tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post115094990397989838..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Locked Doors, Martin Taylor, MarkZ, and LinksWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger140125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-10713758494653951582007-04-20T23:10:00.000-07:002007-04-20T23:10:00.000-07:00Martin Taylor joined Vista Equity Partners in Dece...Martin Taylor joined Vista Equity Partners in December of 2006 as an Operating Principal. He is responsible for driving the transformation and operational improvements with the firm's portfolio companies.<BR/><BR/>Prior to joining Vista Martin spent 13 ½ years at Microsoft. His most recent role was Corporate Vice President of Windows Live and MSN. He provided business leadership as well as product and marketing management for Windows Live services, MSN and the Microsoft® Live platform.<BR/><BR/>http://www.vistaequitypartners.com/TeamMTaylor.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1153389104333562522006-07-20T02:51:00.000-07:002006-07-20T02:51:00.000-07:00A few days ago I attended a meeting SteveB organiz...A few days ago I attended a meeting SteveB organized as an experimental out-reach to 'senior' (L65+)managers/leaders in a particular division. Much to my dismay, of the ~70+ senior people in the room, only one was non-white and only one was female. To the posters above who talk about the rich diversity of talent in Microsot, I agree - we truly have an international workforce and I've always taken pride in this. But you'll also notice these employees are mostly all relatively junior. At 65+ it's largely a white-male-old-boys network. Basically the criteria for rising higher at Microsoft, as I've heard multiple different 'partner' managers articulate, is 'Senior VPs should know your name' and 'You need to have visibility at the Senior VP level'. If you've ever seriously studied the topic of cultural values and diversity, you'll discover that 'american corporate expectations' are typically embodied best by 'outspoken white males'. Everybody else loses out in such a system unless there is a high degree of diversity awareness and commitment within the executive management. And I'm not sure I've seen this so far...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151982833764272342006-07-03T20:13:00.000-07:002006-07-03T20:13:00.000-07:00Ah yes Communication ProblemsAre you saying most o...<I>Ah yes Communication Problems</I><BR/><BR/>Are you saying most of them don't have communication problems?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151969423023144632006-07-03T16:30:00.000-07:002006-07-03T16:30:00.000-07:00Yes, MarkZ retired. I got the mail forwarded to me...Yes, MarkZ retired. I got the mail forwarded to me. It was quiet, but not hidden.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151713305590058692006-06-30T17:21:00.000-07:002006-06-30T17:21:00.000-07:00PS: My team has 1 Vietnamese, 1 Indian, 1 British,...<I>PS: My team has 1 Vietnamese, 1 Indian, 1 British, 3 Americans, 1 Eastern European, 1 Chinese. Out of that are 2 women. Most of them were hired after I became the manager. What is your argument now??? </I><BR/><BR/>You just made the argument. When you stop being their manager, another of your ilk will be brought in to manage them. None of them will be deemed suitable to take on a leadership role because........what the name for it again? Ah yes <B>Communication Problems</B>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151682285393341392006-06-30T08:44:00.000-07:002006-06-30T08:44:00.000-07:00Here's a hint: The "I am not a racist! We are all ...<I>Here's a hint: The "I am not a racist! We are all equal!!" statement begins to draw scrutiny after you've said it a certain number of times. Let your actions speak for yourselves, not your statements and "look how many non-whites I have hired" statistics.</I><BR/><BR/>This is good advice because ultimately the ethnic identity crowd doesn't give a damn what your intentions are, or even if you give them the quotas they crave (however much they illogically deny it), or anything else; if it benefits them to roll you, you will be rolled. In the end all you can do is what you think in your heart of hearts is right. Does this person deserve to be hired/promoted/axed? The second you start thinking things like, "But it would be nice to have a _____ in my group," you have sold your soul and sooner or later the devil will take delivery.<BR/><BR/>They will flip a "I'll bet some of your best friends are _____" with a sneer sooner than you can grasp a handful of papers showing how perfectly you've met unwritten quotas. Ever notice how there's no way to demonstrate you're not a racist, but a hudred million gazillion ways of proving you are? That's how the system works, pal. Just be glad you don't work in academia, where I hear they do show trials.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151666663084084642006-06-30T04:24:00.000-07:002006-06-30T04:24:00.000-07:00"PS: My team has 1 Vietnamese, 1 Indian, 1 British...<I>"PS: My team has 1 Vietnamese, 1 Indian, 1 British, 3 Americans, 1 Eastern European, 1 Chinese. Out of that are 2 women."</I><BR/><BR/>For someone who admittedly doesn't care or notice the difference between ethnicities, genders, and races, you sure do have a knack for categorizing people accordingly!<BR/><BR/>Here's a hint: The "I am not a racist! We are all equal!!" statement begins to draw scrutiny after you've said it a certain number of times. Let your actions speak for yourselves, not your statements and "look how many non-whites I have hired" statistics.<BR/><BR/>Just sayin'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151644372690125322006-06-29T22:12:00.000-07:002006-06-29T22:12:00.000-07:00To all who don’t think Microsoft is not a diverse ...To all who don’t think Microsoft is not a diverse company:<BR/><BR/><BR/>Please take off the blindfold or eye filter that makes you NOT see beyond your own race, skin color or gender. Get up and walk the hallways. You will find that this place has more people working here from the whole world than any other company. On many teams Americans are the minority. It proves that once upon a time we didn’t care and hired only the best. <BR/><BR/>And guess what I still don’t care when I am interviewing. I was as well part of the Management Essentials boot camp in the North Bend lodge. And when the VPs came on Friday to hear my case about diversity resolution and tension on my imaginary team I did tell them I am strongly against any quotas or statistics on how many blacks, whites or yellows we have. Let’s create environment where everybody has the same start line and select only the best out of the best. It did raised some eyebrows but at the end I got a pretty good feedback with the notion that one day it may be back but…<BR/><BR/>And the but pisses me off same as you who say we should have more of X! Why we should even care who is what color? We are all equal so let the market and competitiveness decide who is the best! It almost makes me feel you are the resists because you do make a difference between the white and black. I don’t. <BR/><BR/>PS: My team has 1 Vietnamese, 1 Indian, 1 British, 3 Americans, 1 Eastern European, 1 Chinese. Out of that are 2 women. Most of them were hired after I became the manager. What is your argument now???Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151634611161382432006-06-29T19:30:00.000-07:002006-06-29T19:30:00.000-07:00anonymouse said:So maybe Martin wasn't fired becau...anonymouse said:<BR/><BR/>So maybe Martin wasn't fired because he was black, but he certainly fits in to the bad numbers around attrition (good/bad attrition) and he definitely is one of three (now two) black VP's, now gone By Anonymous at 11:09am<BR/><BR/>--I know it sounds like that should be bad attrition but Martin ( who I have known since 1993) is good attrition - he was fired for failing to follow Corporate Policy. <BR/><BR/>And Zzt said:<BR/><BR/>re: Martin, I do not see why it is so crucial to fire people if they had sex with co-workers. I really d o not - all I care about is performance. Ballmer should be fired even if he never has sex again in his life. Martin should be retained if his performance is good, or let go otherwise - same as everyone else. Nuff with all this PC bs by Zzt at 2:35pm<BR/><BR/>-- you do not get fired for sex with a coworker and you usually do not get fired for subordinate sex - you do get fired for embezzlement or stealing which is what, if you boil this down, happened ( expense reports to cover his, and her tracks) so they could do their "thing". Not that the woman, his biz manager has also been fired for stealing, not for having an affair. Sorry to see, as has been stated before, has happened oh so many many times. :-)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151628097235477182006-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:002006-06-29T17:41:00.000-07:00"MS is not going to break out of its rut until som..."MS is not going to break out of its rut until some other company invents a new killer app that you can copy. That's what MS does best."<BR/><BR/><BR/>Some people think that would have been Google...?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151549121138414792006-06-28T19:45:00.000-07:002006-06-28T19:45:00.000-07:00several years ago, BrianV and several of his MS Ho...several years ago, BrianV and several of his MS Hockey buddies were accused of sexually harassing a woman who worked in his group. After the investigation, HR recommeded to Ballmer that BrianV and his hockey buddies be fired from MS. Ballmer decided to fire the Hockey guys and not BrianV. The Hockey guys threated to go the press and with this threat, Ballmer caved in. They did not fire BrianV or the other guys. They gave the girl a nice lump sum payment and moved her into another group. Where she has to do no work. TRUE STORY!<BR/><BR/>----<BR/><BR/>I don't know where the person who posted this got this information, but I was quite plugged into the hockey program and I never heard a thing about this. I would definitely have been interviewed by HR. The report is grossly exaggerated at the very least. The worst thing that happened, as far as I know, is that Valentine had a special distribution list run off his private (non-MSFT) domain to keep the locker-room talk off of corpnet. This list was created because some of the women on the hockey distribution list got upset at some pictures that got sent. But of course a bunch of people subscribed to this list from their Microsoft accounts so it wasn't altogether off of corpnet and Valentine got in trouble.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151528022057832782006-06-28T13:53:00.000-07:002006-06-28T13:53:00.000-07:00I will tell you all the reasons why Martin Taylor ...I will tell you all the reasons why Martin Taylor is no more. In his retreat as GM in the Caribbean he managed to screw up an approved $16 million goverment deal with the goverment of Dominican Republic that was never collected, mostly due to admin faults and handling styles. Then his wingman Nick Robinson managed to screw up another $16M deal at the Puerto Rico Department of Education that was cancelled and lost forever. (Mr.Nick Robinson also left MS silently and now rests in peace in a common grave). He also had an affair with a direct report that he took with him on his return to Redmond (as a souvenir I guess). And he left a lawsuit behind on harrasment that was negotiated out of court. Isnt that enough???Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151511086050101792006-06-28T09:11:00.000-07:002006-06-28T09:11:00.000-07:00I knew some of these stories already, but spending...<I>I knew some of these stories already, but spending days discussing these things made me realize the ways in which it's very difficult to make the diverse community feel that they are really on the same team.</I><BR/><BR/>When you put ethnic identity over judging people as individuals, that happens. There is no solution, it is a coping mechanism that is incompatible with other, healthier outlooks. Worse, it is self-reinforcing. Not to get political, but look who floats to the top in ethnic politics. I won't name names but these tend not to be nice, tolerant people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151505862480735362006-06-28T07:44:00.000-07:002006-06-28T07:44:00.000-07:00Maybe it's a job and the ethnic identity stuff can...Maybe it's a job and the ethnic identity stuff can wait until after hours--you know, with all your other hobbies. Personally identifying with the fate of an exec you don't even know (and admit probably deserved to go if rumors are true) based solely on his skin color is pathological. <BR/><BR/>I used to feel the same way. I'm a white guy, but I have pretty good diversity cred... token white friend at the black table, token white friend at the Mexican SuperBowl party, grew up in an integrated neighborhood, mom was a feminist, etc.<BR/><BR/>I just came back from a minority recruiting trip, because in my part of Windows we are actively goaled on improving diversity. (I can't speak for any other part of Windows.) I was there when the Martin Taylor story hit.<BR/><BR/>As the Softies buzzed and tapped their grapevines to find out what had happened, I realized the way that diverse populations are different from us white guys. They knew every MSFT exec who was ever let go for an HR violation. They knew the reason why every black star or female exec washed out. They had actively banded together to learn from this and make sure it didn't happen to them or people they respected. I knew some of these stories already, but spending days discussing these things made me realize the ways in which it's very difficult to make the diverse community feel that they are really on the same team.<BR/><BR/>I know... duh. I already "knew" this stuff, but it took a minority recruiting event to help me feel it and understand it.<BR/><BR/>Changing topics - regarding jobs that we offer to black people, has anyone noticed how many blacks work in "compliance" (enforcing HR rules, enforcing EU mandates, etc.)? Where I come from, these are sacrificial jobs where it doesn't actually matter if you do a good job, as long as you can easily be fired to "apologize" to the regulating entity if the company does a bad job.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151422326817591522006-06-27T08:32:00.000-07:002006-06-27T08:32:00.000-07:00"A request to all ex-Softies who post here and who..."A request to all ex-Softies who post here and who are happy with their new gig."<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://www.geosign.com/" REL="nofollow">Geosign</A>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151422289194817802006-06-27T08:31:00.000-07:002006-06-27T08:31:00.000-07:00Some spineless anonymous wrote:"Listen to the word...Some spineless anonymous wrote:<BR/>"Listen to the words coming out of your mouth. You are actually standing up and defending some person claiming he sees no significant improvement between Jazz and Excel 2003 and who provides no substantiating comment on why he doesn't think the features of Excel are beneficial or what he wanted that he didn't find.<BR/><BR/>Even if this wasn't a troll, which, given the rest of his post, it likely is, there is nothing useful to be derived from it. It's not an opening for discussion. It's not asking for improvement. It's just a drive-by "You guys suck!". All it deserves is to be ignored.<BR/><BR/>Shame on Mini for posting it. Shame on you for defending it"<BR/><BR/>I didn't want to get in a long dissertation on the merits of other people's software. I didn't say Office is bad, I said it isn't substantially better than Jazz was 20 years ago. Given how much the hardware has improved - I had 1 meg of RAM, and processor in the 100 Mhz range in my old Mac - you tell me how Excel has improved by the same degree as the iron. Jazz had hot links, all the formulae I needed, and a clean interface. What does Excel offer today that's *substantially* better? See if you can answer that without being crude and childish. <BR/><BR/>Again, I'm not trying to dump on MS products. I use them 8 hours a day, everyday, and they're fine. But my initial point was this vision of MS as an innovator has no basis in reality. You have tremendous market power, thanks to the IBM link at your startup, but all you've done is basically copy someone else's apps, and refine them. (And, to MS's credit, you do a good job of refining - eventually. IE still crashes for me once a week.)<BR/><BR/>Name me one big product that MS created that was not in response to a competitor's success. Word followed Word Perfect; Excel followed 1-2-3; IE followed Netscape; Powerpoint followed Harvard Graphics; Windows followed Mac (and Xerox Star); etc. <BR/><BR/>And a word on your stock price: people buy stocks for two reasons - yield and capital appreciation. As has been noted, with the dividend at 9 cents, no one is buying MS for yield. And why would you buy it for capital appreciation? The company is mature, it's market is pretty saturated - in my family of 4, we have 4 PC's (3 Windows and an Imac), and it doesn't have any blockbuster products on the horizon. So where's the big jump in profit that would be needed to get people to buy the stock going to come from? <BR/><BR/>I know you get enough precipitation in Seattle, so I don't want to rain on your parade, but I'll go out on a limb and say MS is not going to break out of its rut until some other company invents a new killer app that you can copy. That's what MS does best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151387931386184662006-06-26T22:58:00.000-07:002006-06-26T22:58:00.000-07:00Quentin has been promoted to be a GM. Nice reward ...<I>Quentin has been promoted to be a GM. Nice reward for driving the most promising project to the ground.</I><BR/><BR/>That's what GM means... Grounding Manager.<BR/><BR/>Look around Windows, most of the useless personnel are GM / PMs. Grounding and Process Managers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151364119894349472006-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:002006-06-26T16:21:00.000-07:00WINFS IS REALLY DEAD.Quentin has been promoted to ...WINFS IS REALLY DEAD.<BR/><BR/>Quentin has been promoted to be a GM. Nice reward for driving the most promising project to the ground.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151357373499338122006-06-26T14:29:00.000-07:002006-06-26T14:29:00.000-07:00Lets separate what happened to Martin from the rac...Lets separate what happened to Martin from the race issue....<BR/><BR/>He was not fired because of race....<BR/><BR/>At some level I am actually happy to see him go....not because of what he did. But, because like lots of folks, I thought he never really deserved the job and him being out of there before crashing the business is a good thing.<BR/> <BR/><BR/>The man had NO prior internet business experience...NO prior product management experience....NO marketing experience (unless u think selling in the carribbean counts as marketing exp) and had not led a team of more than 20 odd people before and we put him ontop of the Live product management and marketing team for arguably the most strategic business opportunity and threat for Microsoft.....strike you as odd???<BR/><BR/>Chalk one more up for Ballmers lack of judgement....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151340265501064682006-06-26T09:44:00.000-07:002006-06-26T09:44:00.000-07:00WinFS is DEAD DEAD DEAD:Don't blame Quentin, blame...WinFS is DEAD DEAD DEAD:<BR/><BR/>Don't blame Quentin, blame Peter (Spiro)<BR/><BR/>He was running the show most of the time, and only placed Quentin as a PUM relatively recently, when the writing was on the wall. Peter went back to SQL to be the successful leader to ship Katmai...<BR/><BR/>Brilliant manoeuver, Peter. Time to wash your T-shirt. IH is a spitter, and it shows.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151330567399665242006-06-26T07:02:00.000-07:002006-06-26T07:02:00.000-07:00"There is a figurehead black GM or 2 to ensure the..."There is a figurehead black GM or 2 to ensure the diversity ratios show something greater than 0 when the reports are out."<BR/><BR/>There aren't even figurehead GMs in Windows division. Never have been...as far as I know, there have only EVER been 2 black managers above lead level in all of Windows division history...and both were pushed out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151294396823172972006-06-25T20:59:00.000-07:002006-06-25T20:59:00.000-07:00One of the reasons that it may seem blacks are tre...One of the reasons that it may seem blacks are treated unfairly at MS is because they are. As someone with some insider HR knowledge, I know that black recruits are typically brought in to interview for positions that they are not qualified for. To be politically correct, however, they get the job and then reality sets in, often causing them to be demoted or fired within a few years. <BR/><BR/>If they were brought in at a level where they could perform, they would stand a much better chance of getting promoted because, like others, they would have the time to learn the ropes while still being able to do their jobs, instead of being buried.<BR/><BR/>I am not saying this is every black's situation, just that it happens a lot. And frankly, it is unfortunate for two reasons: (1) reverse racism doesn't solve anything and (2) we let go of people that are mostly good Microsoft hires, just brought in at the wrong place.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151293460746005902006-06-25T20:44:00.000-07:002006-06-25T20:44:00.000-07:00Never worked in IT before, have you? Black presenc...Never worked in IT before, have you? Black presence is virtually nil in this field for reasons that are far too politically incorrect for anyone to say out loud<BR/><BR/>Exactly. How can you hire black execs when the hiring pool of black IT professionals is non-existent and getting smaller and smaller. <BR/><BR/>---<BR/>Huh?? I'm wondering if the person who posted this is somehow in possession of employment application and demographic data that would allow them to make such a strong statement. <BR/><BR/>Based on what I know, less than 2% of Microsoft's roughly 60K employees are African American. That might make at least some sense if Microsoft's employees were limited to the Puget Sound area. However, about half of the total employee pool live somewhere outside of Washington state. So, in all likelihood, it's the black employees in various sales offices that raise the overall stats to 2%. Not at all a good story for Redmond. <BR/><BR/>Don't know what happened with Martin and don't want to speculate. But regardless of what happened or how justified or unjustified the situation, the separate issue of African American presence in the company is something that really needs to be looked at.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151287928767230202006-06-25T19:12:00.000-07:002006-06-25T19:12:00.000-07:00Never worked in IT before, have you? Black presenc...<I>Never worked in IT before, have you? Black presence is virtually nil in this field for reasons that are far too politically incorrect for anyone to say out loud</I><BR/><BR/>Exactly. How can you hire black execs when the hiring pool of black IT professionals is non-existent and getting smaller and smaller. IT companies are more liberal than other sectors (e.g. Banking) so you can't trot out the typica racist accusations. <BR/><BR/>This is not an IT problem but a socio-economic one afflicting african americans in general.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-1151287188526694932006-06-25T18:59:00.000-07:002006-06-25T18:59:00.000-07:00Based on this page:http://members.microsoft.com/ca...Based on this page:<BR/>http://members.microsoft.com/careers/mslife/meetpeople/ <BR/><BR/>it looks like we are the most diverse company on the planetAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com