It is apparent that significant cultural changes are occurring at Microsoft from many perspectives.
Scoble may not be brainwashed. Scoble recognizes that he’s getting every little bit of money squeezed out of him by Microsoft in their attempts to cut costs. He rationalizes the changes by suggesting that the other benefits still far outweigh what he has lost, as they are better than he and others have experienced in the past, and his location offers other benefits. I agree!
Joel Spolsky’s API Wars article points out a drastic change in their API strategy, the part of Microsoft’s culture that affects the world outside Redmond. They’re moving away from backward compatibility and replacing entire APIs. Why? Given these other cost-saving changes, my bet is also is cost-savings. It’s cheaper to develop a robust new API that supports wild new rich client abilities and provides no backward compatibility than to improve their existing APIs to do the same, while maintaining backward compatibility. It also has the added benefit of getting their developers to spin their wheels in "fire and motion" while adapting to the new APIs so Microsoft can add or improve their own competitive product.
Am I surprised by these changes? No. As Cringely pointed out, “EVERYTHING Microsoft does — has to do with profitability and market share.” It makes perfect sense. These recent changes increase both profitability and market share. Profitability is increased by cutting costs. Market share is increased by broadening the product offerings and adding/busying developers.
Microsoft has every reason to make these changes. Their poorly performing stock hasn’t made investors terribly happy, including Scoble. Ballmer says in his annual memo, “Using the cash reduces profits, which reduces the stock price. The cash is shareholders’ money, so we need to either invest in new opportunities or return it to them.” Their recent efforts are clearly in this vane.
It looks like it’s working. Recently their stock price has been performing pretty well and that makes Scoble happy… because he’s a stockholder. But at what cost? How are these changes going to affect the culture of Microsoft in the long term? Microsoft better make these changes count, or they may be making a turn for the worse. Can they continue to produce products that consumers want and an API that developers will use with decreased employee loyalty? I believe these changes will negate themselves in the long-run, pushing them into a downward spiral.
In my opinion, rationalizations like Scoble’s justify Microsoft cutting perks further. As small as they are, little by little these changes are definitely going to affect the internal culture at Microsoft in a big way. Fewer perks will make Microsoft more like everywhere else and will result in less employee loyalty and devotion. Their API changes will affect their developers in the same way: less loyalty and devotion. It’s only a matter of time.
Considering it again, I think Scoble is brainwashed. Is that so bad? I suppose that depends on who you are when the payouts are made.
