A former Microsoft executive has criticized the software giant's CEO Steve Ballmer and his practices.
In an interview with Reuters, former Windows sales senior vice president Joachim Kempin said Ballmer's presence is suffocating the company and the head is always looking to drive out those who pose a potential challenge to his position.
"When you work that directly with Ballmer and Ballmer believes ‘maybe this guy could someday take over from me’, my God, you will have less air to breathe, that’s what it comes down to," Kempin, who worked at Microsoft from 1983 to 2002, stated. "It was Steve’s way or the highway."
"Is he a great CEO? I don't think so. Microsoft's board is a lame duck board, has been forever. They hire people to help them administer the company, but not to lead the company. That's the problem. Steve is a very good business guy, but make him a chief operating officer, not a CEO, and your business is going to go gangbusters. I respect that guy (Ballmer), but there are some limitations in what he can and can't do and maybe he hasn't realized them himself."
"They missed all the opportunities they were talking about when I was still in the company. Tablets, phones…we had a tablet going, we had tablet software when Windows XP came out, it was never followed up properly."
"Just think about the insult of Microsoft coming out with a tablet themselves, trying to mimic Apple, and now they are going to come out with a notebook on top of it," he continued, referring to Microsoft's Surface RT tablet and the imminent launch of Surface running Windows Pro.
Kempin concluded that Microsoft’s board need to seriously consider whether Ballmer is the right individual to lead the company, suggesting that the firm could benefit from a younger chief executive.
"They need somebody maybe 35-40 years old, a younger person who understands the Facebook generation and this mobile community. They don’t need this guy on stage with this fierce, aggressive look, announcing the next version of Windows and thinking he can score with that."
Ballmer is rumored to have fired former president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division Steven Sinofsky as he was too divisive. The latter executive spearheaded the revival of Windows following the widely-panned Vista OS by managing the development and launch of Windows 7.
Analysts believe if Windows 8 ultimately fails in the market, which it has already evidently shown signs of slowing down, Steve Ballmer could make a departure from Microsoft.
