The Soul Of A New Microsoft

 BusinessWeek cover story on J Allard, Zune, and other Microsoft dynamics.

No one leader will replace William H. Gates III, the iconic software geek who came to define an era and plans to leave the company in June, 2008. But a cadre of execs is positioned to step up. Steven Sinofsky, the longtime head of the Office unit and onetime Gates technical assistant, has been put in charge of speeding up the Windows product cycle. Ray Ozzie, a relative Microsoft newbie and computing industry icon, is working to Web-ify many of Microsoft's products.
The soul of the new Microsoft, though--its Geek 2.0--may just be Allard, the vice-president for design and development at its Entertainment & Devices unit. Allard looks and acts nothing like the prototypical Microsofty.

Source: The Soul Of A New Microsoft