A major change took place at Microsoft, Tuesday, as Bill Gates has stepped down to make way for John Thompson as chairman of the software giant. Gates may take up a new active role at the company.
Gates took a less active role at Microsoft a full eight years after Steve Ballmer succeeded him as CEO. He took this free time to focus on philanthropies and charities along with being the chairman for the company, which does not require him to report in on a regular basis.
However, this may change as the Wall Street Journal reports that future CEO, Satya Nadella noted that he required a bigger role for Gates at the company, saying it's "what I need to be successful." Whether Gates views this as a good idea or not is not certain, since Gates have consistently stated that he would never return to Microsoft full-time.
Bloomberg is reporting that Gates may look into taking a role that is more on the lines of product development rather than administration. However, it is not clear what products Gates would put his efforts in developing.
A new role could mean Bill Gates would work at least one day per week at Microsoft, the rest he will use to focus on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"Bill's product reviews were legendary, and Microsoft's products would benefit from his input," said Todd Warren, a 22-year Microsoft executive who left in 2009. "My concern would be that the tech landscape has shifted away from the PC in recent years."
It would be interesting to see what Gates will bring to the company since he gave up active role at the company 6 years ago.
By taking into consideration what Gates and his foundation are involved in, we believe his work at Microsoft won't be to develop traditional consumer technology products. We envision Gates looking to develop products that can improve human life and health. Furthermore, Gates might even choose to work on something similar to Google X, where Microsoft can develop the next best thing in future technologies.