Ballmer’s Insights

I had the opportunity to sit in on a session with Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft. I have met him several times over the years. He is a unique individual.

These are direct quotes, more or less, from this morning’s session with Steve Ballmer.

On the vision for Microsoft:

“Enabling people to do and achieve the things that are most valuable in life.”

“Enabling the things that customers most value most.”

On innovation:

“No need to digitize things that don’t benefit from digitization.”

“We are pushing forward with hardware innovation.”

“Some innovations are easier to pioneer if we drive some hardware and software innovation.”

“I believe in the power of the pen — we are prepared to make an all-in bet on the pen.”

On design:

“There is software design and there is hardware design. The two are related but different.”

“Windows does form the center of the design for software interaction.”

On mobility:

“Our lack of success in some areas is much celebrated.”

“Everyone wants to use the same word processor over all their devices.”

“Consumers want to have an integrated life.”

On change:

“The pace of device innovation is about the same as it has always been.”

“Change is the number one problem for simplicity.”