Microsoft loses Windows consumer boss to Juniper Networks
Just be the ball, Brad Brooks, be the ball
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Microsoft has lost yet another top exec, after Juniper Networks revealed yesterday that it had poached the software giant's Windows consumer marketing boss Brad Brooks.
Brooks had been with Redmond since January 2002, when he began work on the company's biz development and marketing for various Windows products.
According to his LinkedIn account, Brooks was initially "Responsible for the product management and marketing of a portfolio of products including several new product and first to market introductions by Microsoft. Included Media Center, Tablet PCs*, Smart Displays and Media Player".
He became general manager of the Windows commercial business in 2005, before being promoted to a vice president role in 2008 from which point on he helped launch Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.
Juniper said Brooks had taken on the role of veep of worldwide enterprise marketing and solutions at the cloudy network-punting company.
Brooks' decision to quit Microsoft is the latest in a growing line of execs walking away from Ballmer.
Earlier this month the Steve Ballmer-run company lost Bob Muglia, the boss of its $15bn server and tools business unit, who will leave Microsoft this summer after working there for 23 years.
The vendor has also lost its entertainment and devices chief Robbie Bach and biz division boss Stephen Elop, who left to become CEO of Nokia, in recent months.
Microsoft's top software architect Ray Ozzie and the firm's senior vice president of design and development and Xbox nerd J Allard both recently quit, too. ®
*The world is still waiting for Microsoft to attempt to compete with Apple's iPad on this.
COMMENTS
opposites
Whereas Steve Jobs assembled a management team that could effectively replace him, Steve Ballmer seems to systematically root out any contender for the top spot. Honestly, I can't think of a single manager left there that could be the next CEO (Sinofsky's still working there? ...not for long!).
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It's really hard to think of anything other than rats fleeing a sinking ship - not that I'm equating these (I'm sure) lovely people with rats.
re: innovation
Yeah, your right, the Kinect is a wonderful device. As far as their tabletop device (surface), the latest version seems promising; it's now thin enough to hang on a wall and you can use it for things like scanning coupons.
I still think it will be interesting how they further innovate over the coming years because of the shake down and how it changes the feel of the company.
Like you said MS has not primarily been an innovative company though and where it has tried to innovate it hasn't always been.
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