Microsoft's Ballmer gets high marks for guts

I KNOW I compared softly spoken Steve Ballmer's opening w00t at Sunday's Worldwide Partner Conference to Howard Dean's "cat under a forklift" screech, and maybe I wasn't as fair to the cat as I could have been. In perfect honesty, though, I thought Ballmer's screech and following speech were fun, optimistic, and wonderfully delivered.

Here's a man who's perfectly comfortable with himself, who has a vision of the future, and who's going to make dumptrucks full of money with that vision. I don't meet many people who can think concretely and precisely about how they're going to change the world in the next 10 years. It's refreshing to see a guy like Ballmer in front of such a crowd as this.

One thing stood out very clearly at this morning's keynote--Steve loves his partners. Every day they risk getting beat up by other people's technology, but they stick with Steve, and that means a lot to the man. Steve B. gets energized, psyched up when he talks to these people. It's unreal. Here are some of my favorite quotes:

"It's been a good year."
"The future, it's not bad, as long as we continue to face change."
"Push us push us push us push us."
"Real interaction between you and us is so critical, so so critical."
"Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you."
"Partners partners partners partners partners."
"Execute execute execute execute."

Like I said, Steve's fun to watch, and his message is impossible to miss. The man's vision is blatantly, concretely, specifically and unabashedly optimistic. He offers promise, progress, and profits to the masses. His focus is razor sharp: deliver innovative and enabling, empowering technologies. The results are clear: "Revenue, revenue growth, profitability, and market share." Bang. Done. Applause.

After getting everybody's blood up, Steve shifted to fifth gear, broadening the scope of the discussion to the next decade. He challenged the audience to think in the scope of the next ten years of technological innovation. He asked if we believe that the world, technologically, is going to look pretty much the same 5-10 years from now. His answer? No way. Ten years ago was 1995. Humbling thought. Innovations will come to market in the next decade that we'd never predict. Most of all, he reasserted the fact that we've "barely begun to exploit the power of the Internet." In this, he's absolutely right.

Moore's Law, he reminded us, is alive and well, and from Ballmer's perch, the ball is absolutely in software's court. The mission must be to forge ahead with software and service innovation, and to invest in the technological research and development that will allow the industry to grow. The people who lead that charge will continue to lead the industry. For its share, Microsoft annually spends $6,000,000,000 in R&D. The amount of R&D represented in that room alone was staggering to consider.

So, for presenting raw vision with guts, for rallying the troops around that vision, and for sending Mr. Nash out for a full hour to address the company's single greatest weakness - Nash really jumped on a grenade today and the two both deserve credit for that move - softly spoken Steve Ballmer gets high marks.

In my estimation, the IT industry has more grit, more heart, more talent and better tools than it ever has. The next decade will be an exciting time to be on the court with Ballmer's Microsoft - whether you're playing for them or against them. µ

See also:
Part one: Microsoft's Steve Ballmer sounds reveille in Minneapolis