Jack SantosProbably one of the longer running logos, recently changed, at least among tech companies. Will it make my 1987-vintage baseball call worth more?
Note that the baseball cap modified version did not have the stylized “os”, the close letter spacing, and less of a slant type….making it much like the recently announced logo (without the color-quadrant, not to be confused with a magic quadrant).
I was thinking about all the changes Microsoft (and I) have been through since 1975 ; BTW, I also worked on a MITS Altair in 1976, but didn’t move to Albuquerque.
My very first Microsoft employee I ever met, and admired, was Jon Shirley – freshly hired from Tandy to bring adult supervision to Bill and Paul. He was followed by two other parent figures as presidents: Mike Hallman (from Boeing) , and Mike Maples (from IBM) . They brought corporate creds, but didn’t last long.
But the most impactful relationship I had with Microsoft-ies was with my local sales guys: Paul Houghton and Ian Warhaftig. I am quite sure they are retired now and sailing somewhere. They were particularly good tap dancers during the IBM OS/2 vs. Windows skirmish – ever the twinkle in their eyes and “nudge nudge, wink wink” hints about Microsoft’s intent for that relationship. Very helpful in my corporate decision making. A belated thanks, guys.
So there is a soft spot in my heart which is rooting for Microsoft to take back the innovation crown with Win 8 and make headway in the mobile space. Certainly, recent court decisions might help. But I wouldn’t bet my house on it….
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Category: management Managment Vendor Contracts Tags: management, microsoft, Strategy
