Microsoft, or the Art of Being Rich and Fragile at Once

Bill Gates created a monopolistic giant that nothing, or almost nothing, could resist. His successor, Steve Ballmer, missed out on new markets and started to squander his inheritance. What will Satya Nadella, the third boss in Microsoft’s history, do?

This computer engineer on the verge of taking the controls of the Seattle colossus, and who has already spent more than two decades with the group, can count on numerous assets. With its 100,000 employees, a turnover of some $80 billion and a profit margin of around 35 percent, the software giant remains an incredible cash machine. Even if Steve Ballmer, a college friend of Bill Gates, leaves a weakened business behind him, the former “empire evil,” which dominated all technology has paradoxically become financially stronger since the early 2000s. Over 13 years of presidency, carried by globalization and the enrichment of an increasingly tech-savvy planet, the voluble Ballmer more than tripled turnover and doubled profits! However, he missed out on the latest technological revolutions. Amazon dominates e-commerce, Apple, the smartphone and tablet market (followed by Samsung), Facebook invented social networking and Google emerged as the indisputable signal box of the Web. Since the start of the century, Microsoft has, on all levels, been overtaken by these groups that started out with little to nothing. It has let itself be carried by its market but has been unable to conquer new ones.

Bill Gates had succeeded in putting a personal computer on every desk and, as an added value, controlling its intelligence. However, Steve Jobs and the pioneers of the Internet put new gadgets and services into our pockets and onto our laps that operate without requiring any “made by Microsoft” software whatsoever. The creator of Excel and Word was key to our professional lives. In an age where information technology is driven more by public demand than the needs of the producing world, Microsoft is becoming old hat. A double challenge therefore awaits the new CEO. Already, in a technological universe where constant revolutions are endlessly reshuffling the deck of cards, protecting its heritage and cash cows (Windows, Office) will not be easy. However, in addition, Microsoft needs to make a success of the absolutely essential, public cultural revolution, something they cannot afford not to do. The success of the Xbox in the world of gaming proves that this is possible. It remains to be seen if a new boss and the costly purchase of Nokia will enable the group to rise to this not impossible, but difficult, challenge.