InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 19, 2000
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A New Voice For Microsoft
Linda Stone has the unenviable assignment of helping Microsoft improve its communication with the rest of the world
By Stuart J. Johnston
Stone isn't ready to talk about how she sees her role unfolding. Her response to some questions I E-mailed her was basically that she is in "listening mode." Her first instinct is to grasp the big picture before visualizing steps that might be taken.
In fact, Stone is an excellent listener and has a knack for bringing people together and helping them reach a consensus. Stone is a thoroughly modern, networked person who can schmooze with the best of them whether it's at an industry conference or a World Trade Organization affair. Her circle of friends and acquaintances and her range of activities and interests are as broad as you could imagine. Stone is also about as far as you can get from the image you might have of the typical Microsoft coder.
Stone has been a manager in Microsoft's research division for several years, in charge of what has been known as the Virtual Worlds group. Like many technology researchers, her initial goal was to come up with user interface technologies for communities of users that would have all the state-of-the-art bells and whistles you expect in a Microsoft product. However, she learned the hard way that the latest whizbang technologies are less important to users than looking for the most pragmatic ways to create and enhance the sense of community she was striving for. That's why her group included not only computer researchers and developers but also sociologists.
Stone doesn't shy away from controversy if there's a point to it. Last summer, she invited open-source guru Eric Raymond to speak to Microsoft researchers, causing a firestorm of criticism from workers in the company's product groups-many of whom view open source as tantamount to socialism and saw Stone's invitation to Raymond as embarrassing at best.
When Stone was unable to get Microsoft product groups interested in using technology developed by the Virtual Worlds group, she took that code open source (see examples at www.vworlds.org). What else would you expect from someone who had been a personal assistant to ex-Apple Computer CEO John Sculley? Her sense of pursuing not only what is different, but what to her mind seems right, as well as her ability to communicate sensitively and to listen to others, have earned her the respect and friendship of big thinkers such as Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, and Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former chief technology officer.
Then there's Stone's new role. Microsoft has spent the past 25 years developing a freewheeling, swimming-with-the-sharks corporate culture that eschews personal contact for a virtual existence via E-mail and that substitutes technical marketing events for community. Stone, of course, has no problem living in that world or she wouldn't have survived this long at Microsoft. But from my observations, nurturing community is her major identifying characteristic.
I don't know what impact Stone will have on Microsoft's culture. My experiences in the 1980s writing about management redesign in major companies taught me that a company's culture doesn't change simply because management declares it will be so. Once a culture has developed, changing it is next to impossible. So I'm not holding out a lot of hope for a kinder, gentler Microsoft any time soon.
Stone is likely to have better luck helping Microsoft improve communication with the rest of the world. After all, communicating is her forte. Many of the company's critics decried her appointment as a mere public relations stunt, and there is some possibility that she has been named to a role fundamentally as ambassador without portfolio. From my personal acquaintance with her, however, I don't think she would take a job that she didn't feel could have the full impact she was seeking to achieve. Stone may wind up tilting at windmills, but if that turns out to be so, I have no doubt she will tilt at them heroically. If anyone can accomplish the goals she strives for, Linda Stone is that person.
Stuart J. Johnston has covered Microsoft for more than 12 years. He can be reached at stuartj@halcyon.com.
icrosoft president and CEO Steve Ballmer last month named researcher Linda Stone to the newly created post of VP of corporate and industry initiatives. That's a fairly nebulous title, but Ballmer says Stone will be key to evolving Microsoft's internal culture as well as explaining Microsoft's intentions to the rest of the world. In my mind, one thing is certain: Ballmer couldn't have picked a more capable person for the job.
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