Irrespective of whether you agree with Microsoft’s direction of late or not, the company’s CEO Steve Ballmer has certainly been the face, voice and boisterous personality most often associated with the Redmond company.

Thus, it comes as no small surprise that Ballmer’s announcement of his impending retirement from the company within the year has sent a few shock waves through the industry. The move also came as a bit of a surprise, given that it was not too long ago that Ballmer announced a sweeping change in the company’s structure to reflect what he called “One Microsoft.”

In a statement on Microsoft’s site, Ballmer explained that “while there is never a perfect time for this type of transition,” he believed that now was “the right time.”

“My original thoughts on timing would have had my retirement happen in the middle of our company’s transformation to a devices and services company. We need a CEO who will be here longer term for this new direction,” he elaborated.

Endings and beginnings

Following the announcement on Friday, two things happened. The first was that Microsoft’s shares surged, indicating a renewed sense of confidence in an impending change in leadership. This may not be too kind to Ballmer’s legacy, who has, in all fairness, steered the company through one of the worst global recessions to affect the US and companies in general in recent years.

He took the helm from Bill Gates back in 2000, and can at least count a few notches of success on his belt. These include the likes of Windows XP, and the Xbox 360, and Xbox Live, which has grown to be a force to be reckoned with.

However, Ballmer has also been routinely criticised for his missteps with regards to mobile adoption, and for allowing the likes of Google and Apple to capitalise on general users’ shift away from PC towards smartphones and tablets. Indeed, Apple’s introduction of the iPad effectively blindsided the company, and was made worse by the rumoured development of a proposed tablet-like device named Courier shortly before the iPad was unveiled. Alas, Courier never saw the light of day, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, and the rest, as they say, is history.

‘Captain, my captain’

Secondly, Balmer’s departure also begged the question as to who will step up to fill the void and, more importantly, in which direction Microsoft will be steered in the years ahead. While no firm names have yet been tossed into the ring by the company, Microsoft is apparently on the hunt both internally and externally.

To this end, the company confirmed that a special committee, led by John Thompson, the board’s lead independent director, has been appointed to find a new CEO, in conjunction with Bill Gates.

“The board is committed to the effective transformation of Microsoft to a successful devices and services company,” commented Thompson. “As this work continues, we are focused on selecting a new CEO to work with the company’s senior leadership team to chart the company’s course and execute on it in a highly competitive industry,” he added.

This task may have been made a bit more difficult, considering the fact that that under Ballmer, there were a number of notable leadership departures already who, had they stayed, may have been pipped for the post. These include Steven Sinofsky, who headed up Windows 8, and prior to that Stephen Elop who took up CEO stewardship at Nokia.

According to Forbes, there are a few other names that Microsoft could, or perhaps should, be looking at. These include Julie-Larson Green, who recently assumed stewardship of the Xbox and Surface divisions, Qu Li, Microsoft’s executive vice president of the Applications and Services group, and Vic Gundotra, a former Microsoft veteran who took a position with Google.

To the point

Clearly though, the PC market in particular  is finding itself in choppy waters of late. A new captain who can spy out new horizons of opportunity may just be what Microsoft needs to chart a successful course through the years ahead.