with Bill over many years,” Ballmer said at Microsoft’s annual financial analyst meeting at its campus here July 27. “I have never had to be the primary champion of innovation within the company. Bill has always played that role. But, over the next two years, I will have to become the primary champion of innovation at Microsoft.”
With regard to Microsoft’s longstanding goal of making software a service, Ballmer said this is happening and the Redmond software giant is embracing advertising and subscription-based models and Internet-based delivery across all of its products as an important part of what it does going forward.
He also said the company is like a multicore processor and is looking to add new cores such as entertainment and Internet services to its existing cores of desktop and server software.
The past year has been one of many firsts, he said: This is the first time Gates has not attended Microsoft’s financial analyst meeting; instead, he is “in Africa somewhere enjoying a long-planned vacation,” Ballmer said.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: A New Role for Microsoft’s Ballmer
