When John Thompson resigned as Symantec's chief executive in 2009, he figured he'd do like many other retired Silicon Valley leaders: Invest in start-ups and sit on a few corporate boards. In short, he wanted a bit of tranquility after years of hard work.

    Retirement has been anything but tranquil for Thompson, however. Just a year after resigning from Symantec (SYMC), he returned to the grind by becoming chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a business technology start-up. Then earlier this week, he took on a huge new responsibility. Thompson agreed to become Microsoft's chairman, a role that comes with countless challenges as the company tries to reinvigorate its business under new chief executive, Satya Nadella.

    Thompson, with Nadella in the lead, must move quickly and make some inevitably painful decisions. Investors are restive after years of stumbles including the company's failure early on to recognize the importance of smartphones – a market now dominated by Apple, among others – and the financial rewards of search, which Google rules.

    "John has a tremendous level of strategic insight," said James Socas, a former head of corporate development at Symantec under Thompson and, before that, the company's investment banker. "He's also one of the best communicators that I've worked with for his ability to take complicated messages about technology and make them understandable."

    Thompson, 64, can call on decades of executive experience. He served for 10 years as chief executive of Symantec, the computer security company. Prior to that, he spent 28 years at IBM -- in sales, marketing and software development -- before finally serving as general manager of the Americas business unit.

    During his tenure at Symantec, Thompson had to tackle a number of issues that parallel Microsoft's predicament. Both company's roots are in consumer and business software, after all. Both also saw their early success erode when their markets started to change. Thompson will be able to draw on those lessons -- the successes and the failures -- when advising Nadella, a first-time chief executive who previously held top positions in Microsoft's online, business and cloud divisions.

    Shortly after joining Symantec, Thompson started a major overhaul to narrow the company's focus. Today, Symantec is known for computer security. But at the time, it had a sprawling business that included software development tools and databases for keeping customer contact information. He sold off or shut down some of the ancillary products while bulking up the company's security business through a series of acquisitions and by building a huge sales team.

    "He made some tough decisions," said Socas, who is now a venture capitalist with Updata Partners. "It seems obvious now, but at the time, the forecasts for desktop security weren't as good as they turned out to be."

    During Thompson's tenure, Symantec's business ballooned. Annual revenue increased from $600 million when he started to $6 billion when he resigned. But Thompson's reign was hardly trouble free. In fact, by most accounts, some of the difficulties hastened his exit.

    2009年，约翰•汤普森从赛门铁克公司（Symantec）首席执行官一职上退下来之后，他以为自己会像多数硅谷领军人物一样，投资创业公司并在几家公司的董事会任职。简言之，他希望在辛苦工作多年后能平静度日。

    然而对汤普森来说，退休后的日子丝毫不清闲。刚刚从赛门铁克退下来一年，他就重返江湖，出任商业技术创业公司Virtual Instruments的首席执行官。上周初他又担当了一个全新的重任，同意出任微软公司（Microsoft）的董事长。这将是一个面临无数挑战的职位，因为这家公司正努力在新任首席执行官萨提亚•纳德拉的率领下重振各项业务。

    在纳德拉的领导下，汤普森必须快速行动，作出一些必然令人痛苦的决策。由于微软多年来不断犯错，投资者们已变得非常不满。这些错误包括早期没有认识到智能手机的重要性——以至于这个市场现在已经被苹果公司（Apple）和其他公司统治——以及搜索所蕴藏的巨大金矿，现在这个市场也早由谷歌公司（Google）独领风骚。

    詹姆斯•索卡斯曾经是赛门铁克的投资银行家，后来成了汤普森领导下的企业发展部的主管。他说：“约翰拥有极高的战略洞察力。他也是我曾共事过的同事中最具沟通能力的人之一，因为他很善于领会复杂的技术信息，把它们变得通俗易懂。”

    现年64岁的汤普森拥有十分丰富的高层管理经验。他在赛门铁克这家电脑安全公司整整担任了10年的首席执行官。此前他在IBM公司（IBM）效力了28年——先后任职销售、营销和软件开发部门——最后成为北美业务部的总经理。

    任职赛门铁克期间，汤普森必须处理大量和微软所面临的困境类似的难题。毕竟这两家公司的基业都是消费者和企业软件。当它们的市场开始发生变化时，这两家公司也都发现自己早期的成功开始受到侵蚀。在为纳德拉出谋划策时，汤普森将能充分吸取这些成败的教训。而纳德拉是首位此前曾在微软的在线、企业和云业务部门都担任过高管的首席执行官。

    当年在加盟赛门铁克不久后，汤普森就开始大刀阔斧地着手改革，推动公司的业务实现聚焦。到如今，赛门铁克业已成为电脑安全领域响当当的品牌。但它有一段时间业务也曾庞杂多样，既做软件开发工具，又做存储客户联系信息的数据库。他一边卖掉、关停了一些配套产品，一边通过一系列收购及建立一支庞大的销售团队来做大公司的安全业务。

    现在已是投资公司Updata Partners投资人的索卡斯回忆道：“当时他做了不少艰难的决策。现在看来这些决策显然是正确的，但在当时看来，桌面安全前景远不像现在所表现出来的情况那么好。”

    汤普森任职期间，赛门铁克的业务蒸蒸日上，年收入从他上任时的6亿美元一路增长到他卸任时的60亿美元。不过汤普森管理这家公司的过程也绝非一帆风顺。实际上，正是一些困难在很大程度上加速了他的离职。

    Thompson's $10 billion acquisition of Veritas Software, a data storage firm, in 2005 turned out to be dud, for example. Meanwhile, in the years before resigning, he struggled with slowing growth caused by the economic downturn and intense competition.

    Like Symantec, when Thompson started, Microsoft (MSFT) is now in need of focus. Windows software, Xbox video game consoles, Surface tablets, cloud computing and the Bing search engine all compete for attention and resources. Some units may be shut down, spun out into separate companies or sold off. Deciding which ones to nurture and which to unload requires diplomacy and a knack for predicting the future.

    "Microsoft had a very scattered approach of trying to be everything to everybody -- but nothing great," said Venky Ganesan, a venture capitalist with Menlo Ventures. "They need to come out and try to be great."

    Thompson, one of the few African-Americans executives in the technology industry, grew up in South Florida as the son of a teacher and postal worker. He received a scholarship to play clarinet in a college band in Missouri before he transferred to Florida A&M to study business. He's known as unflappable and a skilled salesman. In his private life, he's an avid hunter and wine aficionado.

    In 2012, Microsoft appointed Thompson to its board just at the time the pressure for an executive shakeup started rising. He led the search to replace Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's longtime leader who was eased out following years of stagnant stock performance. Analysts generally praised the choice of Nadella. But many criticized Thompson for dragging out the process for nearly six months, a period marked by repeated leaks and several candidates publically withdrawing their names from consideration.

    "Perhaps that's natural for any high-profile search as this, but I wouldn't say it was a majestic effort," said Colin Gillis, an analyst for BGC Partners.

    Thompson has been largely quiet about what exactly he'll do as chairman. In a brief video clip released on Tuesday to mark his appointment, he made a vague promise to "engage with shareholders and keep focused on how together we can bring great innovation to the market and drive strong long-term shareholder value."

    In video interview last year, Thompson described the board's role as not so much setting the company's strategy, but rather monitoring it. "Is the strategy right, and more importantly, is the team executing well against that strategy?" Thompson said.

    At Microsoft, part of that strategy is to continue with a corporate reorganization that the board approved last year. It also involves integrating the $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia, the Swedish phone maker, once that deal is finalized.

    Ganesen, the venture capitalist, said that wisest thing for Thompson would be to give Nadella freedom from interference by the board. "He needs to make sure Satya isn't a prisoner of the past but rather a seer of the future," Ganesen said. "He should tell him, 'Look, you have the space and time now to think about the problems and make the hard decisions.'"

    比如2005年，汤普森斥资100亿美元收购数据存储企业维尔软件公司（Veritas Software）后来就证明是一大败笔。与此同时，在卸任前的那几年间，他还得不断与由于经济不景气和竞争加剧造成的增长放缓作斗争。

    微软和赛门铁克由汤普森着手再造时的情况类似，现在也很需要进行业务聚焦。Windows软件、Xbox游戏机、Surface平板、云计算以及必应（Bing）搜索引擎全都在争抢关注度和资源。一些业务部门可能需要关停，剥离到独立公司，甚至干脆卖掉。要做出决定，重点发展哪些业务，剥离哪些业务，既需要老到的策略，也需要预判未来的本事。

    投资公司Menlo Ventures的投资人文奇•加纳森说：“微软的策略十分分散，它想努力涉足所有业务领域——但却没有哪方面出类拔萃。他们需要脱颖而出，力争卓越。”

    汤普森是科技行业少有的几位非裔美国人之一，他在南佛罗里达长大，父母是教师和邮政员工。当年他曾获得奖学金进入密苏里州的一个大学乐队吹奏黑管，之后转到佛罗里达农工大学（Florida A&M）学商科。在业内，他是一位沉着镇定、技巧娴熟的知名销售。而在工作之外，他是一位劲头十足的猎手，还对美酒情有独钟。

    2012年，就在微软开始面临重组高管层的压力之际，它将汤普森任命为董事。之后他就开始担纲一项使命——寻找史蒂夫•鲍尔默的接班人。鲍尔默是长期领导微软的统帅，但多年来始终没能让微软的股价摆脱低迷，因此难免被客气地请下台去。分析师们普遍对微软最终选择了纳德拉表示赞赏。不过很多人也对汤普森将这个选帅进程拖了近六个月之久颇有微词。这段时间不断走漏出各种小道消息，同时有好几位候选人公开表示不会参与角逐。

    经纪公司BGC Partners的分析师科林•吉利斯说：“可能对这么高规格的猎头行动来说，这也很自然，但我不认为这是一种很上档次的做法。”

    而汤普森本人一直对自己作为董事长将如何作为没怎么表过态。在上周二发布的关于这个职务任命的简短视频中，他做了一个含糊的承诺，表示要“与股东同心协力，继续致力于通过共同努力，为市场带来伟大的创新，同时推动股东利益实现长期强劲增值。”

    去年在接受电视采访时，汤普森曾表示董事会的职责更多地不是制定公司战略，而是对它进行监督。汤普森说：“战略是否正确，更重要的是，团队是否很好地执行了这一战略？”在微软，这一战略的一部分就是要继续开展公司重组，这是董事会去年就已经批准的。它还包括一旦对芬兰手机厂商诺基亚（Nokia）斥资72亿美元的收购交易完成后，如何对它与微软进行整合。

    投资人甘尼森表示，对汤普森来说，最明智的做法就是让纳德拉不要受到董事会的干扰。他说：“他需要确保萨提亚不被过去所束缚，而是能放眼未来。他应该对他说，‘看，你现在有充分的空间和时间来思考各种问题，做出那些艰难的决策了’。”（财富中文网）

    译者：清远