New Balmer Interview on Activewin

http://www.activewin.com/interviews/microsoft/36.shtml

"We also are filing for 2,000 patents a year, a number we expect to increase in the years ahead."

so lock load and litigate

"..tapping into the growing technical talent pool outside the U.S. India is emerging as a world-class IT leader, and as China’s.."

offshore everything we can


grreeaaat...

"Offshore everything we can"

One of the inescapable facts about economics is that people tend to buy where it's cheaper.  For instance, if you go to the grocery store and you find two similar competing products, if their respective qualities are also relatively similar, you will most likely choose the less expensive one.  If you faced with the choice of hiring an employee, and of the two identically-qualified candidates one was willing to work for less money, whom would you pick?  The less expensive one, probably.

It is the same with international economics.  Companies who insist upon paying more for labor and materials will die.  The others will live.  This is known, and anyone who thinks they can fight economics successfully is either a disciple of Karl Marx, or has a 45 billion dollar warchest. 

OK, so, maybe Microsoft could pay more for the same goods and get away with it.  But not forever.

Offshoring is a fact of life and no amount of whining will change that, as unfair and crappy as it is.

The key is to become an architect these days. Most of the architecture work is done here and the rest of the low level work given to the off shore folks.

Big companies who have begun this trend have also started to feel the pain of the language barriers, for example having to dumb down the documentation to about 6 grade level so that the off shore folks can understand. This leads to innacurate results and rewrites, it may be cheaper but it takes more time.

I think this trend is like so many others and the pendulumn will swing back eventually, but until then either quit or be nimble.

~ Knute

Just read the article, and it didn't sound to me like he was saying 'offshore everything we can', more like MS needs to tap into more regional markets in order to better server those markets.

Regional teams is something Microsoft has been doing for nearly 20 years. Makes perfect sense.

Offshoring can often bring risks as well - if companies have their critical apps developed by offshore workers, then they could have serious problems if the solution is not delivered on time/buggy.

Also, offshoring call centres does not always work out, even if it is cheaper - the call center staff may speak poor English, and so put customers off.

Increased offshoring to an area will, in time, increase the quality of living in those locations, causing an increased cost of living, which means wages will rise. It's a cycle. It's basic economics.

http://news.com.com/Will+India+price+itself+out+of+offshore+market%3F/2100-1022_3-5180589.html

Patents and IP are good things. IP drives innovation and quality. For example, if a company doesn't think they can compete against a free system that's poorly implemented, they won't pursue the product. IMHO, proprietary systems are better implemented because companies have to compete with other companies and must rely on product revenue to survive. Developers of free software do not have the same incentive. One of the many (often overlooked) negative side effects of free software in the commercial space.

- surf

Jeremy W. wrote:

Just read the article, and it didn't sound to me like he was saying 'offshore everything we can', more like MS needs to tap into more regional markets in order to better server those markets.

Regional teams is something Microsoft has been doing for nearly 20 years. Makes perfect sense.

its my fault as i wrote it as a bullet point:

more patents
more off shoring


* it wasnt the most informative of interviews.. very carefully planned and worded stuff

(imho)

just trying to add a bit of zing to an otherwise canned interview
didnt mean to say ms offshores everything