Dick Brass: Dysfunctional Corporate Culture is killing innovation at Microsoft

The unveiling of the Apple iPad seems to have brought up some long-hidden grievances from a former Microsoft employee. The former vice president at the company has accused Microsoft of having such a dysfunctional corporate culture that it is harming its ability to innovate. And without innovation he thinks the future of the company is looking decidedly patchy.

Microsoft is one of the largest companies in the world. It employs thousands of people, makes billions of dollars in revenue every year, and is a brand known in hundreds of different countries. However, its core business is, and has been for a long time, firmly rooted in its Windows operating system and Office products.

This has lead Dick Brass, a vice president at the company between 1997 and 2004, to write an op-ed for the New York Times discussing how the company is failing to innovate. As even with record revenues and record profits, he feels this aspect of the company will cost Microsoft in the long run.

Brass declares that a system has developed at Microsoft which thwarts rather than encourages innovation. He gives two examples to illustrate his point.

The first involves ClearType, a method for displaying text on screen so it’s more readable. Windows engineers made false claims over the technology, while the vice president for pocket devices declared he’d only back it if he could assume control.

The second involves the development of the tablet PC at the turn of the century. Brass alleges that the vice president of Office products at the time (Steven Sinofsky, now head of Windows) didn’t like the concept or the use of a stylus rather than a keyboard. And so he allegedly refused to modify Office to make the two compatible.

I don’t doubt that innovation isn’t as simple or as fluid at Microsoft as it is at, say, Apple for instance. However, it’s been six years since Brass left the company and there are signs things are improving.

Bing is leading the search engine pack for innovation. Then there is the incredible success of the Xbox 360, and its Project Natal hands-free control system due later this year. And Windows 7, though based on decades-old architecture, feels fresh and innovative. And consumers are responding.

The fact is Microsoft has it made, as it can rely on Windows and Office to make it money every day of the week for the rest of time. So is innovation actually that crucial to the company’s success?

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