Microsoft Revamps Structure and Management ⇥ nytimes.com

Is this the big reorganization everyone’s been waiting for, and that Microsoft executives have been fretting? Well, let’s read the press release:

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 says nothing. Maybe a little further on?

The bedrock of our new strategy is innovation in deep, rich, high-value experiences and activities. It’s the starting point for differentiated devices integrated with services. It’s at the core of how we will inspire ourselves all to do our best work and bring to our customers the very things that will make a difference in their lives.

More corporate speak. Perhaps Steve Ballmer’s email to Microsoft employees will provide a better, plain-English explanation:

Most disciplines and product groups will have a core that delivers key technology or services and then a piece that lines up with the initiatives. Each major initiative will have a champion who will be a direct report to me or one of my direct reports. The champion will organize to drive a cross-company team for success, but my whole staff will have commitment to the initiative’s success.

Does anyone at Microsoft speak English?

The New York Times’ Nick Wingfield is an expert in decoding corporate speak:

Microsoft said it would dissolve its eight product divisions in favor of four new ones arranged around broader themes, a change meant to encourage greater collaboration as competitors like Apple and Google outflank it in the mobile and Internet markets. Steven A. Ballmer, the longtime chief executive, will shuffle the responsibilities of nearly every senior member of his executive bench as a result.

You should read Wingfield’s article. This is a big change, positioning Microsoft to be a collaborative company internally, while projecting themselves as coordinated to us, consumers.