We poked some fun at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer earlier today for his poor track record with regards to predictions for competitors. But really, Ballmer is just as good as any big company CEO at getting his troops and audiences fired up about something. I’ve spoken with a few employees who’ve described his rabble-rousing as nothing short of mesmerizing. And he was apparently in top form again today at the Microsoft conference currently happening in New Orleans.
But there may be a method to the madness. We’ve all seen “Developers, developers, developers” by now. That was Ballmer at his finest, repeating a single word 14 times in a row before he ran out of breath. Yes, 14 times. But this new Ballmer in the post-Gates era of Microsoft has scaled back a bit. Now he seems to only emphasize things in sets of threes. Ashlee Vance cracked the new code in an aside in his Bits Blog post today.
Just read some of the key blurbs from his speech today:
“We are going to keep the same old Microsoft approach –- long-term, tenacious and partner-centric. Long-term, long-term, long-term.”
“We don’t go home. We just keep coming and coming and coming. Tenacious, tenacious, tenacious.”
“Man, oh, man, have we taken a lot of abuse. But, man, we have a little mojo. We will just keep going and going and going.”
Ballmer’s “Rule of Three” is the new Steve Jobs “Boom!”
people can say what they want about Ballmer, but there is no doubting his aptitude as CEO. I think this will become clearer over time. just my opinion.
Steve Ballmer is the epitome of what’s wrong with corporate America wasp leadership. All mouth, no brains, big act, imaginary balls.
My God, this is damn funny. I just love the photo! Is Steve Ballmer such a 3-ster? And do people listen to his rule of three without laughing? Strange!
MG, I love the way this is written. Tongue-in-cheek satire at its best.
Like an old horse…
@MG Siegler
you need to post the youtube video of Steve Ballmer, where he was trying to sell Windows 1.0 like a used car sales man.
http://www.yout...h?v=tGvHNNOLnCk
Yes. That is another classic video.
lol, steve ballmer is such a joker
In fact, let’s embed it here
D’oh. Tried to embed. Clearly it didn’t work. http://www.yout...h?v=LA0nhGFiycE
Yes, we limit that for obvious reasons
Here, I’ll do it for ya.
…it’s tasty barbequed?
For some reason, when I watch the Developers video, all I can think about is ….
badger. badger. badger. badger. badger. badger.
mushroom mushroom!
Oh my word. I believe that Steve Ballmer can make huge amount of money in dance clubs.
Oh my word. That first video of Ballmer makes me want to buy even less Microsoft stuff
The delicious Microsoft-bashing is not obvious enough in this post – please explain to me in simpleton’s language why this makes Steve Ballmer incompetent / tech sector Hitler / the living incarnation of evil on this Earth. I know it’s in between the lines somewhere but the tiny little hamster in my brain just can’t seem to spin that wheel fast enough.
Embrace, Extend, Exterminate?
Embrace, Extend, Extinguish?
Uncle Fester still got the mojo risin
So wheres the point in this article? do you know what a thesis is MG? where’s the news?
MG is back to anti-microsoft articles. steve ballmer doesnt have a poor track record with predictions. are you serious? oh wow the iphone thing, thats it.
now lets look at android. flop. google talk, flop. chrome, flop. but you wont post how chrome only has 0.05% marketshare because it ridicules your beloved google, but youll post any anti-internet explorer article and skip how it has increased marketshare.
Why post that old ass video we’ve all seen? this article has no substance at all.
Yep, a rare, poor post from MG Seigler. He is normally the best writer on the network.
Wait, what?
think trashing others makes you more important ? he has probably what your entire generation made. i am not a fan of Microsoft but don’t expect this kind of post from you(@MG)
Pot? I’d like you to meet my friend Mr. Kettle.
Um… I have many cell phones, including an Android and an iPhone. I would not call Android a flop. It’s actually quite amazing.
And, uh, I use gtalk everyday. I find the video and two-way audio to be better than Skype.
Chrome only has to be better than IE, which, is not very hard to do. It’s actually filling its niche very nicely. I don’t use it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t doing what it was intended to do. Kill off IE. I don’t use Windows platforms, so I have no need for Chrome.
And I for one relish in the MS bashing. As a network admin, MS kicked me in the balls for years, just because they could. I’m enjoying the hell out of kicking them back for awhile!
First rule of marketing:
You are not your customer!
aka what you like and use is not representative of the mainstream market.
Ok, so there’s one clue person here. Any more? Such is the word of Sanjay.
Um… YES… I am the customer!
Why do Microsoft people post anonymously?
He didn’t. There’s a link to his Twitter account!
Ha Ha … definitely a good laugh watching the Dance and then the non-stop Boom Boom’s
Steve Ballmer is like the dude who flew his ship into the alien ship and sacrificed himself to save all mankind in ID4.
But anyways, power is in 3’s. All Freemasons communicate this way, but maybe it’s just me looking to the east.
I totally thought it was a Freemason thing too. Or a Charmed thing.
http://www.amaz...e/dp/0671041622
If that doesn’t pump you up, then you have no pulse.
He’s obviously taken speech training. The first thing one learns is to speak in lists of three.
See: http://news.bbc...ine/8128271.stm to learn more (Obama does it too)
Steve Ballmer ROCKS
Don’t forget Monkey Developers, by Digital Droo featuring Steve Ballmer.
(As a DJ, I often say, “IM me your requests or I play whatever I find on my hard drive, and you do not want to hear what it sounds like when I play the Windows directory!” Some wiseguy occasionally requests the Windows directory. In response, I play the above-linked song. Hopefully, they never ask again.
)
Right on!
The rules of three hmm i cant come up with the third one…
First rule
http://gizmodo....d-useful-to-you
Second rule
http://www.i-doser.com/
Plz help me with the last one.
Regards
m00ns
this circle jerk is going to get messy soon. MG, youre a joke.
Having worked for a number of large companies, I actually really appreciate Ballmer’s enthusiasm. From a motivational standpoint, I would love to have him as my CEO.
Steve Ballmer is one of the best leaders in history. He can love about a post like this one.
As much as I appreciate his capabilities and respect him, someone should stand up to the plate and tell Steve that he looks like a heart attack waiting to happen!
Steve loose weight, exercise and eat right! The troops need you to lead the charge for sometime to come.
He’s out of his mind, not in a good way. Long live Linux and long live MacOS!
I actually find it encouraging – its hard to motivate a 100K workforce but he is able to still do it pretty effectively.
Steve Balmer is the man!
With Steve Jobs lsd habit did the joke extended to mac. That leave questions about what could be the last of the three. But the guys on TechCrunch are prolly to high to answear atm. =o)
Who is the #1 software company in the world? (still)
End of discussion.
Hmm I don’t know enough to make a decision.
A Econ major cheerleader, not bad for a multi-billion dollar company.
Funny, actually not really, TC portrays Twitter as the “Second coming of Christ”, Facebook as the Messiah (sorry for the religious overtones, but that’s what I read into these posts)
MG, get a grip, the guy can consume both with his pocket change and intelligence.
Please edit the photo and remove the number from his forehead (guess not…)
Or he will throw a chair in your general direction!
If you listen to him enough, you’ll also note that he says “blah blah blah blah blah” at least once in every speech. Though that’s more of a rule of 5
Is he at Scientology? He behaves Tom-Cruise-esque.
He’s got a crowd of 30,000 or more employees sitting in front of him, he’s gotta be entertaining.
Look I’d rather have Balmer jumping all over the stage than Larry Page or what ever the other guy with the card board personality’s name is.. oh thats right Serg or something.
You people are not funny! I could buy your freaking little site here and turn it into some kinda MS ad!
o_O
don’t listen to what some people say.. sometimes they just have to … they say A and they mean B… its their job you know.. to make impressions..
Had no idea this how CEOs in the States sell their stuff… really. shocked
so he’s a geek, whats surprising about that? He is also doing an awesome job leading the company!
http://www.yout...feature=related
Ballmer trying to sell Windows XP. More hilarious than the windows 1.0 sales pitch.
Imagine if Ballmer actually had fancy exciting new products to sell!? I
To be 100% honest, I actually like that he’s willing to make a fool of himself like this (and the Windows 1.0 commercial and Windows XP commercials). Sometimes it’s a little too over the top and comes off awkward, but really, it shows that he has a good sense of humor and doesn’t take himself too seriously, which is a trait that is often sorely lacking in the industry *coughstevejobscough*
well said!
I ran out of breath reading. Christ! Sentences are your friend.