Microsoft and Focus
August 1, 2010
I am the type of goose who can do one thing at a time. If I am plugging away on one of my silly projects and you speak to me, I will jump. I might even emit a “yikes”. That’s nuts, of course, but that is an example of how I get things done. Focus. One thing at a time.
When someone tells me that he can focus on two things at once, I know that focus means something different to this person than to me. When someone tells me, he can do four or five things at once, I know that is pretty much impossible. Here’s a test. I have a rock. You are talking on your mobile, watching your kid on the swing, and standing in the middle of a highway. So, explain that focus thing to me again. Now I throw a rock at your head. I will cheat by creeping around behind you and throwing the rock without your watching me. What about that focus? If you try to keep me in sight, you are going to lose sight of the kid. Maybe a car will hit you? Whoever is talking to you on your phone is going to ask, “Dude, what are you doing?”
So navigate to “Microsoft: We Are Focusing on Eight Core Businesses.” Here’s the statement I noted:
Actually, Microsoft has eight core focus areas, General Manager of Investor Relations Bill Koefoed, told the Wall Street analysts (and a few of us press types) attending the day-long event.
The eight, according to Koefoed:
- Xbox and TV
- Bing
- Office
- Windows Server
- Windows Phone
- Windows
- Business users
- SQL Server
So now read “Steve Ballmer: Microsoft Has Been Focusing on cloud for 15 Years.” Notice that the cloud is not on the Koefoed list. Also, the statement about Microsoft’s activity in the cloud for 15 years puts us back to 1995. I may have missed something, but I never thought about Microsoft as a master of hosted services.
Obviously I was not focusing. I am flawed because I try to keep my lists consistent and I cannot focus on nine things at once. So maybe that “eight” should be “nine”? And what happened to search; specifically, $1.2 billion Fast Search thing? Not a point of focus apparently.
Stephen E Arnold, August 1, 2010
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