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Wasn't stack ranking in use during Gates's tenure as well?

I know Gates was/is in favour of stack ranking, but I don't think it was in use during his term as CEO.

Ultimately the answer doesn't matter to me. The company has always been a bully, both in the marketplace and internally towards their staff. No one wants to see a bully succeed.

Edit: Wikipedia says "Since the 2000s, Microsoft used a stack ranking similar to the vitality curve." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitality_curve#Criticisms_of_ra...) Ballmer became CEO of Microsoft January 2000.

Root against Microsoft all you want - I just think that stack ranking is too convenient a scapegoat. Valve and Google stack rank, too, but that doesn't mean they're not great companies. Also, Wikipedia's not necessarily an infallible source; see [1] for evidence that stack ranking dates back to '96 or so (at the latest).

[1] http://www.alexstjohn.com/WP/2013/08/30/microsoft-review-tim...

You may be right. As I said at the top it was just my humble opinion. I still stand by the statement that execution is vastly more important than ideas.

Besides, I gave up rooting against Microsoft years ago. I just don't care about any of their products anymore.

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