Nadella must feel nimble like a ninja, though we haven't seen any innovation from his new empire just yet...

 

"Two primary reasons were given for the cuts. First, Nadella said they want to slim down to become more agile and move faster."

Where have I heard that before.
DEC, Compaq HP all said the same thing when they laid off workers.
The slimming usually comes at the expense of individual contributors. The managemers usually get re-assigned instead of cut.

 

The employees must really be pissed off. Just after a lacklustre pet talk from the chief to be hit with this news!

 

Don't you just love corporate speak for we're in the sh!t.

 

Gotta keep that stock price propped up ya know.

 

Everyone knows the happier your investors and the higher your stock price the more profit your company earns! Not just that but investors are amazingly intelligent they know whats gonna work and whats not gonna work so if your investor tells you to burn the company to the ground then its probably gonna make the company's revenue and stock price sky rocket!

 

Hey Google, can I borrow some money?

 

the above option is actually better than below:

 

How does one move faster with less staff to help carry the burden? In that respect, shouldn't a small independent developer make Windows 8 in weeks where ten thousand of Microsoft's staff took years?

 

Yeah, I was like how the heck does having less people make one move faster.

 

Would depend on the staff employed. Are you getting rid of layers of management that don't necessarily add to the development of the product?

 

Good point.

 

That assessment is a trifle hyperbolic, and a bit off target as well.

Employees of a software publisher may have to get used to layoffs, and hope they're among the elite in their field to maintain a steady income."The quick and the dead", so to speak.

A company like M$, isn't really that different from a game publisher. In either case, you need a great many people to put together a new OS, or game, or whatever, but not so many to maintain it.

So, M$ assumes the risk and the debt of developing a new OS. After its release, they hope the acceptance of it will bring them back to solvency quickly, and a great deal more money made in the way of profit. Initial acceptance will be high, and start to taper off, partially due to computer replacement, and new hardware options becoming available. OS software doesn't put the gleam in the eye of the consumer directly, it needs to tag along in the latest, greatest, shiny new trinket. ("Trinket", is old school terminology for, "device").

However, in the interim, sometimes all that need be done, is to write patches, which requires a lot less workers.

I'm sure some of those released by M$, rightly or wrongly, had thought they found a home, and were working with mediocre abilities.

So, methinks that workers in this field, need be mindful of making themselves indispensable, while getting used to the idea that jobs in their field, have taken on some of the properties of construction work, defense contracting, or even seasonal job opportunities.

Face it, when an entity like M$ screws up like they did with Windows 8, heads are going to roll. Sadly, it won't be the one that caused the screw up.