The other day i tweeted a link from John Dvorak reviewing Windows 7. He basically said that Microsoft was dying, and said the product was “made with the same cheap Microsoft vodka.”

Dvoraks not new to this[1], (i recall reading his columns in PC magazine in the early 90’s, so he has been around). He slates Microsoft, not because of the code in windows7, but because (he feels) Microsoft has stopped paying attention to details:

he writes:
“Microsoft’s carelessness with the media seems to represent an overall careless that permeates throughout the entire company.

The recent spam newsletter, “Microsoft at a Glance,” is the perfect example. For one thing, periods are left off at the end of sentences. This was likely an oversight resulting from having a computer-generated    newsletter, since it seemed to happen in a specific sequence. It’s the cheap vodka syndrome all over again.

This sloppiness is also reflected in Microsoft advertising…

There are flashes of brilliance and good taste all over the company, but Microsoft is just lazy, careless, and not at all detail-oriented anymore. There are also indications that the employees all play a zero-sum game, hoping the guy in the next cubicle fails.
”

This is a sad state for the once mighty Microsoft to find themselves in, and one wonders how they could have found themselves there. [2]

The answer (as we know) is one sloppy email/newsletter/report/proposal/code-check-in at a time.

Details matter, and sloppiness shows, and although i have heard many a manager choose “just do it” over “just do it well”, on a long enough timescale, attention to details pays off..

/mh

[2] It’s a bad time for questions to come up on Microsoft’s attention to detail, because you know the mac fanboys are going to be comparing it to the recent sightings of the [Apple iJobOffer] and [iTShirt]