Belief in Microsoft’s success

By Tracy Frank tfrank@forumcomm.com
Business - 08/01/2008What was once a grassy field where Microsoft Fargo employees picnicked and played football is now filled with construction crews and the promise of a strong future. Stephen Elop, one of Microsoft’s top-five leaders, visited the campus for the first time Wednesday and Thursday. He pointed to the 185,000-square-foot expansion project, to be completed next summer, as an example of Microsoft Fargo’s value to the company.

“This is an area of significantinvestment because of the success that’s already taken place here and our belief in our ability to recruit to this location,” Elop said. Elop joined Microsoft in January as president of the Microsoft Business Division. He is taking over for Jeff Raikes, who becomes chief executive officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Sept. 2. Elop’s path to Microsoft took a few unexpected turns, including a stint in the chicken industry, but he said his journey led him to a position where he can make a difference in people’s lives.

He started as a management consultant doing coding in the late 1980s and has since worked in leadership positions for Lotus, Boston Market, Macromedia, Adobe and most recently as Juniper Networks’ chief operating officer.

Q: Have you ever been to Fargo before?
A: I have never been to Fargo. I grew up in Canada, so I do understand cold, wind, snow.

Q: What do you think of the Microsoft Fargo campus?
A: It’s stunning, first of all. The whole environment is gorgeous. The quality of the people here is excellent. The way that people are working together, attracting more and more activities from Microsoft here because good things are going on. That’s the type of thing that as a visiting executive of a company, you just love to see. It’s attracting new talent, young talent. It’s becoming a magnet for not just the immediate Fargo and four-or-five-states area, but for a broader environment because of the good things that are going on here technically, and that’s motivating for people, but also because of the quality of life. First impressions, really high.

Q: How big of an issue is recruiting?
A: The ability to attract talent is always a top issue. We’re always focused on how do we attract the best talent. Fargo has so much to offer and is also in an environment where there’s a remarkably high concentration of talent. The amount of work that the team puts into attracting and recruiting and maintaining the best people is still very high. We’re always in a cycle of having positions. The work that’s going on here today compared to a few years ago, clearly the range of activities is growing and so the breadth of skill sets that we need is expanding. That’s all good news. It’s better news when it’s a dynamic, growing place that’s constantly looking for more talent.

Q: How important is the Fargo campus to the company?
A: Very important. Microsoft started in Redmond, Wash., and has hired a tremendous number of people from that area. For example, on the main campus, Monday morning by 9 o’clock, 35,000 people have shown up for work. That growth rate is very hard to sustain. What we are doing very deliberately is investing in regional centers in various parts of the world. We have many locations around the world, but there are certain areas where there is clearly big investment. Seeing new buildings going up is a clue.

Q: What do you think of your position so far?
A: It’s an interesting time because of shifts in the industry. Software plus Services is something that you hear a lot about these days, which is about doing more and more computing on the Internet, taking advantage of that. It’s an area where Microsoft is absolutely leading right now. We’re making some big and bold moves now and I think that’s a big part of my role, is to help the organization transition through this period where new business models and new ways of doing computing are important.

Q: What are Microsoft’s greatest strengths?
A: The breadth of the ecosystem around our products is really important. That could be all of the developers who know how to develop against Microsoft platforms. That could be all of the customers who are very familiar with our user interface and Office, for example. It’s also the partner community. There are 640,000 partner companies that work on behalf of Microsoft. So, you look at all of these assets, the ecosystem, the breadth of products that we have, the talent that we have, these are huge strengths for the company, the fiscal resources.

Q: What are the company’s biggest challenges?
A: The company faces some new competitors, some growing competitors, and our challenge will be to continue to aggressively innovate and to meet those competitors head on. The company, though, has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to do that. One thing you have to understand about the Microsoft culture, people get a gleam in their eye in those moments.

Q: What is it like to work for Microsoft without Bill Gates at the helm?
A: It’s hard to know because it’s still a period of change. It’s only been a couple of weeks since he formally retired. I know he’s going to be wellengaged with us on certain key projects. I still receive email from him. At the same time, he spent two years going through a very deliberate transition. Like all companies, you go through these changes and I think this is one that has been so well planned with good people in place.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Tracy Frank at (701) 241-5526