Not saying Ballmer was great or bad but it could be argued that the US Government handicapped Microsoft more than Ballmer was a bad CEO. To my understanding Gates was also very active with the company during those years as well.
Ballmer inherited a company at the top with everyone wanting to crush it & make it dissolve.
Nadella inherited an underdog.
I think this should be considered when thinking about the legacy of the CEO.
> "That memo prompted me to write a post entitled Services, Not Devices that argued that Ballmer’s strategic priorities were exactly backwards: Microsoft’s services should be businesses in their own right, not Windows’ differentiators. Ballmer, though, followed-through on his memo by buying Nokia; it speaks to Microsoft’s dysfunction that he was allowed to spend billions on a deal that allegedly played a large role in his ouster."
I think he ultimately held them back actively with bad strategy and things only started getting better when he was finally gone. Nadella inherited an underdog because the previous decade's decisions caused them to become one.
Ballmer inherited a company at the top with everyone wanting to crush it & make it dissolve.
Nadella inherited an underdog.
I think this should be considered when thinking about the legacy of the CEO.