Four Part Plan to Change Microsoft?

Michael Gartenberg | April 25, 2006, 11:51 AM

Scoble discusses how to change Microsoft.

First, the moonshot!
1. Give everyone in the world a terabyte of storage.
2. Give all MSFT employees two monitors and a copy of Vista.
3. Publicly disclose compensation across the board
4. Have marketers explain everything they do in public.

OK. Interesting ideas and of course, Robert puts stuff like this out there to stir the pot and start conversations. As ideas themselves, I'm not sure I agree that these are the most pressing issues for the company. #1 is cool but what does it really do for Microsoft or customers. Without a signifcant change in customer perception, no one's rushing to give MSFT a TB of their stuff to hold. #2 isn't a bad idea per se, but is it really that life changing for most folks or just a shiny new perk. These things of course must always be justified by quantifiable gains. The better point to make is to invest in technology that leads to productivity gains. For some that's two monitors, for others, it might be a new Smartphone. #3 is the most silly. Let's face it, would you want to work in a place that had that as a policy? I'm not sure I would. Public humiliation isn't the way to boost employee morale. You'd think I like #4 given my past criticism of some of the MSFT marketing stuff in the past but that just means get better marketing folks. I don't need to hear the marketing rationale for every decision made by a marketer, just get marketing people who make decisions you can trust. I could go on here but I won't. I don't think Robert's comments are out of line but I do think they're a little naive. Either way, I'm sure they'll generate some interesting discussions and perhaps that's what's most important.