Before Brian McAndrews agreed to take charge of a crucial piece of Microsoft Corp.’s online advertising business, he insisted on a key condition: that he be granted certain power over the engineering part of the operation.
The new job didn’t have to include that authority, but McAndrews, new to the company, argued that to succeed in his mandate — leading the charge against Google Inc. — he needed it. And in Microsoft’s engineering-driven culture, such a team could promise something else for McAndrews: longevity as a Microsoft executive.
That Microsoft granted his request illustrates a new approach Chief Executive Steve Ballmer is taking as he tries to expand the company into new areas from online music to video games to Internet advertising. Ballmer has found he must tap outsiders rather than rely so heavily on homegrown managers as in the past.
How Microsoft fares with McAndrews will be a test for Ballmer, who has tried over the years to make the company a more hospitable place for outside talent. Another test will be Don Mattrick, whom Microsoft hired this summer to head its video game group after a long career as a top executive at game giant Electronic Arts Inc.
Ballmer has had some successes bringing in and keeping new executives, including Microsoft’s chief operating officer, Kevin Turner, plucked from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. two years ago, and finance head Chris Liddell, hired from International Paper Co. in April 2005.
Still, a combination of forces within Microsoft — its engineers’ exalted stature, its insular culture, its sheer size — make integrating new executives a lingering problem. Often through Microsoft’s history, decisive and aggressive outsiders have been worn down by the second-guessing of Microsoft veterans before stepping down to less prominent roles or leaving altogether.
Microsoft has high stakes in the success of McAndrews and Mattrick in tackling their respective assignments. McAndrews must help reverse Microsoft’s rising gap with Google in online advertising while helping the company catch up in markets like social networking. He joined the company through Microsoft’s $6 billion acquisition of online-advertising specialist aQuantive Inc., where he was chief executive. Closed in August, the deal was the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s 30-year history. That puts added pressure on Ballmer to make McAndrews’s appointment stick. If Microsoft’s talks with Facebook Inc. bear fruit and it takes a stake in that company, McAndrews’s role will be even more important.
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