Microsoft strategy chief quits Redmond Microsoft's head of strategy is stepping down from the company. Senior vice president of strategy and partnership Hank Vigil is leaving Microsoft to advise early-stage startups and focus on investing, according to All Things D. Vigil worked with Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer and the rest of the company's senior …
From what I read of this story this guy worked on the strategy which has made Office one of their biggest revenue streams and went a long way to correct the damage done with other IT companies.
The legacy he has left is one of 'lets try not to sue or get sued and see if we cant work together on problems'
When one leaves a legacy, it means that what the people left do is due to one's actions and influence.
Given Microsoft's legal history, Virgil leaves no legacy at all, because if his point of view was to work together without suing people, then it's one long failure.
It's a wonder he stayed there so long.
"Last year, Nokia made Windows Phone its strategic smartphone operating system of choice, dumping Symbian."
No, the Elopcalypse was this year, not last year.
I know it seems impossible that one CEO could mangle so much strategy and spread so much FUD while pursuing a strategy that - to me at least - makes little or no sense, all in the space of a few months, but Elop has managed it.
To save the apologists some trouble, I should here acknowledge that Nokia management was failing at many things before Elop, but that does not reduce the significance of:
the Burning Platform memo
the 'hey, no cameras' leak of the WP7 device mere hours after the N9 announcement\
the "will we/won't we release/support our MeeGo phones properly" Helsingin Sanomat interview
any of the other stunts he has pulled.
I'm not sure he's a trojan horse (my tinfoil hat is in storage), but surely he is MS-blinkered and failing to understand the value of the assets he has/had at Nokia. You cannot force an 'ecosystem' into existence by willpower (or even M$ money). People need to want to buy what you're selling. Let's also not forget that 'ecosystem' is in any case a fantastic bullshit term which is being flung about very freely by marketing types and pitiful 'industry analysts' - who often have no idea what they're talking about and/or have commercial interests in seeing the market move one way or another.
Hang on... cancel all the above. I get it. You mean he had decided to dump Symbian and MeeGo last year (but only announced it this year?)
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