Time To Take a Mini-Microsoft Pause

It's time again for me to press the Big Blog Pause button.

I've put up a post over on the Cutting Room Floor for you to share any comments and ideas you have in the meantime.

Right now, I'm going through a long building change in perspective and simply reconsidering where I want to focus my energy and spare time (hint: writing, but not here). Also, you can only bang your head on the wall for so long without something getting knocked loose that probably needs to be put back in place.

(Is this pause layoff related? Sorry to disappoint the Just Deserves club out there, but, no, I'm not in the 1,400 and I can't imagine my group being touched by the remaining 3,600.)

Getting back to focus, I have lots of forward looking thoughts and it's interesting to me in how few of them I imagine myself at Microsoft for the long-term, let alone mid-term. Four years ago that would be unimaginable heresy. Now: well, in my opinion, the company has fumbled and tumbled into an awkward future with little sense of rigor and spoiled by the abundant cash of Windows and Office. Windows survived Vista and it looks like Sinofsky/DeVaan have a Winning 7 to make amends. Hope. Enough?

I love my team. And I like Microsoft, but I can't say I love it anymore. And that makes me channel Arsenio Hall and go... "Hmmmmmm."

BillG is long gone. Within our leadership, there's no one left who wants to read your ThinkWeek paper, so they're killing that off. In our future, employee-led innovation, I guess, starts at Level 68.

Microsoft needs a back-to-basics ground shaking rebalancing. And that's not going to happen with the current Senior Leadership Team.

I'll certainly be back in time for the next quarterly results, along with any major Microsoft events. You're welcome to send me email in the meantime, but note that I'll be pretty intermittent in checking it (and even worse at replying). During the pause, I intend to go through some of the recent gems within the comments here and ensure they get proper attention.

Over time. Cheers.

Click.