Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, held his last company event last week, and marked it by jumping around to Michael Jackson and engaging in some energetic hi-fives.
The billionaire, named as Bill Gates’ successor in 2000, has one large blot on his copybook – that he did not take notice of mobile devices until it was too late, instead focusing on tinkering with Windows 8.
Microsoft’s subsequent foray into the tablet market with the Surface has since looked belated and some even view it not as the desktop giant adapting to a changing environment, but simply as an attempt to keep its operating software from becoming eclipsed by Android and iOS (used on the popular Apple and Android tablets).
So who should be named the new chief in the next 12 months before Ballmer steps down?
There are two front-runners.
One is former Nokia boss Stephen Elop, whose controversial £16m payoff is being 70% funded by his former employer Microsoft after it bought the handset maker this month.
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Some cynics believe the sale of Nokia to Microsoft was made possible by Elop’s control of the Finnish company, and perhaps he will be rewarded by getting the leadership of Microsoft – he is heading back to his ex-employer once the sale goes through, and the role he will take on has not yet been announced.
The other candidate – and the expert’s favourite – is Ford CEO Alan Mulally.
The ex-Boeing chief is a trained engineer, a handy set of skills to have in charge of Microsoft. And he knows a thing or two about turning a company around, joining Ford when it was a declining force in 2006.
In just two years he performed such a turnaround for the firm that it was the only Detroit automotive maker which did not need to take a government loan to stay afloat.
The only sticking point is that Ford has announced that Mulally is staying with it until at least 2014 – but then, Microsoft isn’t expected to make a decision on the new face at the helm until March at the earliest.
