Great BusinessWeek Commentary

There's a super BusinessWeek commentary by Steve Hamm about recent Microsoft changes and the Ballmer memo at http://www.businessweek.com:/print/technology/content/jul2004/tc2004078_4676 _tc120.htm?chan=tc& . It's an excellent read. Here's an especially relevant bit out of it that sums how I feel:

Instead of being driven to change the world -- the mission its best employees signed up for -- a key focus now for Ballmer is "process excellence," which seems unlikely to inspire Microsoftees to stay up all night creating the Next Big Thing.

One thing really bad about being so process driven: it's totally thinking and working inside of the box and empowers folks who aren't leaders but who can really raise a stink when someone decides to color outside of the lines. That's bad stuff. That does not lead to innovation and wake-fields of creativity but rather keeps the big huge, bloated crew on a steady course to mediocrity.