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Lessons from a Market Leader
Microsoft believes that business savvy is an important complement to technical expertise—and invests in training to bring them together.
by Advantage Associate Dan Terry
It’s no secret: the Microsoft team includes some of the world’s top technology experts. And as their careers grow, many Microsoft employees become responsible for additional aspects of the business. That’s when extensive business experience—not something typically found at the top of a technology expert’s resume’— becomes critical.
Because Microsoft wanted to accelerate people’s learning about business, and specifically to improve their understanding of finance, the company invested in business literacy training—but not just any training. Since employees would inevitably critique software-based training, that mode of implementation was out. And since employees were action-oriented, classroom lecture wasn’t an option either. Instead, the Advantage solution was three business simulations that gave Microsoft employees the experience of running companies and competing for results: Celemi’s Apples & Oranges, Decision Base, and Tango.
 Apples & Oranges: Selling Through a Channel
Apples & Oranges was used to take the mystery out of business finance and help Microsoft sales and consulting managers understand how their customers make money. In two hands-on simulations in which participant teams “ran” their own model companies, Apples & Oranges taught the sales team how purchasing decisions, changes in productivity, and resource management affect companies’ financial conditions.
Half of the group completed the production version of the simulation while the other half completed the service version. The production version helped participants better understand and position the cost benefits of Microsoft products in the context of customers’ businesses. This is particularly important in “switching costs” discussions with decision makers (in which customers must be convinced to replace previously installed software with Microsoft products).
The service version of the simulation, which included case studies customized to the Microsoft selling environment, focused on the sales teams’ relationships with their solution providers. Participants learned to work more effectively with this important sales channel and help providers run their businesses more efficiently. Apples & Oranges was an excellent fit with company issues. As one manager said, “These are all the problems we see every day.”
Decision Base: Understanding Your Customer’s Business
Decision Base helps the Microsoft sales and consulting team develop an understanding of business culture. During this simulation, participants play the roles of senior managers in a manufacturing organization. They experience the effects of business decisions first-hand as they develop strategic plans, manage business problems, and learn “what keeps an executive awake at night.”
Decision Base was recently presented to the OEM organization, where a select cadre of account consultants from around the world participated. The implementation was a huge success. One participant said, “This is something that every sales person and manager should go through.” Bruce Willson, Management Development Consultant for 33 countries including Asia and China, explains, “Decision Base builds a better understanding of business culture. It has been run in a number of areas and has been well received by everyone. It was a perfect fit for the OEM because they sell to manufacturing and we wanted to increase their understanding of their customers’ businesses.”
Tango: Managing Knowledge-Intensive Companies
Tango addresses issues close to the heart of a knowledge-based organization such as Microsoft—how to manage and measure the intangible side of business. “Microsoft has a Market Value of $150 billion,” says Willson. “Of that, about $130 billion is intangibles. Tango is a good way to get people to understand the importance of that. It’s a very good fit for us.”
The Tango simulation dramatizes the challenges of managing knowledge-intensive companies by challenging participants to compete by building the highest market value for “their” company. Market value is defined as the sum of financial and intellectual assets, and decisions that participants must make during the simulation make the distinction between those assets crystal clear. “Tango helps people understand the balance of intangibles. We find it’s most effective if the simulation is followed by some type of planning or strategizing session,” says Willson.
Tango participants have included controllers in Europe, and sales managers in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. “Tango is very valuable, especially for international locations where companies will have to think about know-how as they continue to grow,” Willson says. “We’ve used it for developing future leaders of the organization, for expanding managers’ focus as they move up and assume greater responsibility for an increasingly broad range of business.”
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