Bill Gates Not Satisfied with Innovation at Microsoft

Love him or hate him, Bill Gates is a man to contend with. Not only has he made it to the elite group of ultra rich people in the world, but he has also left a legacy that is hard to beat. I am not talking about the blue screen of death, but his work in philanthropy. While it has been years since he stepped down from running Microsoft on a day-to-day basis, he is still a force to reckon with, and guess what? He has expressed his dissatisfaction with the state of innovation in the company he founded.

In an interview on CBS This Morning, which has made the rounds, Bill Gates was asked a rather interesting question – something along the lines of whether he was happy with what Steve Ballmer has been doing. His reply?

“Well, he and I are two of the most self-critical people — you can imagine, and here were a lot of amazing things that Steve’s leadership got done with the company in the last year. Windows 8 is key to the future. The Surface computer. Bing, people are seeing as a better search product. Xbox. But is — is it enough? No, he and I are not satisfied that in terms of, you know, breakthrough things, that we’re doing everything possible.” (Source; emphasis mine)

Steve Ballmer is no stranger to the criticism of other people, in spite of the fact that he has drastically improved Microsoft’s revenue during his tenure. Bill Gates’s opinion, however, is a different matter.

To be fair, Gates did include Ballmer is his statement about not being satisfied with the state of innovation in the company. That is, he implied that he and Ballmer are on the same page.

Whether you are part of the company or a consumer, it is hard to disagree with Bill Gates on this. He might actually deserve a pat on the back for admitting the obvious.

[Image via kootation]