Microsoft Executive Departures

The Wall Street Journal reported today that “Christopher Payne, who most recently served as vice president of Microsoft’s Windows Live Search group(formerly MSN), is leaving the software company, according to people familiar with the situation.

It then goes on to say, “A person familiar with the situation says that Mr. Payne is leaving to start his own company, to be based in Seattle. A spokesman for Microsoft wouldn’t comment. Mr. Payne’s departure comes amid a broader set of changes wrought by Microsoft Senior Vice President Steve Berkowitz, who was hired last year from search engine Ask.com to head Microsoft’s online group. On Monday Mr. Berkowitz named three new marketing managers to the online group, including one who will oversee search marketing.”

The article also states that Vice President of AdCenter, Blake Irving will retire this Summer.

Current analysis: There is evidence in my recent queries that live.com is becoming equal to Google in terms of search result quality. It is my belief that is where the problem resides. They need to be better, different and/or provide unique value by a wide margin to get people to switch.  This didn’t happen yet because to date they have hired people from Google and elsewhere to rebuild the same wheel in much the same way. To me, the proper next step is to hire a larger number of people with strong competencies from other businesses that have created world class user experiences in different disciplines to curiously question conventional search industry thought processes to create innovation. To mature fully, successful search companies need to build strong cultures that reward and encourage the hiring of fresh voices with passion to build a product that is differentiated and then be able to communicate that value proposition clearly that resonates with both B2C and B2B audiences.