New Microsoft CEO To-Do Items

The search is well underway for the new Microsoft CEO and we’ve had a few calls from reporters interested in our guess. It can be either an internal or external hire, and there are a number of qualified candidates, but we’re hoping it’s a confident adult, not a Silicon Valley kid with a mild case of ADD. Businesses run on Microsoft technology and the challenges facing a new CEO are a bit more daunting that Marissa Mayer’s move to get the employees at Yahoo to actually work in the office rather than “at home,” which most people know is a euphemism for “whenever I’m not driving the kids to school activities.” Here are the top things I’d like the new Microsoft CEO to do during the first week on the job:

1) Dramatically flatten the organization. The great people are getting crushed while the less great have created fiefdoms.

2) Get everyone marching in the same direction for the design esthetic. Windows 8 is touch, Outlook on the Surface is not (it is, but really?). See item 1… fewer people mean more collaboration and a more unified look and feel.

3) Stop stratifying products. Just how many versions of Office do we need? It’s needlessly confusing for the customer. And why create a lower end Surface device with RT? Great product hampered by a bad decision. Fire the guy that made that decision.

4) Make great products first. You don’t see Ferrari sponsoring diversity training, promoting women in engineering, or requiring privacy certifications from their vendors. Of course, DEC did all of that stuff and look where it got them. Get back to the basics and eliminate the fluff.

Oh, and take a page from Ms. Mayer and cut back on the work-at-home employees.