"Talent. Do we have the right talent? How do we recruit and retain talent?"
That was Steve Ballmer’s (paraphrased) answer to the question "What keeps you up at night?" posed by a Microsoft employee at the company’s annual marketing symposium today.
If I hadn’t realized I was at a different company yet, this clued me in. I don’t think I ever heard an executive at Oracle worry about recruiting or retaining talent. Talent at Oracle seemed to be an extractable, unrenewable resource, to be used once and disposed of, like oil. Yes, there were exceptions like Mike T., Roel, Andrew and Regis who saw talent and would try to apply it wherever they thought they could. But overall, your skills at Oracle were applicable in one function to one segment of the market. Yes, there was movement, but it was rare and often highly political. Trying to move risked relationships and careers.
Now, I haven’t been at Microsoft for long, and I’m sure some of the talk about career development was mere hoo-hah. But there seemed to be a real commitment to letting people apply their talents wherever they can add value–from developer to consumer marketing.
It gave me a warm fuzzy feeling. That I’m sure will wear off eventually. But I have it now.