In what is likely his final press interview as Microsoft CEO (part of which you can read, here, on this very website), Steve Ballmer was reflective. Sure, the company tripled revenues and doubled profits since he took the reins in 2000 -- but it also made mistakes, he acknowledged.

    "I pride myself on the fact that we do make a lot of money," Ballmer said. "And do we waste it every now and then? Sure, of course, we waste it or we take a false step. But what you're trying to do is make money for the long run, not the short run."

    When I sat down with Ballmer in his office -- the same one that his predecessor Bill Gates previously occupied in Building 34 on the company's Redmond campus -- he was relaxed. He wore his trademark blue button-down dress shirt, khaki pants, and loosely tied brown shoes, which he slipped on and off repeatedly as we talked.

    In conversation, there were no rousing renditions of "I love this company," as Ballmer has so willingly indulged in at Microsoft (MSFT) conferences over the years. There were no moments where he was near tears. He was thoughtful in answering my questions, slouching in an arm chair and draining an extra-large iced tea from Starbucks as we talked.

    I asked Ballmer what management lessons he learned during his 13 years atop the company -- a question many may find ironic, given his turbulent tenure. (The company's stock price has hovered between $25 and $30 per share for much of the last decade, with only a single split along the way.) Here's what he said.

    1. See the big picture.

    "If the CEO doesn't see the playing field, nobody else can," Ballmer said. "The team may need to see it too, but the CEO really needs to be able to see the entire competitive space."

    That's because the playing field is always changing. "Ten years from now, will devices look the same as they look today or quite different? And will they be funded primarily by gross margin on the device or will it all be just ads and commerce from guys like Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN)?" he asked. "The truth is, whoever sits in the CEO seat needs to have enough perspective to have an intelligent opinion."

    Which is required for making important decisions. "You'd better see enough of the landscape to say, 'We're going to take this, and we're going to make money, and we're going to have great innovation for that,' " he said.

    这次采访或许是史蒂夫•鲍尔默以微软（Microsoft）CEO身份接受的最后一次媒体采访（部分采访内容可在本网站阅读）。在这次采访中，他更多的是在反思。他2000年接管这家公司以来，它的收入增加了两倍半，利润也翻了一番，但他同时也承认公司在此期间犯过一些错误。

    鲍尔默说：“我们赚了很多钱，这一点让我非常自豪。但我们是否也曾不时地浪费了我们的钱？当然。我们有过浪费，或者说有过失策的时候。但我们努力在做的是着眼长远利益，而不是赚快钱。”

    鲍尔默的办公室在微软雷德蒙德总部的34号楼，这里也曾是他的前任比尔•盖茨的办公室。我与他面对面坐在他的办公室里，他非常放松。他穿着标志性的蓝色纽扣领衬衫，下身穿一条卡其裤，脚上蹬一双棕色鞋子，松散地系着鞋带。我们交谈的时候，他的脚不时地从鞋子里滑进滑出。

    尽管多年以来，鲍尔默一直热衷于在微软的大会上灌输热爱公司这样的思想，但这次谈话的过程中，并没有出现“我爱这家公司”这样热烈的表达。谈话期间也没有出现热泪盈眶的情形。他只是非常认真地回答者我的问题。交流过程中，他一直慵懒地坐在扶手椅上，喝着星巴克（Starbucks）的超大号杯冰茶。

    我问他在管理微软的13年里，学到了哪些管理经验——鉴于鲍尔默动荡的任期，许多人或许认为这个问题很有讽刺意味。（过去十年，微软公司的股价一直在25美元至30美元之间徘徊，期间仅出现过一次例外。）对于这个问题，他给出了下面的答案。

    1. 大局观

    鲍尔默说：“如果连公司CEO都不能看清全局，那么其他人肯定也看不清。或许管理团队也需要有大局观，但公司CEO必须能够看清整个竞争环境。”

    因为竞争环境始终在不断变化。他问道：“十年以后的设备是否会像今天的设备一样，还是会完全不同？我们的收入来源主要是设备的毛利润，还是全靠谷歌（Google）和亚马逊（Amazon）等公司的广告和商务收入？事实是，不论谁坐上CEO的位子，都必须有足够广阔的视角，才能有高明的见解。”

    而这是做出重要决定的必要条件。他说：“必须对全局有足够的了解，才有资格说：‘我们要做这个，我们要赚钱，我们要进行伟大的创新。’”

    2. Talent is only one part of success.

    A chief executive needs to recruit and hire the best people to surround him; that is without doubt. But that alone isn't enough, Ballmer cautioned.

    "It's not like you want to say, Hey, look, I've hired three of the best people, and I'm just going to leave them completely alone, and then great things are going to happen," Ballmer said. "You have to mesh them with other people. You've got to mesh them with yourself."

    Under Ballmer, Microsoft made some very big bets on a few high-profile individuals, among them Steven Sinofksy, the head of Windows; J Allard, the Chief Technology Officer in Xbox; and Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect. All are no longer with the company. When I asked Ballmer if he was thinking of anyone in particular, he declined to name names.

    "People selection is key, moving people on is key, and not viewing people as individuals, sort of artisans to be left alone, in any job, in any one of the jobs," Ballmer said. It is a myth that a company is built on the backs of a few superstars who "go and get the tablets from the mount and bring them back." In an industry that operates at scale, that's just not the way things really work.

    "We tried it," Ballmer said. "We tried it with me and Bill for a while. We're better when we have very talented people who we also stitch together."

    3. Reevaluate, reevaluate, reevaluate.

    "There was a day when people said all the money is in software; get out of hardware. Well, the two most profitable companies this year in our business will be hardware companies," Ballmer said, referring rivals to Apple (AAPL) and Samsung. "Then somebody will say, Oh, it's all about advertising."

    "Some guys really do make good advertising money, but some businesses are poorly funded," he added, taking a dig at rival Google (GOOG).

    His point? There is no single business model that's perfect for every company or every era.

    There is more flexibility in the technology industry around developing, funding, and marketing models than there may be in the automotive or pharmaceutical industries, Ballmer said. Still, CEOs in all areas need to remain vigilant and rigorous when it comes to evaluating and adjusting their models.

    4. Bet for the short and long terms.

    Every company has a long cycle and a short cycle, Ballmer said. "Getting the big things right that make all the money, that's long cycle," he said. But "really executing in a way that allows you to do it, that's short cycle."

    Some products have short cycle rhythms; others have long cycle rhythms. Speed isn't everything, Ballmer said. Instead, a chief executive's focus needs to be on "determining correct cadence of strategy, correct cadence of engineering, and correct cadence of execution."

    This was no more evident than around Microsoft's "Longhorn" debacle, which would arrive to market as the ill-fated Windows Vista operating system. Ballmer conceded that the company set too ambitious a plan, took too long to correct its strategy and delivery plans, and waited too long before reassigning its "A" team on other projects and products.

    5. Know your limits.

    "I obviously understand the business stuff better than the technology stuff," Ballmer concluded. But "I've grown, and when you grow, you say, 'Wow, I didn't know what I didn't know.'"

    2. 人才只是成功的一部分因素。

    一位首席执行官需要招聘最优秀的人才，围绕自己组建一支团队，这一点毋庸置疑。但鲍尔默警告，仅有人才还不够。

    他说：“不能说，你看，我聘请了三位最优秀的人才。我要放手让他们大干一场，这样必能成就一番伟业。必须让他们与其他人融洽相处。而CEO自己也要与他们进行磨合。”

    鲍尔默任职期间，微软在多位知名度颇高的人才身上投下重注，其中包括Windows部门负责人史蒂文•辛诺夫斯基；Xbox首席技术官J•阿拉德；首席软件架构师雷•奥兹。如今他们都离开了微软。我问鲍尔默他是否会特别想到某个人，他没有回答。

    鲍尔默说：“人才选择是关键，人才的提拔也是关键。不论人才在哪个岗位工作，不要把他们看作是一个个体，看成是可以独自一人工作的工匠。”处在微软这样一家公司，很容易让人产生虚构的错觉——微软靠的就是几位超级巨星，凭借少数几个人的努力来为公司排忧解难。在一个规模化经营的行业，这并不是有效的经营方式。

    鲍尔默说：“我们尝试过。我和比尔尝试过一段时间。我们发现，如果我们拥有天才的员工，而且我们也能够与他们很好地衔接配合，我们的表现就会更出色。”

    3. 再评估，再评估，再评估

    “以前，人们说软件将是最赚钱的行业；放弃硬件吧。结果今年最有利可图的两家公司都是硬件公司，”鲍尔默说，眼下之意暗指微软的两个竞争对手，也就是苹果（Apple）与三星（Samsung）。“后来又有人说，哦，原来还是广告最重要。”

    “有些人确实从广告业务获得了丰厚收入，但有些公司在这方面却差强人意，” 他补充说，同时还不忘讽刺一下竞争对手谷歌（Google）。

    他到底想说什么？从来没有某一种商业模式能够完美地适合一切公司、一切时代。

    鲍尔默说，相比汽车或医药行业，科技行业的开发、融资与营销模式更加灵活。不论哪个领域的CEO，在对公司的模式进行评估和调整时，都应该保持警惕和严谨。

    4. 短期长期两手抓

    鲍尔默表示，每一家公司都有长短两个周期。他说：“长周期是要把能赚钱的大事做好。”而“短周期是要以真正有效的方式去执行。”

    有些产品有短周期节奏；而其他产品则可能有长周期节奏。鲍尔默认为，速度并不是一切。相反，一位首席执行官的关注点应该是“决定策略、工程和执行的正确节奏。”

    这方面，微软的“Longhorn”项目灾难无疑是最好的佐证。“Longhorn”最终变成了饱受诟病的Windows Vista操作系统。鲍尔默承认，公司当时制定的计划太过激进，花了太长时间才来纠正策略和交付计划，而且等了太长时间才将微软的精英团队解放出来，重新参与其他项目和产品。

    5. 了解自己的不足

    鲍尔默总结道：“很明显，我对商业方面的理解要远远多于技术方面。但我也在不断成长，而一个人在成长的过程中会说：‘哇，原来我有这么多不懂的东西。’”（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓