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Balmer made Microsoft the most profitable it had ever been. He didn't grow them into big new areas, but he improved the focus, trimmed the costs, and vastly improved the bottom line. A successful company may need vision and expansion, but at some point it also needs to be able to actually convert that into profit, otherwise you turn into Sun - or indeed recent Google, who've come out with some great products but never managed to convert any of them into profit centers.


The dude shipped Windows 8! He insisted on this insane mishmash of tablet and windows that made sense to nobody. Somehow they shipped this, which tells me the emperor wears no clothes.




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