Can a mature Microsoft get the growth engine chugging again?
8/4/2003
According to Financial Times writer Richard Waters, mighty Microsoft is facing a mid-life crisis. Top line growth has fallen to near single-digit gains, competition from Linux is eating at Windows, and the company's super-competitive corporate culture is a bad fit for the customer challenges ahead. Are Microsoft's years of tech leadership over? "Microsoft's long-term prosperity is far from assured," concludes the author. "Microsoft's continued dominance is no longer a given." Waters says Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are well aware of the problems and are already working on fixes including a new management structure and a major overhaul of Windows, code-named Longhorn. If MS has been off your radar lately, this is a good come-up-to-speed piece, and it includes observations from HBS professors David Yoffie and Chris Bartlett.