Mick Moignard's Blog

The BBC is reporting that Ray Ozzie has resigned from Microsoft. Not the first one to go recently, but probably the most important.  

Back in 2005 when he "joined" Microsoft wen they purchased his company, I speculated that Ray might only stay at Microsoft for a couple of years.    Then in 2006 I wondered whether the purchase of Groove was the only way that they could get Ozzie on board, and whether he really held the future of Microsoft in his hands.    Seems that he didn't - indeed, it's hard to see how he's changed Microsoft at all, at least from the perspective of business collaboration.   Microsoft seems stuck in the document-oriented paradigm of Word, which I've discussed before, rather than the content and context-based collaborative powers of Notes, of course, Connections, and all the other public collaborative offerings - Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and so on.  

The BBC report gives little away about why Ray is leaving, but my guess is that he's had enough of not being able to get things done, and not being able to change Microsoft's view of the world.    Indeed, you have to start wondering if this is part of the beginning of the end of Microsoft itself.    They don't have their original visionary any more - Bill Gates, their next visionary has just left, they're struggling badly in the mobile/smartphone market - even tho they were an early player.  They apparently only really make money from Office and Windows, both of which now have serious competitors - and I'd say both are also risking complete eclipse, as the marketplace moves on.  

Look at the FTSE 100 or Dow Jones indexes of 30 years ago.  How many of the top companies then are top companies now?  How many of those companies of 30 years ago still exist? How many of them failed because their market walked away, and they failed to react.   Will the indexes of 2020, 2030 still contain Microsoft as a player?