????2009年，約翰?湯普森從賽門鐵克公司（Symantec）首席執行官一職上退下來之后，他以為自己會像多數硅谷領軍人物一樣，投資創業公司并在幾家公司的董事會任職。簡言之，他希望在辛苦工作多年后能平靜度日。

????然而對湯普森來說，退休后的日子絲毫不清閑。剛剛從賽門鐵克退下來一年，他就重返江湖，出任商業技術創業公司Virtual Instruments的首席執行官。上周初他又擔當了一個全新的重任，同意出任微軟公司（Microsoft）的董事長。這將是一個面臨無數挑戰的職位，因為這家公司正努力在新任首席執行官薩提亞?納德拉的率領下重振各項業務。

????在納德拉的領導下，湯普森必須快速行動，作出一些必然令人痛苦的決策。由于微軟多年來不斷犯錯，投資者們已變得非常不滿。這些錯誤包括早期沒有認識到智能手機的重要性——以至于這個市場現在已經被蘋果公司（Apple）和其他公司統治——以及搜索所蘊藏的巨大金礦，現在這個市場也早由谷歌公司（Google）獨領風騷。

????詹姆斯?索卡斯曾經是賽門鐵克的投資銀行家，后來成了湯普森領導下的企業發展部的主管。他說：“約翰擁有極高的戰略洞察力。他也是我曾共事過的同事中最具溝通能力的人之一，因為他很善于領會復雜的技術信息，把它們變得通俗易懂。”

????現年64歲的湯普森擁有十分豐富的高層管理經驗。他在賽門鐵克這家電腦安全公司整整擔任了10年的首席執行官。此前他在IBM公司（IBM）效力了28年——先后任職銷售、營銷和軟件開發部門——最后成為北美業務部的總經理。

????任職賽門鐵克期間，湯普森必須處理大量和微軟所面臨的困境類似的難題。畢竟這兩家公司的基業都是消費者和企業軟件。當它們的市場開始發生變化時，這兩家公司也都發現自己早期的成功開始受到侵蝕。在為納德拉出謀劃策時，湯普森將能充分吸取這些成敗的教訓。而納德拉是首位此前曾在微軟的在線、企業和云業務部門都擔任過高管的首席執行官。

????當年在加盟賽門鐵克不久后，湯普森就開始大刀闊斧地著手改革，推動公司的業務實現聚焦。到如今，賽門鐵克業已成為電腦安全領域響當當的品牌。但它有一段時間業務也曾龐雜多樣，既做軟件開發工具，又做存儲客戶聯系信息的數據庫。他一邊賣掉、關停了一些配套產品，一邊通過一系列收購及建立一支龐大的銷售團隊來做大公司的安全業務。

????現在已是投資公司Updata Partners投資人的索卡斯回憶道：“當時他做了不少艱難的決策。現在看來這些決策顯然是正確的，但在當時看來，桌面安全前景遠不像現在所表現出來的情況那么好。”

????湯普森任職期間，賽門鐵克的業務蒸蒸日上，年收入從他上任時的6億美元一路增長到他卸任時的60億美元。不過湯普森管理這家公司的過程也絕非一帆風順。實際上，正是一些困難在很大程度上加速了他的離職。

????When John Thompson resigned as Symantec's chief executive in 2009, he figured he'd do like many other retired Silicon Valley leaders: Invest in start-ups and sit on a few corporate boards. In short, he wanted a bit of tranquility after years of hard work.

????Retirement has been anything but tranquil for Thompson, however. Just a year after resigning from Symantec (SYMC), he returned to the grind by becoming chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a business technology start-up. Then earlier this week, he took on a huge new responsibility. Thompson agreed to become Microsoft's chairman, a role that comes with countless challenges as the company tries to reinvigorate its business under new chief executive, Satya Nadella.

????Thompson, with Nadella in the lead, must move quickly and make some inevitably painful decisions. Investors are restive after years of stumbles including the company's failure early on to recognize the importance of smartphones – a market now dominated by Apple, among others – and the financial rewards of search, which Google rules.

????"John has a tremendous level of strategic insight," said James Socas, a former head of corporate development at Symantec under Thompson and, before that, the company's investment banker. "He's also one of the best communicators that I've worked with for his ability to take complicated messages about technology and make them understandable."

????Thompson, 64, can call on decades of executive experience. He served for 10 years as chief executive of Symantec, the computer security company. Prior to that, he spent 28 years at IBM -- in sales, marketing and software development -- before finally serving as general manager of the Americas business unit.

????During his tenure at Symantec, Thompson had to tackle a number of issues that parallel Microsoft's predicament. Both company's roots are in consumer and business software, after all. Both also saw their early success erode when their markets started to change. Thompson will be able to draw on those lessons -- the successes and the failures -- when advising Nadella, a first-time chief executive who previously held top positions in Microsoft's online, business and cloud divisions.

????Shortly after joining Symantec, Thompson started a major overhaul to narrow the company's focus. Today, Symantec is known for computer security. But at the time, it had a sprawling business that included software development tools and databases for keeping customer contact information. He sold off or shut down some of the ancillary products while bulking up the company's security business through a series of acquisitions and by building a huge sales team.

????"He made some tough decisions," said Socas, who is now a venture capitalist with Updata Partners. "It seems obvious now, but at the time, the forecasts for desktop security weren't as good as they turned out to be."

????During Thompson's tenure, Symantec's business ballooned. Annual revenue increased from $600 million when he started to $6 billion when he resigned. But Thompson's reign was hardly trouble free. In fact, by most accounts, some of the difficulties hastened his exit.