从中止期权计划看微软企业文化变迁
A Cultural Evolution at Microsoft
Microsoft Corp.'s plan to stop issuing stock options was a surprising shift to outsiders, but inside the company it's more of an official recognition of a cultural shift that had been well under way.
In short, Microsoft has become a mature company to many of its employees, who expect it to act like one. Even before the economic downturn throttled growth at the software colossus, Microsoft had begun to show signs of shedding its culture of pizza-fueled workaholics and morphing into a company of workers interested in stable jobs and significant others -- and enough time to spend with family and friends.
The tech slump and the drop in Microsoft's stock hurried that shift along, spelling the end of the company's famous work-hard-and-get-rich-quick culture, which has minted thousands of millionaires. One former Microsoft executive likes to call Microsoft "the new Boeing" -- a solid place to work in Seattle for a good salary.
So, few Microsoft employees were alarmed this week when Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said the 28-year-old company would drop stock options, long considered the best motivator of aggressive young technical talent, in favor of stock awards that provide workers with a more stable and predictable, though probably less valuable, reward.
"Even 2? years ago, there still kind of was that perception of the company that it's still growing, it's still young and it's still all these hard-core [software] developers driving around in Ferraris because of their stock options," says Arturo Robles, a 25-year-old engineer in the MSN group, who drives a $19,000 Mini Cooper. "But me personally, now I see that that's not the case any more. The company has been maturing for a while."
Certainly, Microsoft's dropping options may change how some employees view their jobs and plan their finances. In effect, the change gives workers less of a chance of reaping huge rewards if the stock rises, a point Mr. Ballmer concedes.
But the plan could make Microsoft employees more loyal by alleviating an immediate problem: Most of the options that Microsoft has granted during the past few years are worthless at the company's current share price.
"Most people were disgruntled about their options," says Fran?ois Ajenstat , a 26-year-old product manager in Microsoft's Office group, who says he hasn't decided whether to move his options to the stock-award program. Overall, the new plan is "a good thing," he says.
Headhunters and compensation consultants say Microsoft's move will prompt additional shifts throughout Silicon Valley. "Cash is king right now," says Valerie Frederickson, who runs a human-resources and career-management consulting firm in Menlo Park, Calif. "People who work for big companies aren't working for the fun of the options any more."
That has been the crux of the problem for Mr. Ballmer in recent years: Microsoft options haven't been much fun for any employee, particularly recent arrivals. "The Microsoft millionaires happened a long time ago," one Microsoft employee says.
Without the potential of becoming that rich, employees say they have become much keener on balancing work with life. For Microsoft's Mr. Ajenstat , the culture has been changing since he joined the company three years ago. The general attitude of his co-workers is "let's work smarter when we are in the office so we can spend more time with family at home," he says. That doesn't mean that people aren't working hard. There are still co-workers who "work crazy amounts" but "I don't think it's as brutal as it once was," he says.
In fact, tales of leaving work "early" for family events have become a symbol inside Microsoft of how the company has matured. Many employees point to the top. For most of his long career as Microsoft's No. 2, Mr. Ballmer embodied the hard-charging culture that drove employees to 80-hour weeks with little life outside the company.
As CEO, Mr. Ballmer is still a taskmaster, but employees say he has taken on a family-man role that has set a new tone. He coaches his son's basketball team, and he has been known to leave business meetings earlier to be with his kids on Halloween and at sporting events.
The question for Mr. Ballmer -- and for many employees -- has been how to mature gracefully while keeping the level of energy and aggressiveness needed to grow. The markets for the company's main money-makers -- the Windows operating system and the Office group of personal-computer applications -- are maturing along with the company and don't promise the growth they once had. While Microsoft is pushing into a host of new areas, including videogames and software for cellphones, it could be many years, if ever, before those businesses become profitable.
Such challenges are the reason why many choose to work at Microsoft, says Mr. Ballmer.
With the new system, employees have an additional incentive to stay, he maintains, adding: "Now we've got a compensation system in place that we think is going to let our employees thrive and do great work for the next 28 years."
Some Microsoft employees still want to hear more about the plan before they give unqualified approval. Gordon Bell, a senior researcher at a Microsoft research lab in San Francisco, says most employees are taking a wait-and-see attitude as they learn more details about how the plan will affect them financially. One key issue, he says, will be taxes; restricted stock grants, on which the new system is based, may be treated immediately as income, unlike options, which have no effect on income until they are exercised and can be handled in one-day transactions in which taxes are paid automatically.
"If you aren't prepared for that, its going to take a little bit more planning on the part of people," Mr. Bell says. "I'm going to be looking at that for my own situation."
Mr. Bell says the plan is designed to make employees long-term shareholders in the company, whereas options holders have a tendency to time sales with fluctuations in the stock price. "I'm anxious to see what the net result financially is going to be, but it's a good thing for high-tech overall," he says.
Mr. Ajenstat , the Office group product manager, says his live-in girlfriend, also a Microsoft employee, is telling him to sell his options under a plan Microsoft is setting up that would let employees get some profit from their "underwater" options. "She's been saying, 'Get the cash. At least it's a concrete thing that you have control over,' " he says.
One Microsoft software developer says most employees view the change as a kind of guaranteed bonus and essential as an incentive for recently hired employees, whose options currently have no value. This longtime employee admits, however, that the restricted stock is likely to be less lucrative than options might have been in the past. "It's hard to give up that dream," he says, "but that dream was gone anyway."
从中止期权计划看微软企业文化变迁
在外界看来，微软公司(Microsoft Corp.)中止股票期权的计划似乎是个令人惊讶的转变，但在微软内部，员工们已普遍意识到：公司文化正发生潜移默化的改变。
在许多员工眼里，这家28岁的软件巨头已成长为一个成熟的企业。同时，他们也希望微软在经营中表现出成熟企业的风范。实际上，在经济滑坡遏制微软的增长活力之前，该公司的企业文化已经开始从以办公室为家的工作狂模式逐渐向工作与生活并重的平衡模式进化。
科技行业的低迷态势和微软股价的大幅下跌进一步加快了这一进化步伐，曾造就一批百万富豪的"玩命工作、闪电致富"的微软文化时代也将就此终结。一名微软前管理人士喜欢把现在的微软比做"新波音"－－收入可观，工作无虞。
正由于这个原因，当微软首席执行长史蒂夫．巴尔默(Steve Ballmer)本周宣布将终止股票期权计划，代之以限制性股票时，没有多少微软员工感到非常意外。长期以来，股票期权以其巨大的潜在利润，一直被视为激励年轻技术人才的最佳手段。但在科技股泡沫破灭后，许多最近几年加入微软的员工所持期权的执行价格高于微软目前的股价，因此变得不值一文，变成所谓的"潜水"期权(underwater)。相比之下，限制性股票的潜在回报率可能不如期权诱人，但却更有保障。 微软MSN部门年仅25岁的工程师Arturo Robles说："两年半之前，人们对微软的普遍印象还是：它还在成长，还很年轻，它的软件开发精英个个开著法拉利，因为他们拥有股票期权。"Robles目前的"坐骑"是一辆1.9万美元的Mini Cooper。他说，"在我看来，现在可不一样了。微软早就成熟起来了。"
当然，微软中止股票期权计划，可能改变部分员工看待工作和规划财务的方式。事实上，巴尔默也承认，这一变化降低了员工在未来公司股价上涨时获得巨额回报的几率。
但该计划将有效缓和眼前更为迫切的"潜水"期权问题，从而提高员工对公司的忠诚度。微软希望通过将期权出售给金融机构，来帮助员工实现"潜水"期权的部分价值。根据该计划，员工按照自愿的原则出售期权获得现金，售价视期权的执行价格和当前股价而定。期权出售需得到美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)的批准。微软的限制性股票计划也不同寻常，大多数公司只将这类股票发放给管理层，而微软打算面向所有普通员工。所有微软员工将有资格获得限制性股票奖励，这些股票的所有权将在5年内逐步转移到微软员工手中。
微软Office部门26岁的产品经理Francois Ajenstat说，"大多数人都对失去价值的期权满腹牢骚。"他本人尚未决定是否将目前持有的期权纳入新的股票奖励计划，但他认为，总体而言，新计划是个"好东西"。
猎头人士和企业奖励谘询人士认为，微软此举将促使更多硅谷企业纷纷效仿。在加州门洛帕克经营一家人力资源和职业管理谘询公司的Valerie Frederickson说，"目前现金胜过一切。对大型企业的员工来说，工作的动力不再来自股票期权。"
这也是最近几年令巴尔默大伤脑筋的核心问题。微软的股票期权对员工－－尤其是新近加入公司的员工－－来说，不再具有吸引力。"微软创造百万富翁的奇迹已经成为历史。"一名微软员工如此形容。
既然一夜暴富已不可能，微软员工开始越来越重视在工作与生活之间寻找平衡点。上文提到的产品经理Ajenstat说，自从他3年前加入微软以来，公司的文化一直在悄然改变。他说，目前同事们普遍持有这样的工作观念：提高在办公室的工作效率，好有更多时间与家人共享天伦。这并不意味著大家不再努力工作了，他们仍然是严重超时工作的一族，但比起当年的工作狂则要好很多。
在公司内部，为了家庭聚会而"早退"的事迹也反映出微软日益成熟的现实。许多员工会以公司高层为例。多年来扮演微软二号人物的巴尔默一直身体力行，营造出超负荷工作的企业文化，员工每周工作时间长达80小时，几乎无暇享受生活。
成为首席执行长后，巴尔默仍然是个"工头"，但据微软员工称，他开始强调自己顾家的一面，并为公司文化奠定了新的基调。巴尔默在儿子的篮球队充当教练，而且经常为陪儿子共度万圣节或观看体育比赛，在商业会议中提前退场。
对巴尔默及许多微软员工来说，最大的问题是如何在企业心态逐渐成熟的同时，保持企业发展所必需的旺盛活力和进取精神。微软的两大"摇钱树"－－Windows操作系统和Office个人电脑应用软件－－也日臻完善，其未来的增长潜力将无法和当年相比。虽然微软积极涉足游戏机和手机软件等新的领域，但这些业务要实现盈利，可能还要等上很多年。 巴尔默说，正是这些挑战使许多人选择了微软。他认为，有了新的股票奖励计划，员工将更乐于留在微软。他说："现在我们有了一个有效的奖励机制，我们相信，它将使员工在未来28年内生活更富裕，工作更努力。"
一些员工仍然希望在同意该计划之前了解更多的细节。微软旧金山研究实验室的高级研究员Gordon Bell说，大多数员工在进一步了解该计划对其财务方面的影响后，都持观望态度。他说，一个关键的问题就是税收。与股票期权不同，限制性股票可能被视为收入，因此就会产生相应的税收。而股票期权在执行前不会对收入产生影响，而且可以在一天内完成并自动缴付税金。
Gordon Bell说，"如果你还没有准备好，就要多花些时间合理规划资金。我自己正打算这样做。"
Bell说，该计划会让员工成为公司的长期股东，而期权持有者则倾向于在股市波动时待价而沽。他说："我很希望搞清新的股票计划究竟能带来多大的净收益，但总的来说，它对高科技行业是件好事。"
Office部门产品经理Ajenstat的女友也是微软的员工，她极力劝说Ajenstat采纳微软针对"潜水"期权设计的方案，把手头的期权卖掉。Ajenstat说："她一直不停地在我耳边唠叨：赶快换成现金吧，至少那是你能控制的实实在在的东西。"
微软一名资格较老的软件开发人员说，大多数员工将公司新的股票计划视为有保障的红利，它对最近加入公司的员工也是必要的激励手段。但这名老员工也承认，同股票期权过去的高额利润相比，限制性股票未免相形见绌。"要放弃那个梦想很难，"他说，"但不管怎么说，它都一去不复返了。"
