Fewer chairs remain after Microsoft reshuffle | Channel Register

Fewer chairs remain after Microsoft reshuffle | Channel Register: "Microsoft has rejigged the company's reporting structure, collapsing the seven divisions created in 2002 into three new ones. It's a bid to deal with the process issues that have bedevilled the company, exemplified by the delivery of Microsoft Vista three years later than planned, and several features short.
The changes are 'designed to align our Business Groups in a way that will enhance decision-making and speed of execution,' reads the canned quote from Fester that's supplied in the press release.
In five years since Ballmer took over the CEO's job from Gates, Microsoft has moved from anarchy to a Kafkaesque bureaucracy. The culture of 'MaMaM', or meetings about meetings about meetings, is well known in the industry, but reached a wider audience with defection of Microsoft's China Labs chief Kai Fu Lee to Google, which led to suit and countersuit. Microsoft's inefficiencies even amused the Chinese Communist Party, Lee alleged.
In addition to the major restructuring, Microsoft also announced an expanded advisory role for CTO Ray 'Lotus Notes' Ozzie, and that veteran Windows manager Jim Allchin will step down at the end of 2006.
The reshuffle sees the Information Worker division and the Business Solutions division collapsed into a new Business Division. That's one less chair, and nine fewer syllables.
The Home and Entertainment division responsible for Xbox and Flight Simulator is merged with the Mobile and Embedded division to create the new Entertainment and Devices Division. That's one less chair, too, and six fewer syllables."