Microsoft's Maverick Style of Operation

A Critical Consideration of "Inside Microsoft: Balancing Creativity and Discipline" by Robert J. Herbold

In this revealing article from the Harvard Business Review, Mr. Herbold describes his acculturation to the freewheeling and maverick style of operation at Microsoft and how it compared with Procter & Gamble, where he had spent a good deal of his career, working his way inexorably up the pyramid. He has a certain awe about the way that Microsoft was run, and he approaches the situation with the seeming detachment studying a new tribe. At the same time, he realizes that what he was hired to do might not be feasible.

He tells us that he saw in short order why Bill Gates had brought him in to the company as chief operating officer. Gates thought that the company was in a shambles, and he wanted someone to add some organization. It seems rather telling that the first few words of the article all concern clothes, and how he should dress, and how his appearance was. This tells us a great deal about the man.

I had decided several weeks before--after my second day of interviews--that I should probably shed the standard suit and tie I had worn for 26 years at P&G's buttoned-down Cincinnatti's headquarters. Although I would soon discover that my outfit still made me one of the better-dressed employees (my khakis were always pressed.

Throughout the article, the references to sartorial degradation are amusing but at the same time make one wonder where his mind was. He te

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usiness changes. Herbold describes the operational problems and their solutions in a number of areas, including finance, procurement, human resources, sales, and strategic planning. The article contains useful lessons for any large company attempting to improve profitability by balancing centralized discipline and individual innovation. These lessons include advice on overcoming resistance to centralized initiatives from geographical and unit managers and specific tips on maximizing your organization's central information systems. For instance, when he came to Microsoft in 1994, here's how he tamed the problem. First he demanded and needed the support from the top. Bill Gates made it clear to all divisions that anyone not reporting results through the new system would be deemed to have no results at all. Steve Ballmer told balking general managers: "We define the measures. You put all your creative juices into growing them." Next, all central systems were implemented with off-the-shelf software which dumped data into a data warehouse. There were few system decisions to be made beyond which package to use and how to configure it. This was accomplished by a small group of technical and business experts because, according t

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