Ballmer acknowledged the role Microsoft’s employees play in the company’s success. He quoted a study conducted by Microsoft and PWC in the UK, which found that in the UK, 78% of business leaders said that people were their principle asset.
Yet only 39% equip people with the proper IT to do their job, he said. Great people make companies great. Great people also encourage more great people to join a great company. Yet the opposite is true as well. If you lose great people, it means you lose more great people. People want to know that their company is setting big bold goals. They want to change the world.
Yet he also addressed the need for large organizations to trim its workforce periodically.
The question is not whether companies to annually trim 6.5% of your workforce to get rid of underperforming people, said Ballmer. The real question companies should ask is: can we do better? A good programmer is 10 times more productive than an average programmer. You have to hunt out and find the best around the world.
When asked whether Microsoft’s size is good or bad for the industry, Ballmer was insistent Microsoft dominance os not based on any abuse of its market position, but purely on producing compelling products that consumers and businesses want to buy.
Why is Microsoft a big company? he asked. Microsoft is not successful because we are big. We did something that people really like. People wanted it and they bought it.
Looking ahead, Ballmer said Microsoft’s success and long-term survival would be based on innovation and big, bold goals rather than the company’s size. Our size will not be our savior, he said. It will be our ability to do things that are compelling.
