Who Leads the Seven Businesses?

A dichotomy remains between the leaders of Microsoft’s seven business areas and the executives driving product, sales, and marketing strategies. Shown in the shadowed boxes are the leaders of the seven core businesses-CE (Mobility), Knowledge Worker, Client (Windows), Home and Entertainment, the Business Solutions Group, Server and Tools, and MSN-and whom they report to.

Only four of the named business leaders report directly to CEO Steve Ballmer. One business area (Server and Tools) is split between two leaders (Eric Rudder and Paul Flessner). MSN leader Yusuf Mehdi reports to Senior Vice President David Cole, who was not named as a business leader but who reports directly to Ballmer. In addition, many senior executives not shown on this chart, such as Windows Division Senior Vice President Brian Valentine (who reports to Allchin) and Worldwide Sales, OEM, Marketing, and Services Group Vice President Orlando Ayala (who reports to Ballmer), were not named as leaders of any specific business area, but still have massive budgets and thousands of reports.