Schlagwort: Leadership

Celebrating 5 Years at Microsoft: Reflections on Innovation, Culture, and Strategic Impact

Alexander Loth stands on stage at a Microsoft event, delivering a presentation. The backdrop features a quote from Satya Nadella, "We empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." The audience is visible in the foreground, attentively watching the presentation. (photo by Microsoft Corp.)
Me presenting on stage at a Microsoft event with Satya Nadella’s quote, „We empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more,“ displayed in the background.

Today marks a significant milestone in my career – 5 impactful years at Microsoft. Reflecting on this strategic journey, I’m filled with gratitude for the growth opportunities, the relentless pace of innovation, and the truly unique sense of community.

As I look back, several core lessons and experiences stand out:

1. An Empowering Culture as a Foundation for Success

From my very first day at Microsoft, I experienced Microsoft’s remarkably empowering and collaborative culture. Feeling welcomed and valued isn’t just pleasant; it’s fundamental to enabling teams to tackle complex challenges and achieve remarkable things together. The camaraderie here is genuinely special and creates an environment where innovation thrives through mutual respect and shared purpose.

2. AI: The Strategic Engine of Transformation

At Microsoft, AI is far more than a buzzword – it’s the strategic engine driving transformative change at scale. I’ve been deeply involved in witnessing and contributing to how AI fundamentally reshapes industries and empowers new possibilities. The speed and scope of innovation, particularly in AI, remain truly mind-blowing and exhilarating.

3. Responsible AI: Building Trust and Sustainable Impact

Microsoft’s unwavering commitment to Responsible AI is a fundamental pillar I deeply admire. There’s a pervasive dedication to building technology with integrity and humility. This focus on ethical AI development isn’t an afterthought; it’s integral to every stage, ensuring we build lasting trust and strive for technology that serves humanity through sustainable and equitable outcomes.

4. Aligning Technology with Purpose: Lessons from TSI

My work, particularly within Tech for Social Impact (TSI), powerfully illustrates the principle of aligning technology with purpose. It’s been incredibly rewarding to contribute to shaping a better future by empowering diverse organizations. Seeing ambitious tools like Copilot enable significant positive change reinforces the drive to leverage technology for meaningful impact across all sectors.

5. Continuous Learning as a Catalyst for Innovation

A culture of continuous learning and innovation is absolutely core to Microsoft’s dynamism. Opportunities abound, manifest in initiatives like the Microsoft Garage and countless volunteer projects that encourage pushing boundaries. This ingrained emphasis on staying curious and embracing growth is crucial for staying ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape and driving future innovation.

Looking Ahead

A heartfelt thank you goes out to the many mentors, managers, and colleagues whose support and collaboration have been instrumental on this journey. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve collectively achieved and genuinely excited to contribute to future innovations and impact. Here’s to continued growth, collaboration, and executing on a shared vision of creating technology that empowers everyone.

If you’d like to stay updated on my journey and insights on AI, digital transformation, and more, follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.

„Celebrating 5 Years at Microsoft: Reflections on Innovation, Culture, and Strategic Impact“ weiterlesen

4 Years at Microsoft: AI, Power BI, and A Future Full of Possibilities

Me at Microsoft Redmond campus - Celebrating 4 years at Microsoft
Me at Microsoft Redmond campus – Celebrating 4 years at Microsoft

Today marks my 4-year anniversary at Microsoft. Reflecting on this milestone, I’m filled with gratitude for a year that has been the most turbulent and exhilarating of my career. The integration of AI into our products has been groundbreaking, and the velocity of development has been extraordinary. Here’s a look back at last year’s achievements.

The Year of AI: A Game Changer for Microsoft

  1. AI Integration Across Products: This year, AI has found its way into almost every product, transforming the way we work, interact, and innovate. The collaboration with OpenAI has brought additional excitement and potential to our AI initiatives.
  2. GPT-4 and Bing: As I highlighted in GPT-4 Launches Today: The Rise of Generative AI from Neural Networks to DeepMind and OpenAI, Bing’s integration of GPT-4 has significantly enhanced its search capabilities, providing more accurate and personalized results.
  3. The Rise of Generative AI: Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI focuses on democratizing AI models like GPT and DALL-E. We’ve already integrated GPT into Power BI and are actively developing integrations across products, including Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Teams. Read more about The Rise of Generative AI here.
  4. Power BI Mastery: My latest book, Teach Yourself VISUALLY Power BI (Amazon), is designed to help users of all levels master this robust data visualization software. It’s part of Microsoft’s commitment to making powerful tools accessible and user-friendly. The book is a testament to our shared mission to empower every person. Learn more about mastering Power BI here.

Looking Forward: Embracing the Future with a Growth Mindset

The people around me have made this journey truly special. From motivating work to a team I love and leadership I respect, the human aspect has been the cornerstone of my Microsoft experience. The future holds exciting challenges, and it’s the wisdom, creativity, and passion of our team that fills me with optimism.

I’m sure the coming years will continue to be fast-paced, filled with innovation and growth. With an extraordinary team by my side, I look forward to embracing the challenges and joys ahead.

Stay Connected: Follow Me for More Insights on Microsoft, AI, and Power BI

The experiences we’ve shared have shaped me, and I’m grateful for every moment. I invite you to join our ongoing conversation about AI, digital transformation, Power BI, and more. Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn, and let’s continue learning together.

„4 Years at Microsoft: AI, Power BI, and A Future Full of Possibilities“ weiterlesen

Leadership: Stagnation Kills Your Business, 3 Times

Petronas Twin Towers
Petronas Twin Towers held the title of the tallest building in the world for six years (Flickr)

Your business has been thriving, and the pipeline is well filled with work? Don’t get comfortable too soon. Stagnation kicks in fast nowadays, and kills your business‘ innovation, its growth, and its people.

1. Innovation 

The speed of transformation that we are currently witnessing is challenging all of us to think differently. Every industry can be disrupted, there is no safe habour. So we need to deliver our products and services in a way that is relevant today, not yesterday.

Minor product iterations do not work forever. We need to prepare product revolutions, not just iterations on what we were selling since ten years. Establishing an innovation lab engages our employees to think in innovative ways and lift our business to new heights.

2. Growth

We need to adjust our business development plan to drive business growth. This should not be a static document. Customer and market definition are changing fast and we need to adopt this in our sales strategy and in our product development.

This does not work without data. Therefore we need to implement a data strategy. Our data strategy guides our entire business how to collect and analyze data, and how to generate the insights that we use for our decisions. If we do not take advantage of data, our competition will do.

3. People

Sushi Google DoodleIt is essential for leaders to recognize that you cannot possibly manage everything. We need to employ great people. But recruiting is not the end. We need to keep your talents, empower them, and motivate them to take initiative in their roles. Stagnation will rotate employees out of the company.

Offering free sushi and laundry service might impress our new hires from university. Experienced and independent employees will be more interested in career perspectives. We should establish personal development plans for everyone, not just for the designated managers.

Although it is important for leaders to set such a career framework, we should not forget to invest in your employees‘ training. Both, hard skills (technical) and soft skills (non-technical), are mandatory because they each play very important roles in the development of our employees.

In Summary

Yesterday’s innovations are tomorrow’s commodities. We need to invest in innovations, otherwise we will face disruptive competition. Creating insights from data is important for the iterative adjustments on our business development plan. Offering personal development plans and proper training avoids stagnation for your employees, which is causing brain drain.

This post is also published on LinkedIn.

Monkey Business: Always be Ready to Demo

The famous Tableau Superstore demo data set
The famous Tableau Superstore demo data set

Usually, I really don’t like looking on the screens of other passengers. On this early morning train from Frankfurt to Cologne, however, the screen of my seatmate caught my attention. Where have I seen the logo on his slide deck before? Two coffee sips later, it came to me: it was the logo of Monkey 47, a very delicious gin, distilled in the heart of the Black Forest. So I asked my neighbor: “Is that the Monkey 47 logo?”

He was happy that I recognized his brand and we had a small chat about gin and the Black Forest. Turns out his name is Thomas, and he is the head of Sales and Marketing for Monkey 47. Thomas mentioned that his team is planning a tour to promote Monkey 47 in a number of cities. That sounds similar to what we are doing with the Tableau Cinema Tour, so I showed him our Cinema Tour landing page and explained briefly who we are and what our mission is.

I asked him how he is organizing his data. Thomas revealed that he lives in Excel hell: “spreadsheets with thousands of rows and way too many columns”. This also sounded familiar. I opened up our Superstore.xlsx in Excel and asked: “Do your Excel sheets look like this?” Thomas replied: “Yes!”

Here we go! I drag’n’dropped the file on my Tableau desktop icon and paced through a 7-minute-demo ending with an interactive dashboard. Thomas was flabbergasted. To polish things off, I showed him the interactive Twitter Sentiment Dashboard embedded in my blog. Thomas grabbed his jacket and gave me a business card, saying: “We need Tableau!”

Monkey 47 business card (back side)
Monkey 47 business card (back side)

This story was originally written for Tableau’s EMEA Sales Newsletter. I think it’s a good read for the holidays, and wish you all Merry Christmas!