鲍尔默离开微软前的5大反思

    这次采访或许是史蒂夫•鲍尔默以微软（Microsoft）CEO身份接受的最后一次媒体采访（部分采访内容可在本网站阅读）。在这次采访中，他更多的是在反思。他2000年接管这家公司以来，它的收入增加了两倍半，利润也翻了一番，但他同时也承认公司在此期间犯过一些错误。

    鲍尔默说：“我们赚了很多钱，这一点让我非常自豪。但我们是否也曾不时地浪费了我们的钱？当然。我们有过浪费，或者说有过失策的时候。但我们努力在做的是着眼长远利益，而不是赚快钱。”

    鲍尔默的办公室在微软雷德蒙德总部的34号楼，这里也曾是他的前任比尔•盖茨的办公室。我与他面对面坐在他的办公室里，他非常放松。他穿着标志性的蓝色纽扣领衬衫，下身穿一条卡其裤，脚上蹬一双棕色鞋子，松散地系着鞋带。我们交谈的时候，他的脚不时地从鞋子里滑进滑出。

    尽管多年以来，鲍尔默一直热衷于在微软的大会上灌输热爱公司这样的思想，但这次谈话的过程中，并没有出现“我爱这家公司”这样热烈的表达。谈话期间也没有出现热泪盈眶的情形。他只是非常认真地回答者我的问题。交流过程中，他一直慵懒地坐在扶手椅上，喝着星巴克（Starbucks）的超大号杯冰茶。

    我问他在管理微软的13年里，学到了哪些管理经验——鉴于鲍尔默动荡的任期，许多人或许认为这个问题很有讽刺意味。（过去十年，微软公司的股价一直在25美元至30美元之间徘徊，期间仅出现过一次例外。）对于这个问题，他给出了下面的答案。

    1. 大局观

    鲍尔默说：“如果连公司CEO都不能看清全局，那么其他人肯定也看不清。或许管理团队也需要有大局观，但公司CEO必须能够看清整个竞争环境。”

    因为竞争环境始终在不断变化。他问道：“十年以后的设备是否会像今天的设备一样，还是会完全不同？我们的收入来源主要是设备的毛利润，还是全靠谷歌（Google）和亚马逊（Amazon）等公司的广告和商务收入？事实是，不论谁坐上CEO的位子，都必须有足够广阔的视角，才能有高明的见解。”

    而这是做出重要决定的必要条件。他说：“必须对全局有足够的了解，才有资格说：‘我们要做这个，我们要赚钱，我们要进行伟大的创新。’”

    In what is likely his final press interview as Microsoft CEO (part of which you can read, here, on this very website), Steve Ballmer was reflective. Sure, the company tripled revenues and doubled profits since he took the reins in 2000 -- but it also made mistakes, he acknowledged.

    "I pride myself on the fact that we do make a lot of money," Ballmer said. "And do we waste it every now and then? Sure, of course, we waste it or we take a false step. But what you're trying to do is make money for the long run, not the short run."

    When I sat down with Ballmer in his office -- the same one that his predecessor Bill Gates previously occupied in Building 34 on the company's Redmond campus -- he was relaxed. He wore his trademark blue button-down dress shirt, khaki pants, and loosely tied brown shoes, which he slipped on and off repeatedly as we talked.

    In conversation, there were no rousing renditions of "I love this company," as Ballmer has so willingly indulged in at Microsoft (MSFT) conferences over the years. There were no moments where he was near tears. He was thoughtful in answering my questions, slouching in an arm chair and draining an extra-large iced tea from Starbucks as we talked.

    I asked Ballmer what management lessons he learned during his 13 years atop the company -- a question many may find ironic, given his turbulent tenure. (The company's stock price has hovered between $25 and $30 per share for much of the last decade, with only a single split along the way.) Here's what he said.

    1. See the big picture.

    "If the CEO doesn't see the playing field, nobody else can," Ballmer said. "The team may need to see it too, but the CEO really needs to be able to see the entire competitive space."

    That's because the playing field is always changing. "Ten years from now, will devices look the same as they look today or quite different? And will they be funded primarily by gross margin on the device or will it all be just ads and commerce from guys like Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN)?" he asked. "The truth is, whoever sits in the CEO seat needs to have enough perspective to have an intelligent opinion."

    Which is required for making important decisions. "You'd better see enough of the landscape to say, 'We're going to take this, and we're going to make money, and we're going to have great innovation for that,' " he said.