????史蒂夫?鮑爾默一直名聲在外,。他身材魁梧，總愛夸夸其談,，一直都是典型的“煽動(dòng)型”領(lǐng)袖,，極富傳奇色彩。鮑爾默與他的好朋友——書生氣的比爾?蓋茨——簡(jiǎn)直是絕配,。在公司活動(dòng)上,，他通過夸張的滑稽動(dòng)作調(diào)動(dòng)微軟（Microsoft）員工士氣的故事舉不勝舉：幾年前，他曾在一次銷售會(huì)議上表演過蹩腳的猴子舞,。事后,，難以置信的微軟反對(duì)者們紛紛將他跳舞的視頻發(fā)到了網(wǎng)上；他還曾因?yàn)楹翱谔?hào)太用力而把嗓子喊破,，最終不得不接受聲帶修復(fù)手術(shù),；為了讓大家發(fā)笑、暢所欲言，鮑爾默還曾扮演過一名草裙舞女和二手車銷售員,。鮑爾默會(huì)一邊對(duì)跟在身后的助手咆哮著發(fā)布命令,，一邊拍手。在微軟總部,，只要突然響起斷斷續(xù)續(xù)的拍手聲,，人們就能知道鮑爾默就在附近。而且,，他是第一個(gè)承認(rèn)“拍桌官”這個(gè)稱呼非常適合自己的人,。

????在超過20年時(shí)間里，鮑爾默一直是比爾?蓋茨面前的紅人,。不論是在上世紀(jì)80年代擔(dān)任Windows軟件開發(fā)團(tuán)隊(duì)的負(fù)責(zé)人,，90年代作為全球銷售與營(yíng)銷部門負(fù)責(zé)人，還是擔(dān)任總裁期間,，他這種聒噪的性格對(duì)他自己和微軟都產(chǎn)生了良好的效果,。微軟在崛起的過程中形成了“不留活口”的企業(yè)文化，鮑爾默在其中發(fā)揮了重要作用,。隨著微軟的崛起,，鮑爾默多次成為億萬富翁。從蓋茨任命鮑爾默為公司CEO以來,，鮑爾默在這四年時(shí)間里的表現(xiàn)出人意料,。你肯定預(yù)想過更煽動(dòng)人心的表現(xiàn)，而且鮑爾默也確實(shí)有這樣的一面,。但與此同時(shí),，是鮑爾默帶領(lǐng)微軟度過了科技泡沫破滅（互聯(lián)網(wǎng)泡沫破滅三個(gè)月前，蓋茨完成了與鮑爾默的交接,，真是完美的時(shí)機(jī)）,。雖然其他IT公司紛紛收縮，微軟卻持續(xù)增長(zhǎng),，經(jīng)營(yíng)利潤(rùn)始終保持在驚人的35%以上,。

????更重要的是，鮑爾默給微軟打上了自己的烙印,。經(jīng)過第一年的嘗試之后,，他啟動(dòng)了一項(xiàng)系統(tǒng)活動(dòng)，徹底重新編寫了微軟公司的“操作系統(tǒng)”,。他所接手的公司一直靠著比爾?蓋茨自己摸索著前進(jìn),，公司過度集中，笨拙不堪,。于是,，鮑爾默將微軟分成七個(gè)經(jīng)營(yíng)部門,，將決策與責(zé)任分給不同的部門——每個(gè)部門都有自己的損益表。與此同時(shí),，他個(gè)人則負(fù)責(zé)監(jiān)督公司流程的制定,，從產(chǎn)品開發(fā)到戰(zhàn)略規(guī)劃，再到員工和管理層評(píng)估,，以及公司使命與價(jià)值觀等軟性事務(wù),，將微軟的所有工作系統(tǒng)化。他徹底修改了公司的薪酬方案,，去年更是取消了股票期權(quán),，令整個(gè)科技界為之震驚。他還下令啟動(dòng)應(yīng)急項(xiàng)目,，以應(yīng)對(duì)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)安全和垃圾郵件,。這些工作都在進(jìn)行當(dāng)中，但在公司下決心徹底改革的兩年以后,，微軟那群咋咋呼呼,、桀驁不馴的天才們也發(fā)生了變化，他們的行事風(fēng)格變得更成熟穩(wěn)重,。

????如今,，要說微軟還需要什么，那就是鋼鐵般的紀(jì)律,。最近幾個(gè)月,，公司收益增長(zhǎng)速度減緩到個(gè)位數(shù)；雖然2003年納斯達(dá)克總體上漲49%,，但微軟股票卻依舊表現(xiàn)平平,。這家公司面臨史上最激烈的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)挑戰(zhàn)。Linux操作系統(tǒng)和其他所謂的開源軟件（鮑爾默喜歡將它們統(tǒng)稱為“免費(fèi)軟件”）不僅威脅到微軟的統(tǒng)治地位,，同時(shí)壓低了所有軟件的價(jià)格。與此同時(shí),，IBM正在推廣這樣一種理念,，即世界級(jí)的信息系統(tǒng)需要大量的照料和維護(hù)，形式便是軟件集成與定制,、咨詢和外包服務(wù),。作為L(zhǎng)inux和IT服務(wù)價(jià)值的最大支持者，IBM肯定想修改游戲規(guī)則,，打破微軟在軟件界的統(tǒng)治地位,。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

????譯者：劉進(jìn)龍/汪皓

????Steve Ballmer is a man whose reputation exceeds him. Barrel- chested and bombastic, he's always been the quintessential, larger-than-life, rah-rah leader, and the perfect foil for his geeky and erudite best buddy, Bill Gates. Stories abound of his over-the-top antics rallying Microsoft's troops at corporate events: There was the infamous Monkey-Boy dance he performed at a sales meeting a few years ago, which prompted dozens of incredulous Microsoft bashers to post choppy videoclips of his cavortings on the web; or the surgery he endured to repair blown-out vocal cords resulting from a bout of unrestrained cheerleading; or the outlandish hula-girl and used-car-salesman costumes he gleefully donned to get a laugh and make a point. On the Microsoft campus, you can always tell he's approaching by his sharp, punctuating claps as he barks orders to a subordinate trailing behind. And he's the first to admit that in his case, "table pounder" is literally apt.

????That noisy behavior served Ballmer--and Microsoft--quite well over more than two decades as Bill's go-to guy, whether it was as leader of the Windows software development team in the 1980s, as chief of worldwide sales and marketing in the 1990s, or in his stint as president. Ballmer had a big hand in shaping Microsoft's take-no-prisoners corporate culture during its meteoric rise, which made him a billionaire several times over. The surprise is what he's done in the four years since Gates made him CEO. You'd have expected more rabble-rousing, and there's been plenty of that. Yet at the same time Ballmer has steered Microsoft through the tech bust (Gates, with impeccable timing, made the handoff just three months before the dot-com bubble burst). Even as the rest of IT shrank, Microsoft continued to grow and to maintain prodigious operating profits of more than 35%.

????More important, Ballmer has put his stamp on the company. After an admittedly tentative first year as CEO, he embarked on a methodical campaign to rewrite Microsoft's corporate "operating system" from top to bottom. He's taken an unwieldy, overcentralized company that flew by the seat of Bill Gates' pants, and broken it into seven operating divisions to push decision-making and accountability out into the organization--each unit has its own P&L. At the same time, he has personally overseen the creation of a playbook of procedures to systematize everything Microsoft does, from product development to strategic planning to employee and management evaluation, as well as softer things like the company's mission and values. He has completely revamped the compensation plan, and last year eliminated stock options altogether in a move that stunned the tech world. He has ordered up crash projects to tackle Internet security and spam. It's all a work in progress, but two years after the overhaul began in earnest, Microsoft is beginning to behave like a grownup company instead of a raucous, runaway Mensa meeting.

????And if there's one thing Microsoft needs now, it's steely discipline. In recent months revenue growth has slowed to single digits; despite the Nasdaq's 49% run-up in 2003, Microsoft stock stayed flat. The company is facing its biggest competitive challenge ever. The Linux operating system and other so-called open-source programs--Ballmer prefers to call them "free software"--threaten not only to make inroads into Microsoft's dominance but also to drive down the prices of all software. IBM, meanwhile, is doing everything it can to advance the perception that world-class information systems require lots of care and feeding, in the form of software integration and customization, consulting, and outsourced services. As the chief proponent both of Linux and of the value of IT services, Big Blue would like nothing better than to change the rules of the game and relegate Microsoft to being just another software company.