What’s actually slowing this PC down?
Pick the symptom - the matching free tool is one click away.
iTechGuides is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more
When Kevin Turner prepared to leave Microsoft in July 2016, CEO Satya Nadella did not appoint another chief operating officer. Instead, he distributed Turner’s responsibilities among several senior executives, assigning sales, marketing, operations, commercial business, IT and related finance work to leaders already responsible for those areas.
What changed when Kevin Turner left Microsoft?
On July 7, 2016, Nadella announced a broad senior-management reorganization as Turner prepared to leave for a job at financial-services firm Citadel. Rather than name a new COO, Microsoft split the COO portfolio across multiple executives. The assignments covered global sales and operations, the worldwide commercial business, marketing, IT, and sales-and-marketing finance.
| Executive | Responsibility assigned in the 2016 reorganization |
|---|---|
| Jean-Philippe Courtois | Global sales, marketing and operations across Microsoft’s 13 business areas. |
| Judson Althoff | The worldwide commercial business, including government and small and medium-sized businesses. |
| Chris Capossela | Worldwide marketing. |
| Kurt DelBene | Information technology (IT). |
| Amy Hood | The sales-and-marketing finance group, alongside her CFO role. |
Why did Nadella divide the COO role?
Nadella said he and Turner had discussed how Microsoft could improve sales and support and “continue to reach for the next level of customer centricity and obsession.” The change brought functions Turner had overseen closer to the rest of the company rather than preserving them as a separate unit.
Contemporaneous Bloomberg reporting, republished by HeraldNet, described Turner’s organization as a parallel structure with its own finance, marketing and communications staffs. Distributing its responsibilities was a way to integrate those functions into Microsoft’s broader management structure. The announcement and reporting explain the organizational rationale; they do not establish that the restructuring produced a particular business result.
#1 Best Overall
Who was Kevin Turner, and where was he going?
Turner was 51 and had worked at Microsoft for more than a decade when he announced his departure. He was set to become CEO of the securities unit at financial-services firm Citadel after a transition period. He had joined Microsoft from Wal-Mart Stores, where he had built experience in large-scale retail operations. Microsoft had brought him in to add process and discipline to its sales and operations work.
What operating practices did Turner leave behind?
Turner’s approach emphasized defining commitments, reviewing failures and measuring performance. Bloomberg’s contemporaneous report described several practices associated with his tenure:
- “Conditions of satisfaction” documents: Written expectations specifying what Microsoft would provide to each client.
- “Correction of errors” reviews: Reviews that required teams to examine failures and identify what had gone wrong.
- Subsidiary scorecards: A standardized performance measure covering 30 categories.
The report also attributed to Turner the maxim, “the biggest room in our house is the room for improvement.” Together, the practices show the execution-focused management style for which he was known; they should not be mistaken for proof that every target was met or every initiative succeeded.
How was Turner’s record viewed at the time?
The 2016 Bloomberg report credited Turner with bringing rigor and discipline to Microsoft and helping boost enterprise-software sales. It also placed his tenure against a difficult backdrop: sales growth had declined in the final years of Steve Ballmer’s leadership as flagship businesses aged and Microsoft lost mobile and operating-system sales to Google and Apple. That is contemporaneous context, not evidence that Turner alone caused either the gains or the wider business trends.
Rank #3
What the reorganization signaled
The clearest signal was structural: Microsoft chose not to recreate a single COO office after Turner’s departure. It assigned the work to leaders with defined portfolios, linking sales and operations more directly to the company’s business areas and putting the commercial business, marketing, IT and finance responsibilities with their respective executives. That describes the 2016 decision; it does not mean the same reporting structure remains in place today.
Quick Recap
Best Value
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
