Microsoft reorganizes entire company, new Xbox and other entertainment devices head revealed

Written by Brandon Hofer on July 11, 2013

News: Steve Ballmer reveals the details of Microsoft’s restructuring in an email sent out to employees earlier this morning.

Earlier today an email was sent from Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer to all employees regarding the reorganization that Microsoft will be going through. It is no secret that it has been a rough couple of months for Microsoft and this new approach will, hopefully, help to correct a lot of those problems.

“Going forward, our strategy will focus on creating a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go, for the activities they value most."

That is one of the new mantras at Microsoft. According to Ballmer, the company realizes that it has come a long way but there is still a bunch of work that needs to be done. He plans to reorganize the whole company in an attempt to make everything more efficient, which in turn, should lead to better overall products for consumers. What this reorganization means is that Microsoft will now organize the company by function: Engineering (including supply chain an datacenters), Marketing, Business Development and Evangelism, Advanced Strategy and Research, Finance, HR, Legal, and COO (including field, support, commercial operations and IT). There will be four engineering areas: OS, Apps, Cloud and Devices.

As far as gamers are concerned, there will be a new Devices and Studio Engineering Group within Microsoft. This new group will be lead by Julie Larson-Green and will have all hardware development and supply chain from the smallest to the largest devices that Microsoft builds. Julie will also take responsibility for their studios experiences including all games, music, video and other entertainment. For those who might not know who Julie is, she was the former head of Windows products. Aaron Greenberg has also made it clear that he is staying on with Microsoft and will be Chief of Staff for Devices & Studios and will report to Larson-Green.

With this new reorganization Microsoft hopes to be a much more nimble company that can react quicker to an ever-changing marketplace. The e-mail had this to say:

“In a world of continuous services, the timeframe for product releases, customer interaction and competitive response is dramatically shorter. As a company, we need to make the right decisions, and make them more quickly, balancing all the customer and business imperatives. Each employee must be able to solve problems more quickly and with more real-time data than in the past."

Under this “new” Microsoft Ballmer hopes to have a singular vision throughout the company that everyone can work towards and contribute to. His theory is that will allow the company as a whole to create and innovate on more products, respond to their customers in a much better way than they have been recently, and just make Microsoft a better overall company.

Mr. Ballmer ends the email by talking about all of the change that is going to take place at Microsoft and his belief in the company:

“Lots of change. But in all of this, many key things remains the same. Our incredible people, our spirit, our commitment, our belief in the transformative power of technology — our Microsoft technology — to make the world a better place for billions of people and millions of businesses around the world. It’s why I come to work inspired every day. It’s why we’ve evolved before, and why we’re evolving now. Because we’re not done."

If you would like to read the email for yourself in its entirety you can do so by clicking here. What do you think about these changes? Tell us your thoughts below.