Bartleby Send in the clouds

摘要

Like an nfl changing room, the technology industry is littered with the bodies of fallen champions, from aol to Yahoo to Blackberry, in urgent need of rehabilitation. Ten years ago many might have expected Microsoft to end up in the same state. But the software giant has made a startling comeback, frequently vying for the title of the most valuable company on global stockmarkets, with a market capitalisation above $1trn. The story of this revival is the subject of a new case study by Herminia Ibarra and Adam Jones of London Business School (lbs). In large part the success has resulted from a shift away from a focus on the Windows operating system and towards Azure, Microsoft's cloud-based services offering. It involved a willingness to let programs run on Apple and Android smartphones, something the company had previously avoided.