The Best of Both Phone, and Tablet
March 11, 2005 11:13 AM PST
Newsmaker: Ozzie wants a 'unified story' at Microsoft
See all Newsmakers(continued from previous page)
make a difference from the top in a big organization without effectively influencing them. Things don't happen necessarily by control. So we'll see how it pans out.
Well, you're not a product manager.
Ozzie: That's right. I don't have those organizations reporting to me. Jeff (Raikes) and Jim (Allchin) are two of the group vice presidents who have a lot of people reporting to them. I've more of a staff role to Bill.
Presumably, you'll be giving some direction on where products should be headed or trends that the company should take hold of--almost an advisory role?
Ozzie: Presumably, but I haven't written up the job description yet (laughs).
You've done a lot of proselytizing around the notion that the way people work is changing--that they increasingly collaborate across geographically dispersed groups, and so on. Do you think the people at Microsoft, like Jeff Raikes, see things the same way you do? About how the work force is changing?
Ozzie: I think the higher up in the organization, the more they see things as we do?The nature of the IT systems that we have built are increasingly toward the (regulatory) compliance side but not about effectively reaching out of the organization. And there's an increasingly parallel view (at Microsoft) because of customers, because this is a real need.
What do you intend to tell Microsoft employees? What's your message to them going in, as one of the three CTOs?
Ozzie: Honestly, I haven't given it that much thought. If I had to, it'd be, "What can I offer you from 20 years of some success and many mistakes?" You learn from your mistakes.
Until now, you've been selling Groove software mainly to smaller work groups of people. Do you think that there will be a shift in how you sell, perhaps to larger organizations?
Ozzie: The nature of what (we) do is dynamically serving small work groups?(But) this (acquisition) will clearly, over time, increase the potential for larger opportunities than Groove Networks ourselves, with our limited resources, could attack.
Can you tell me about how it came together?
Ozzie: There isn't a great story about some cool, catalyzing event. We've been in touch with each other for quite a while. I first showed the product to Bill (Gates) back in '97.
We've been working together in various ways over the years. The timing is mostly relevant in two dimensions. No. 1, Groove has
And No. 2, from the Microsoft side, it should be clear that they have taken on communications and collaboration as what's beyond personal productivity. And it's taking the forefront in their offerings. I think them seeing how we uniquely solve a certain set of problems in the realm of cross-organizational and mobile usage fills out their product offerings quite nicely.
What kind of adjustments do you see working within Microsoft--a much larger organization--where you'll be working at least part-time from the other coast?
Ozzie: There will be adjustments. I've been going back and forth between small and large. Iris was small. IBM was large. Groove was small. I think the trade-off (is) as a small company you have much more direct interaction with customers and partners, and you can focus all of your energy on executing one thing extremely well. At a larger organization, you have the potential for a broader impact, but probably a little shallower?I look forward to having a broader impact in the larger context.
Bill Gates was clearly excited when he talked about how happy he was about your coming on board. What are your feelings about working with him and others at Microsoft?
Ozzie: I look forward to being part of that leadership team. (It's) a lot of very smart people, and that's what makes it fun to come to work.
When do you start, and how often will you be in Redmond, Wash., as opposed to in Massachusetts?
Ozzie: I'll start when the merger closes. We don't anticipate it's going to be very long--probably in the second quarter. At that point in time, I'm going to try to average half time out there and half time out here. I don't have a lot of firm viewpoints beyond that. The use of collaboration tools we expect to be pretty intense. And it's going to be a positive learning experience for both them and us.
2 comments
Join the conversation! Add your comment (Log in or register)
"I think everyone would like a unified story and deliverables to support those across the organization"
What does that mean?
"I think everyone would like a unified story and deliverables to support those across the organization"
What does that mean?