The Nokia fiasco is a big blot on Ballmer's record. For a good reason: It shows the consequences of great arrogance. Nokia's marching orders were to make Windows Phone a success, and not to dilute that mission with a drop of alternative products. Just because he could, he took one of the finest companies on the planet and trashed it with a doomed strategy, at a cost of tens of billions in foregone value to his own shareholders and Nokia's employees. He took that much money, put it in a pile, lit it on fire and blocked the fire brigades, whether for vanity or for a weakly articulated strategy.