Excellent article. I think he hit the nail pretty much on the head with the Ashton Tate comparison. Interestingly the problem doesn't stem from one person, or group of people - rather it is a direct consequence of size, marketshare, and success. This means that noone is responsible for the current sad status quo at Microsoft, it just happened.
To get out of their quagmire they need someone that sees the problem for what it is, and responds vigilantly to drive the company out of the mud and back to innovation and great products. It is a really hard job, and I think the only one at Microsoft that could make it succeed is Ray Ozzie.
It isn't impossible, IBM suffered the exact same problems in the late 80's and they came back. It is just very very hard.
To get out of their quagmire they need someone that sees the problem for what it is, and responds vigilantly to drive the company out of the mud and back to innovation and great products. It is a really hard job, and I think the only one at Microsoft that could make it succeed is Ray Ozzie.
It isn't impossible, IBM suffered the exact same problems in the late 80's and they came back. It is just very very hard.