Presidential Priorities
In his new role, Ballmer will focus on:
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Ballmer plans to spend $250 million this year to boost customer support and consulting staff by 25% each. Next month, he will send hundreds of engineers into the field to meet with corporate customers so they can better understand their problems.
CORPORATE SOFTWARE SALES
Microsoft's Windows operating system and desktop productivity suite account for the bulk of revenues. Ballmer will focus on increasing market share in the corporate database and E-commerce businesses--without pricing so low that profits suffer.
THE WEB BUSINESS
Microsoft has invested more than $1 billion in online ventures, but it's still losing hundreds of millions a year. Ballmer wants revenues to grow much faster, so expect him to subject the Web business to the same kind of stringent performance requirements he applied to the sales organization.
SMALL IS SMART
With 27,200 employees, Microsoft is in danger of catching a bad case of big-company-itis. Ballmer will look for ways to move key employees around internally so they face new challenges and stay energized.
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