Cracked.com has a really funny Photoshop contest about a world where everything is made by Microsoft. Some of the submission are absolutely hilarious; see for yourself. The only problem is that its premise is flawed: Microsoft would probably miss some of the coolest new trends.

Microsoft veterans bemoan how the company now has a permanent class of middle managers. Redmond was once a vibrant place where the best and brightest would join the company, get rich and cash out.

That startup mentality allowed Microsoft to seize opportunities, and there were always new faces and fresh ideas. Bill Gates used to personally engage product managers in hyperproductive meetings (that he is notorious for) where every facet of an idea would be examined.

Microsoft made fun of IBM and how many seemingly superfluous layers of managers that it had. Ironically, its management structure has come to resemble a blue chip company. Middle management feeds itself.

That is by no means an absolute indictment of Microsoft: There are many great people working there, and the quality of its software is improving. There is also no denying that Microsoft has many great products such as its development tools, SQL Server and the .NET Framework.

However, the lead boots of bureaucracy have cost it major opportunities, including the leadership position in the search market. In development, it is playing catch-up to Ruby in MVC programming. Its ASP.NET MVC framework is well-received, but it is following instead of leading the industry. Those examples are symptomatic of executive bloat.

How can Microsoft become more like a startup again? I'm not sure that it can, but it is trying. That's a question that will have to be solved by its next generation of executives.