Who Will Take Lead Of Microsoft After Steve Ballmer Retires In The Next 12 Months ?

Microsoft has announced the retirement of it's present CEO Steve Ballmer in the next 12 months and they have started looking for the replacement from the word go. They have also set up a new committee for finding the new CEO, chaired by lead independent board director John Thompson
, a longtime International Business Machines Corp.. This surprising news came on Friday following years of criticism about the fast growth & stagnant stock price of Microsoft, a tantalizing force of PC's era who was so strong that the US Regulators once tried to break the company.

For the last few years, PC-sales, the heart of Microsoft Corporation, have significantly gone down.
This is because the business as well as domestic users have switched to the devices provided by APPLE Inc and Google Inc.

Mr. Ballmer, who took the heirarchy from Chairman Bill Gates in January 2000, has responded to the changes by recently overhauling the company's Windows software to be used with touch commands and introducing a Microsoft-designed tablet computer called Surface.

Microsoft has also announced that it is looking for both internal and external candidates. Many names have also come to light to fill the empty slot. Leading contenders are executive vice president of marketing Tami Reller, COO Kevin Turner and executive vice president Tony Bates. But the most probable person for this post will be Satya Nadella, executive vice president, Cloud and Enterprise. A native of Hyderabad, Nadella has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master's degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.

Stephen Elop, an ex-Microsoft executive who now heads Nokia, and Sanjay Jha, who earlier headed Motorola, are also considered strong contenders.

Microsoft's competitors have some big names as CEO. Apple has Tim Cook, who may not be an innovator like Steve Jobs but has a unique style of leadership and is authoritative. Google has Larry Page, who is considered an excellent manager as well as a visionary. Yahoo has Marissa Mayer. Amazon has Jeff Bezos. And Oracle has Larry Ellison. All of these are star CEOs.

Microsoft would want a CEO that could match the leadership that other companies have. But finding such a CEO may not be easy............