I'm sure people would like to see it higher, but I think most believe that we are putting in the effort today that is required to get the company back into a growth phase like it's had in the past.
My perspective looking out from inside is that, politically engineered lawsuits aside, we tend to reap what we sow about 2-3 years out in the market. I'd say that a little over 2-1/2 years ago, the company really started the internal retargeting of resources that will lead the next wave of growth. This started slowly to avoid derailing any key existing efforts/investments, and some, myself included, might say we started too slowly.
Right now, I think things are positive internally, but we are in the middle of the transition from an outside perspective. I actually believe that we did falter internally between 1 and 3 years ago, and that is what some people are pointing to now to argue that we are not on top of things. In fact, I see more things that I believe are being done right than I have in a long time. The interesting thing is that I see a lot of the same internal faltering signs in some of our competition right now. Maybe it'll really take a year or two for it to catch up to them.
We still have a lot of challenges, but I do think we are doing the right things. I don't know how soon, but I believe that both Microsoft and the general market will start benefiting from this work in the near future (3-9 months).
I think you're right that people would be even more positive if the stock was in the 90+ range, but the fact is it's not. I don't think it's the top issue on most employees' minds day to day. Primarily, the people I talk to and work with are really working hard to build successful products and services.
Mike |
