When the board woke up

UPDATE: Bloomberg also names Satya Nadella as Microsoft's next CEO. In addition John W. Thompson could replace Bill Gates as president of the company.

It has been 160 days since Steve Ballmer announced his intention to step down as CEO of Microsoft. 160 of the 365 days that Ballmer gave the board of directors to choose his successor. At Re/code Kara Swisher has been toying with the proximity of the appointment for some time and now announces that the new CEO could be appointed next week And it had better be so.

Microsoft can't afford more days in a situation of indecision. Ballmer has the company undergoing a probably necessary restructuring process that doesn't seem likely to end until a new boss takes his place. With the speed, and unpredictability, at which things change in today's tech industry anyone who thinks Redmond can wait another month without a new CEO better think twice

Microsoft needs a CEO and it needs one now

The board of directors itself knows that it cannot take long. In December John W. Thompson, chairman of the search committee, wrote a memo to clarify the status of the process announcing that the company's intention was to have it completed within first part of 2014. Bill Gates recently said that he understood the urgency but that the decision was difficult and the board was moving at the right pace.The problem is that that pace may not be enough.

Microsoft has too many open questions and only a new CEO seems to be able to close them

Microsoft has too many open questions today and only a new CEO seems to be able to close them. The recent internal reorganization, the purchase of Nokia's devices and services division, the future update of Windows Phone 8, the changes in Windows 8, the future of both systems, the situation of Bing and Xbox, etc. All these fronts can only be addressed with a clear leader and a defined project.

Ballmer has managed to maintain the company, as always, with great results, but doubts continue to be raised about some of its most strategic sections: Windows, Windows Phone and other products and services oriented to the consumer market .In these sectors, the late response and the lack of a defined strategy is likely to have cost the company the starting position it should have had.

If Ballmer as CEO wasn't able to find a way for them, the current position of him waiting to be replaced makes it even more complicated. In Redmond they need a CEO and they need one now. They need someone who can chart a new roadmap and guide their 90,000-plus employees through it. Another month or two weeks into the current indeterminacy situation and Microsoft becomes a little less relevant

The board responsible for the tardiness

There is no doubt that the role of the members of the board of directors after Ballmer's announcement was very complex. Microsoft has only had two CEOs in its 38-year history, one its own founder and the other a historic and emblematic member of the company that soon became his right arm.For that detail alone, choosing the right person to take over is already a complicated task. If we add to the equation the size of the company, the key sectors in which it is involved, its current situation and the fierce competition it has to face; it is not difficult to imagine the swampy terrain in which they move.

But still, it is inconceivable that they have allowed the current situation to drag on for 160 long days One finds it hard to think that the The announcement of Ballmer's departure was so sudden as to catch the company's own board of directors by surprise. In fact, it is quite likely that she herself had a lot of influence on the decision of the still CEO, so it is difficult to explain her inability to find a replacement quickly.

Perhaps the pressure on Ballmer precipitated the announcement of his departure and the 12-month time granted by him was already part of the plans of the board of directors.Perhaps the search process was intended to be conducted in a less public manner, with Ballmer keeping his intentions hidden. Or perhaps more than one of the candidates has ended up backing out or has turned out not to be the right one.

If the chosen candidate is among the names known from the beginning of the process it will be difficult to understand why it has taken so long

John W. Thompson wrote in December that the board had identified more than 100 potential candidates and was focusing its efforts on 20 of them. The fact is that among the main media that cover Microsoft news, the same list of names has always been considered, with some abandonment and the occasional sudden incorporation. If the chosen one finally turns out to be among them, it is even more difficult for the writer to understand why the decision has taken so long.

Satya Nadella, the favorite among the same names as always

There are no last-minute surprises among the list of names. The external candidates that have been heard so far have been discarded and, unless the board of directors has a coup prepared, the attention seems to be focused on internal candidates. There are still Stephen Elop or Tony Bates. But above them highlights the name of Satya Nadella, who is apparently the top favorite to be named Microsoft CEO next week.

Satya Nadella was born in India 46 years ago, studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Mangalore before moving to the United States to finish her degree in Computer Science. After working at Sun Microsystems he joined Microsoft in 1992, where he has remained for the past 20 years.

After starting out working in research for the online services division, Nadella held numerous roles within the different divisions of the company, including those in charge of Office or the Bing search engine.But his key role came with the advent of the cloud and his efforts to introduce Microsoft to the industry, turning his division into the new billion-dollar business company dollars.

Her experience and inside knowledge of the company give Satya Nadella qualities that other candidates lack

His work has influenced numerous company products and services such as Bing, SkyDrive (now OneDrive), Xbox Live or Skype. This level of interrelationship with other departments, coupled with his years at Microsoft, likely gives him an experience and inside knowledge of the company that other candidates lack. Including other figures considered insiders whose presence at Microsoft is more recent or has had less continuity: Bates comes from Skype and Elop spent the last few years at Nokia.

Despite all this baggage and the good name that the manager has earned in Redmond, Nadella has significant gaps in his resume.The main one, in addition to the fact that he is unknown outside of Microsoft, seems to be his lack of experience in the consumer market, this section being the biggest challenge for company future. If Nadella is elected CEO he will have to prove himself there as he has already done in the corporate marketplace.

Time is up

There are 205 days left until the deadline given by Steve Ballmer. It may seem that the board has a lot of leeway, but the reality is that its time has already run out. Microsoft needed a new CEO from the day after Ballmer's announcement The 159-day delay is a mistake that the company could end up paying for.

Microsoft better find its new CEO next week. From then on, he will have to start working hard to make up for the lost months and take the helm of a company that has been in a situation of indecision for too long.And who knows, Satya Nadella might just be the right person for the job.

Via | Re/code | The Verge In Xataka | The sun is already setting in the Windows empire