Passionate Ballmer rejigs Microsoft with Let’s Go cry

Steve Ballmer has promised to instill a "One Microsoft" philosophy to the company, issuing a "Let's Go" rallying cry to staff.

Announced via an internal email to all staff, the Redmond CEO set out his vision for a refreshed Microsoft, realigning the senior leadership side of the team in the process.

Ballmer says the plans will allow the business to "innovate with greater, speed, efficiency and capability in a fast changing world."

The business reboot so to speak is seen as Ballmer's plan to take Microsoft in a new direction, in a bid to keep up with industry rivals.

"This company has always had a big vision — to help people realize their full potential," wrote Ballmer.

"In the earliest days, it was by putting a PC on every desk and in every home.

"We've come farther than we could have imagined.

"The impact we have collectively made on the world is undeniable, and I am inspired when talented new hires say they chose Microsoft because they want to change the world — that's what we do today, and that's what we'll do tomorrow."

Sharpening the strategy

After launching devices such as Windows 8, Xbox One and Surface during the past year, Ballmer aims to focus Microsoft on "creating a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most."

"We will do this by leveraging our strengths," he claimed.

"We have powered devices for many years through Windows PCs and Xbox.

"We have delivered high-value experiences through Office and other apps. And, we have enabled enterprise value through products like Windows Server and Exchange."

Often branded a salesman, Ballmer's passionate plea to Microsoft staff is typical of his nature, yet even he realises changes must be made to ensure the company stays at the top of the market.

"Improving our performance has three big dimensions," he wrote.

"Focusing the whole company on a single strategy, improving our capability in all disciplines and engineering/technology areas, and working together with more collaboration and agility around our common goals.

"We are rallying behind a single strategy as one company — not a collection of divisional strategies.

"We will reshape how we interact with our customers, developers and key innovation partners, delivering a more coherent message and family of product offerings."

Key leadership changes

• Operating Systems Engineering Group:

Terry Myerson will lead this group, and it will span all our OS work for console, to mobile device, to PC, to back-end systems. The core cloud services for the operating system will be in this group.

• Devices and Studios Engineering Group:

Julie Larson-Green will lead this group and will have all hardware development and supply chain from the smallest to the largest devices we build. Larson-Green will also take responsibility for our studios experiences including all games, music, video and other entertainment.

• Applications and Services Engineering Group:

Qi Lu will lead broad applications and services core technologies in productivity, communication, search and other information categories.

• Cloud and Enterprise Engineering Group:

Satya Nadella will lead development of our back-end technologies like datacenter, database and our specific technologies for enterprise IT scenarios and development tools. He will lead datacenter development, construction and operation.

• Marketing Group:

Tami Reller will lead all marketing with the field relationship as is today. Mark Penn will take a broad view of marketing strategy and will lead with Reller the newly centralised advertising and media functions.

• COO:

Kevin Turner will continue leading our worldwide sales, field marketing, services, support, and stores as well as IT, licensing and commercial operations.

• Finance Group:

Amy Hood will centralise all product group finance organisations. SMSG finance, which is geographically diffuse, will report to Turner with a dotted line to Hood.

Finishing the memo by acknowledging "lots of change" within the company, Ballmer insisted many "key things remain the same" however.

Signing off with "Let's go," can Ballmer's pep talk take Microsoft in a bold new direction? Tell us your thoughts below