Microsoft Fiscal Results

The blog post seattlepi.com Microsoft Blog: MSFT Q4, FY04 collects some interesting links to read. C|NET had a good one yesterday, too: Never mind the cash -- how's Microsoft's business. And today's article Microsoft earnings paint mixed picture breaks down some of the financials.

The big cash payout represents a great transition for employee mind-think: that's not Microsoft's cash hoard, it is indeed the shareholders'. There is no entitlement associated with that cash and it's not there to save your group's poor performance.

The theme in a number of articles posted yesterday and today is: Microsoft has to start making sound business decisions. It takes executive management all the way down to each and every lead to enact hard decisions and great decisions. So for every manager with more than twenty people on your staff: there's got to be someone who can go. Now's the best time to shrug off our past and get trim and focused.