There are plenty of problems to deal with for the third chief executive of Microsoft
As only Microsoft's third chief executive, Satya Nadella – who has come over from the company's cloud and enterprise businesses – has an impressive 22-year record at the company. However, while Microsoft recently reported impressive results, the strength lies with big business customers, not consumers. Nadella has an in-tray piled high with problems.
1 ValueAct Holdings, an activist shareholder group, gets a seat on the board in March. It successfully pressed for Steve Ballmer, the now ex-chief executive, to quit because of an underperforming share price. It may push for money-losers such as the Bing search engine and low-return ones such as the Xbox games console to be sold off. Can Nadella resist?
2 Bill Gates will work more at the company as "technology adviser". While a visionary, he can also be an abrasive manager. Having more chiefs risks more dithering, which Microsoft doesn't need.
3 Microsoft has struggled in the fast-growing mobile business despite years of trying. There are an estimated 50 million users of Windows Phone, its smartphone software, compared with more than a billion for Google Android and at least 500 million iPhone users.
4 The Bing search engine loses huge amounts of money. Can Nadella turn that around?
Nadella has some time – Microsoft has billions in the bank. But the pressure from ValueAct and other shareholders could be unforgiving.
5 The smartphone strategy relies on the incoming Nokia handset division. Will it be run by Stephen Elop, thought to have been passed over for the CEO job? Who else would have the skills to run the handset business?
6 Steve Ballmer is staying on the board. He was re-appointed for a year in November, having already set in train a series of changes to make Microsoft into a "devices and services" business rather than just a software business. What if Nadella disagrees with the changes?
7 Should Microsoft release a version of Office for the iPad to boost sales by millions, as a services business would? Or should it keep it for the Surface tablet, as a devices business would?
8 Should the slow-selling Surface tablets be folded into Nokia, or just killed off? Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
As only Microsoft's third chief executive, Satya Nadella – who has come over from the company's cloud and enterprise businesses – has an impressive 22-year record at the company. However, while Microsoft recently reported impressive results, the strength lies with big business customers, not consumers. Nadella has an in-tray piled high with problems.
1 ValueAct Holdings, an activist shareholder group, gets a seat on the board in March. It successfully pressed for Steve Ballmer, the now ex-chief executive, to quit because of an underperforming share price. It may push for money-losers such as the Bing search engine and low-return ones such as the Xbox games console to be sold off. Can Nadella resist?
2 Bill Gates will work more at the company as "technology adviser". While a visionary, he can also be an abrasive manager. Having more chiefs risks more dithering, which Microsoft doesn't need.
3 Microsoft has struggled in the fast-growing mobile business despite years of trying. There are an estimated 50 million users of Windows Phone, its smartphone software, compared with more than a billion for Google Android and at least 500 million iPhone users.
4 The Bing search engine loses huge amounts of money. Can Nadella turn that around?
Nadella has some time – Microsoft has billions in the bank. But the pressure from ValueAct and other shareholders could be unforgiving.
5 The smartphone strategy relies on the incoming Nokia handset division. Will it be run by Stephen Elop, thought to have been passed over for the CEO job? Who else would have the skills to run the handset business?
6 Steve Ballmer is staying on the board. He was re-appointed for a year in November, having already set in train a series of changes to make Microsoft into a "devices and services" business rather than just a software business. What if Nadella disagrees with the changes?
7 Should Microsoft release a version of Office for the iPad to boost sales by millions, as a services business would? Or should it keep it for the Surface tablet, as a devices business would?
8 Should the slow-selling Surface tablets be folded into Nokia, or just killed off? Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.