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Microsoft appoints new VP of corporate communications
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| Microsoft said Tuesday it had appointed Simon Sproule as the company's new
| corporate vice president of corporate communications.
|
| [...]
|
| Sproule replaces Larry Cohen, who left Microsoft to work as Bill Gates' chief
| of staff.
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http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/161718.asp?source=rss
Here if Larry Cohen's "talking points" memo:
__________________________________________________
From: Larry Cohen
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2004 5:28 PM
To: Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer
Cc: Mich Mathews; Katy Hunter; Craig Beilinson; Kevin Johnson; David Siroky;
Debbie Hill; Dorothy Veith; Christine Turner; Bob Belan (D.N.A. Inc)
Subject: Company Meeting Outline Docs
Attachments: 9.10.04 comeeeting outline.doc; 9.10.04 comeeeting q.2.doc
Bill and Steve —
I have enclosed both an outline version and more complete version of the script
questions and messages for the company meeting.
As discussed, we expect that you will make a lot of this your own as well.
Additionally, Kevin is set (as appropriate) to go further on certain points,
question you on points you may make, etc. We don’t want this to come off as
over scripted. That said, these represent some of the messages we would like
you to convey.
We’re still gathering some key facts on security progress. These will come on
Monday and I will call them out for you
The speechwriters are following up with logistics information.
We’ll have time on Tuesday morning to work out any other synch issues on
subjects you both want to talk to and also hash through interactions with
Kevin.
7/14/2005 ~Plaintiff’s Exhibit~ 8887
Comes V. Microsoft
MS-CC-RN 000001217817
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
Microsoft Company Meeting
Draft Talking Points
Outline
Bill
______________________________________________________________
As Microsoft matures, how will you continue to ensure that it keeps trying to
innovate, building the better mouse trap, recreating itself: continue to focus
on the future and not just rest on past laurels and defend its existing
portfolio? What are we doing that will change the world (again)?
* We live or die on our ability to drive breakthrough innovation.
* Driving innovation into our existing products, while also doing the work
to deliver a series of breakthroughs of the coming years.
* Uniquely positioned to change the world through great software
* How we will make it happen.
o Continue to aggressively fuel our investment in R&D
o Ensure we continue to attract the best minds in the industry
* No shortage of opportunity for us
o Still many inefficiencies that can only be addressed with software
advances.
o Important industry trends that fuel new opportunities for software
breakthroughs
* Continued investment in R&D
* Working with BG leaders on driving new advances across the company
* The competitive landscape: “Faddishly hot” vs. lasting impact and winning
I understand part of our strategy is to sustain our competitive advantage
through integrated innovation, As we develop more complex products, and grow
as a company (in number of employees), this entails increasingly complex
integrated execution. How are we going to continue pulling this off? Do you
see a limit as to how large and complex we can be as an organization?
* Integrated innovation is a unique differentiation for Microsoft
* Putting in place the processes that really enable our various groups and
technologies to work together.
* We’re more focused on cross-company execution than we’ve ever been
* Many great examples of how that is working. Watson, CLT, MOM
* Infinitely scaleable
What was the reason for cutting WinFS from the Longhom release? Are we
abandoning the whole LH Wave concept?
* Vision and commitment to LH has not changed
* We are still on a path to deliver advances well beyond the magnitude of
our prior innovation leaps.
* Prioritizing and getting it right
* Outline Customer & ISV benefit
* Specifically highlight commitment to WinFS
What are the key strategies to deal with the security headaches we’ve had to
address in the past year?
* Making security a part of everything we do from the ground up
* Progress: Technology, Customer Education and Enforcement
MS-CC-RN 000001217818
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
* Continued focus on: isolation and resiliency; updating; quality:
authentication and access control.
* TWC vision and progress
* Future advances (R2)
Please help us better understand the vast sum of money we spend each year on
research? Where does the money get spent? What do we get from our investment?
* R&D is a lot more than MSR
* Innovation is key to our future success
* Tying innovation to scenarios and customer needs
* Technology transfer - payback and Examples - correlation to market
leadership
* Measuring impact patents
How much of your time are you spending in R&D area in MS, and what kind of
activities are you doing?
* Microsoft is still the focus
* Balance of time in working between research and BG work
* Excitement for the future and our prospects
* Committed for the long-term
Steve
________________________________________________
1. My question for the company meeting is, “How aggressively will we grow”? Are
we moving to a model where compare ourselves with older or more conservative
companies like Disney and Dell, with little interest in taking risks and
offering new features and products, or are we going to stay the “Microsoft of
the 90’s”, and compare ourselves with companies like Google and Apple, and
take more new risks and really focus on crating cool and interesting
technologies that consumers “really, really want” to buy?
(Core question: Growth: How will we grow? Will we grow?)
* Tie our growth prospects to innovation
* What you’re doing to drive the innovation - big bets and aggressive R&D
* The difference of being “First to cool” vs. “first to profit”
* Optimism for growth opportunities
* Success requires execution excellence
2. If you were projecting our financial figures 5 years out, what would you be
happy with in terms of an annual revenue and profit growth over those five
years? What would be a stretch target?
(Core question: Growth. Be specific, what is your target, what level of growth
should we be happy with?)
* Define success metrics and indicators
* Outline specific opportunities in the P&L’s
* The target: illustrate the magnitude of growth you will he happy with in
5 years
2a. Follow-on question from Kevin. “You mention the importance of improving our
excellence in execution and how this is related to our success. Make this real
for people, give an example of what you mean by driving greater excellence.
* Define “excellence:” consistent, high quality (and low cost) execution in
all we do
MS-CC-RN 000001217819
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
* Examples: Engineering excellence, marketing work
* It’s about how we work - clear priorities and accountability
3. I am feeling concerned with the announcement to give back $75 billion back
to shareholders. It sounds as if we could not find better ways to invest the
money in growing the company.
(Core question: Evolution and Innovation: Why did you do the dividend? What
does it say about the company?
* The dividend represents optimism
* Why we did the dividend
* Responsibility to shareholders
* Preserving our ability to invest in innovation
4. How are we doing vs, Linux? Can you give us some specific comparables so we
know where we are winning, holding our ground and still losing ground? Do you
see a threat from Linux in the home PC market?
(Core question: Winning: Will we win in our competition with OSS?
* We are hitting our stride in understanding how we meet the challenge
* Competing with Unix through innovation, quality support execution, and
facts-based customer education.
* Confidence for our success- OSS evolution and the commercial model
* Need for flawless execution
* Getting traction- The facts are speaking for themselves
* The home market threat- customer value, our investments and partner
ecosystem
5. As MSFT is a maturing company, certain priorities have seemed to change -
the cost cutting initiatives being one of them…what are your concerns about
the type of message that things like cost cutting send to employees? Meaning,
are we sending the message that working for MSFT is like working for GM - a
big stodgy corporation?
(Core questions: Evolution is all the cost cutting evidence that we becoming a
stodgy corporation?)
* Keeping the company dynamic and agile - We have as much opportunity to
grow and are more dynamic than just about any other company in the world.
* Still making the big bets across our businesses.
* Evidenced in the products and technologies we have and are bringing to
market..
* Staying dynamic, while also becoming responsible
6. Cross group collaboration consistently rates as one of the lowest scoring
areas within Microsoft on the Company poll, and one would assume that to keep
organization structures eams out of our designs it would need to be one area
where Microsoft must excel, What steps are we taking to make sure that
Microsoft’s organization structure is also not showing through in the design
of our products? Do you feel these steps are sufficient and how (Io you think
we are doing?
MS-CC-RN 000001217820
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
* Steps we are taking. Accountable for clear commitments and sharing across
orgs.
* Integrating to meet customer needs
* Value propositions
Joint Questions
___________________________________________________________
1. What are the 3 crucial things you want employees to focus on in FY05 for our
collective success? What will you do to ensure that we can execute on those 3
crucial things?
1. innovation and Growth
2. Business Performance:
3. How we work: Excellence
2. You talk a lot about commitments. Do you have specific commitments?
- - Bill and Steve to talk to their commitments (from offsite)
- - Key commitments that other execs are responsible for.
3. What is your vision for the company in ten years, and what is it in 20
years?
- - Continuing to invest, making big, strategic bets and doing innovative work
- - Bringing in talent that ensures we have necessary abilities to seize
opportunities
- - Maintaining the dynamic environment
MS-CC-RN 000001217821
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
[skipping pages 6-11 (see PDF)]
[…]
4. How are we doing vs. Linux? Can you give us some specific comparables so we
know where we are winning, holding our ground and still losing ground? Do you
see a threat from Linux in the home PC market?
(Core question. Winning: Will we win in our competition with OSS?
* Hitting our stride in understand how we meet the challenge
o We know how to compete with Linux through innovation, quality
support execution, and facts-based customer education.
* Confidence and strategy
o I have a for of confidence in how we stack up competitively with
Linux in terms of strategy, sales and marketing, and our product offerings. As
terms of Linux distribution model matures, we see vendors like IBM and RedHat
adopting a commercial model around Linux, which, due to high services costs,
is quickly putting to bed the notion that there is a cost advantage over
Windows.
o But we have to keep making sure we’re doing the right things:
+ Where we have a good story to tell vs. Linux are we telling
it well?
+ Are we talking to customers and engaging on the right fronts?
+ Where Linux has traction, are we delivering the dght products
forthe workloads?
o With single-purpose server scenarios such as file/print/web server,
it’s a battle, no question, but we are responding with very strong
workload-specific SKUs such as Windows, Server 2003 Web Edition, Windows
Server 2003 Storage Edition and an upcoming High-Performance Computing
offering.
* The facts are speaking for themselves
o We now have independent studies from respected analyst firTns like
Forrester, IDC, Yankee Group and Beadng Point underscore the advantages over
Windows over Linux in key areas such as TCO, performance, reliability,
interoperability, security, support, indemnification and a worldwide partner
network. Our Get the Facts campaign is focused on educating customers about
these facts
o Customers are taking notice- we’re making significant strides.
(invite employees to look at the site.)
* Specifically, the home market
In the home market, OSS products simply do not provide meaningful
customer value on the client compared with our offerings. Customers are
demanding easy home networking, great integration with digital media, games,
etc., and here, we and our partners are absolutely in a position of
leadership. I am confident that will continue as long as we continue to
execute well.
MS-CC-RN 000001217828
HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL
* Most importantly, nobody is really making the investments to completely
understand the customer in the home and also investing to make the PC
experience easier and easier.
[skipping page 13 onwards (see PDF)]
__________
Comes vs. Microsoft - exhibit px08887
http://boycottnovell.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/px08887.pdf
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