Acclimatisation

Starting a new role in a new organisation takes some getting used to. The past three months have flown past for me, but a combination of new role, a new specialisation (I can't escape the fact that I now work in marketing), moving to the supplier-side of the IT industry, the sheer scale of Microsoft, and also working for a US-centred company for the first time have meant that I have been making "waving or drowning" judgements quite frequently.

Part of the challenge of negotiating the big company is in understanding where the boundaries of one's own initiative lie. Much management in large companies has, these days, been subjected to a Taylorisation where an awful lot of my time seems to be spent understanding what the right process to be following is, and then filling in the appropriate online forms. In a smaller firm departments tend to be people, rather than service-level machines, and there is at least a sense that you can get things done with a better sense of control. Giving up a sense of self determination is part of the deal with corporate life.

But the upside of that sacrifice is exposure to things that just don't happen in the SME space. We are entering in to a period for the firm which is going to have the potential to be remarkable. The realisation of the Windows Phone deal with Nokia; the beginning of the journey for Windows 8 (which I will be seeing in person at the Build conference in California in September); what happens with the further development of the Kinect controller; deployment of Office 365, Intune and Azure into more and more companies; new versions of SQL Server; and so the list goes on…

There are big challenges for my team in the year ahead, not least as a result of a huge amount of attention being given to new consumer products which will have varying levels of interest to our traditional base of IT folk. It's another impact of the consumerization trends that are changing the tech industry.

Next week is Microsoft Global Exchange (MGX), a gathering of 15,000 employees from across the planet. Many have said that this is where I will receive my Microsoft implant… we shall see. If nothing else, the week in Denver will give me a view from outside of the UK subsidiary, and hopefully means I will get to know some of the people doing our role in other countries. It should be a fascinating week…