Yesterday Steve Ballmer sent out a lengthy memo to Microsoft staff announcing a reorganization of one of the world’s biggest tech companies (we do mean huge: Ballmer’s memo rocks in at just under 2.8 kilowords). Ballmer’s memo is a complex, deep, structured recipe for future success…sieved through the corporate-speak dictionary and delivered up in single serving of cold hard email. No garnish.

But back in 1997 Steve Jobs re-took the reins at Apple, which had become unfocused, bloated, and had lost its cutting-edge mentality. He emailed frequently and spoke to staff in group meetings, instigated serious executive changes, reorganized the company structure, ditched teams and projects, and slashed spending on frilly company benefits like business-class flying.

For some onlookers Microsoft’s new moves are suggestive of Apple in 1997. It’s all there, from the realignment of the company structure toward functions not products, the executive reshuffles, and the urgency of getting staff reinvested.

With that in mind, it’s worth comparing the two Steves. They are, as yesterday’s memo underscores, quite different in their leadership approaches and communicating styles.

A good place to start is with the part of Ballmer’s note that implores Microsoft staff to think under five new core values.





Ballmer: “In a world of continuous services, the timeframe for product releases, customer interaction and competitive response is dramatically shorter. As a company, we need to make the right decisions, and make them more quickly, balancing all the customer and business imperatives. Each employee must be able to solve problems more quickly and with more real-time data than in the past.”

Jobs: “Today we are taking a few more steps which will begin to take Apple back to its roots as a more egalitarian, entrepreneurial company…Apple needs all hands on deck for the foreseeable future as we turn our company’s fortunes around.”