I wouldn't call their mobile OS a failure. We now see the Windows mobile platform was pretty far ahead of both Apple and Android at the time. The one thing that sunk it was the app store and Google refusing to allow its products to be used on Microsoft's platform.
It's interesting the article completely leaves out how Microsoft abandoning stack ranking when Satya was brought on as the new CEO. Ballmer continued to defend it even after he left the company. I think getting rid of this had a huge impact on the "growth mindset" that allowed them to get out from under a lot of the underperforming products and teams within the company. Instead of competing with each other, they were all on the same team now, trying to collectively push the company in a better direction.
It's interesting the article completely leaves out how Microsoft abandoning stack ranking when Satya was brought on as the new CEO. Ballmer continued to defend it even after he left the company. I think getting rid of this had a huge impact on the "growth mindset" that allowed them to get out from under a lot of the underperforming products and teams within the company. Instead of competing with each other, they were all on the same team now, trying to collectively push the company in a better direction.