Month: October 2006

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A look inside the Microsoft Home

Today, MSN Tech takes you on a tour of the Microsoft Home.


“A shining steel, geodesic structure where food appears upon command, robots handle all manual chores and families in unisex jumpsuits gather around the hologram station before tucking themselves into their sterile sleeping pods for the night. Does this fit your general vision of the home of the future? Blame that on Hollywood. What might the average American home look like in the next few years? This big question floats around the Microsoft Home, situated within a building on the company’s main corporate campus in Redmond, Wash. The home’s mission: To explore ways technology could improve our daily lives in the near future.”


Per the web page on our corp site, “Located on Microsoft Corp.’s Redmond, Wash. campus, the Microsoft® Home is a concept facility that models technology that might enhance life at home five to 10 years from now. Microsoft uses the facility to research and test future consumer technology concepts and explore how people use technology in the home. The Microsoft Home is housed within Microsoft’s Executive Briefing Center. Although it’s not a stand-alone house, the Microsoft Home simulates a domestic environment including a front door, entry/foyer, kitchen, family room, dining room, entertainment room and bedroom.”


More information:



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Microsoft to offer Vista upgrade coupons starting Oct. 26

Express Upgrade to Windows VistaAP reported yesterday that “people who buy certain Windows personal computers this holiday season will be offered free or heavily discounted coupons to upgrade to Microsoft Corp.’s new operating system, Windows Vista, under a program designed to spur sales despite Vista’s delay.”


Companies including HP, Compaq and Dell are quoted with more details on the upgrade offers for purchases starting Thursday, October 26th. (“Price, terms, and conditions may vary. Additional shipping, handling, and other fees may apply. See your PC manufacturer for availability and applicable offer details.”)


From the Microsoft Windows Vista web site: details on Express Upgrades to Windows Vista…



“If you’re in the market for a new computer this holiday season, be sure to ask your retailer about the Express Upgrade to Windows Vista, being offered by participating PC manufacturers. When you buy a qualifying Windows Vista Capable PC between October 26, 2006 and March 15, 2007, you may be eligible for an Express Upgrade to Windows Vista.


“Don’t wait to enjoy the benefits of owning a new PC. Buying a Premium Ready Windows Vista Capable PC means you can buy a great Windows XP computer today, with the confidence that it will easily upgrade to the Windows Vista edition of your choice. Express Upgrade to Windows Vista offers from participating PC manufacturers will ensure you can easily enjoy Windows XP today and Windows Vista when it’s available.”


More details on the program are on the Express Upgrade site.


As noted on AP’s web site, “the coupon program begins Thursday and runs through mid-March. Particulars of the deal will vary depending on the computer maker and retailer.”


PC manufacturers mentioned in the article include Hewlett-Packard (for certain HP Pavilion, Compaq Presario and HP Digital Entertainment Center computers equipped with Windows XP), Gateway (“free upgrades for people who buy Vista-capable computers directly from the company) and Dell (for “Vista-capable Dell computers running Windows XP Home Edition” will be able to upgrade to Windows Vista Home Basic; Dell’s rep said that “buyers of computers running Windows XP Media Center or Windows XP Professional will only have to pay shipping and handling to get a comparable Vista version.”)


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“Ride the Magic Bus” — the Xbox 360 bus, that is

Look for the Family Safety bus in a city near you.From the news: “Parents everywhere are concerned with children’s access to inappropriate media content. Microsoft, along with our friends at Best Buy and Boys & Girls Clubs of America, is leading an education campaign to provide parents with tools to help them make the right entertainment choices for their families. These tools can help parents keep their children away from video games that they consider inappropriate and from unwanted online encounters.


“Microsoft recently launched the ‘Safety is no game. Is your family set?’ Xbox Citizenship campaign. This campaign is designed for parents who want to learn more about the Family Settings Feature available in the Xbox 360 console and about other resources to help protect children, like the ESRB’s video game ratings and content descriptors.”


There’s a 20-city bus tour, traveling the States to help families enjoy appropriate games and online content. The big green bus is decked out with Xbox 360 game consoles and the latest laptop PCs. This tour kicked off today, starting at the Hartford Boys & Girls Club at Asylum Hill in Hartford, CT. On Thursday, October 26, the bus will be at the Chelsea Clubhouse at 30 Willow Street in Boston, and then on to Miami on Wednesday, November 8, at the Hank Kline Unit of Miami BGCA (2805 SW 32nd Ave., Miami).


For more and a list of stops on the bus tour, visit the Family Safety Bus Tour page on Xbox.com.


More info from the site:



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At BMW, “Risk-taking is part of the job”

At BMW, “Risk-taking is part of the job.” But rick-taking can also hit your customer’s perception of your quality, and potentially their overall satisfaction.


In the recent issue of BusinessWeek, there’s a brief look at BMW in “BMW’s Dream Factory, which provides a view in how the company is “sharing the wealth, listening to even the lowest-ranking workers, and rewarding risk have paid off big time.” (Also see this related article, The World’s Most Innovative Car Factory.) From the article on taking risks:



“Launching into a riff on the wonders of melding the virtual world with the nuts and bolts of an automobile, Vögel says the next generation of BMW 5 Series and 7 Series sedans will be the most Net-savvy cars on the road. And if he’s right, it’ll be because Vögel had the vision to see the importance of the technology and the gumption to build it so everyone at the automaker could recognize its potential. “We are encouraged to make decisions on our own and defend them,” says Vögel. “Risk-taking is part of the job.”


From the best practice ideas in the article:



  • DEEP-SIX THE EGOS   Rigorously screen new hires for their ability to thrive as part of a team. Promote young talent but hold back perks until they’ve shown their stuff.

  • BUILD A SHARED MYTHOLOGY   New hires learn about 1959, when BMW nearly went bankrupt. Its recovery remains the centerpiece of company lore, inspiring a deep commitment to innovation.

  • WORSHIP THE NETWORK   Teams from across the company work elbow to elbow in open, airy spaces, helping them to create informal networks where they hatch ideas quickly and resolve disagreements.

  • WORK OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM   The sleek Z4 coupe exists because a young designer’s doodle inspired a team to push his concept even though management had already killed the program.

  • KEEP THE DOOR OPEN   From the factory floor to the executive suite, everyone is encouraged to speak out. Ideas bubble up freely, and even the craziest proposals will get a hearing.

Balance this effort with BMW’s overall rank in quality: previously, BusinessWeek reported that…



“BMW ranks 27th out of 37 brands in overall quality. No, the Ultimate Driving Machine isn’t conking out on the highway: BMW tied with Toyota brand for third place in terms of quality defects. It was complaints about iDrive and other softer design issues that shoved Bimmer down in the overall rankings. Owners of BMW’s new 3-Series also complained that the window and door lock mechanisms either were hard to reach or use.”


“What if you want the latest gadgetry without having to read a manual as thick as a phone book? According to the latest Power study, Lexus is the brand to beat. Toyota’s luxe nameplate is No. 1 for fewest defects and No. 5 for fewest design flaws. Says Ivers: “Lexus has the functionality, just not the complexity.” What a concept.”


So you can take innovative gambles (as BMW did on the iDrive), and possibly take a hit to the perception of your overall product quality. At least they heard the feedback from their customers and responded. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons BMW went to great lengths recently to make the iDrive simpler and easier to use, as PC Magazine reviewed recently in their Technoride article, “MidCourse Correction for BMW’s iDrive.”


(More here on the challenges around iDrive.)


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FC’s “Talk to Our Customers? Are You Crazy?”

In Fast Company, there is a good article (quick read) from the July issue, Talk to Our Customers? Are You Crazy? by Ian Wylie. The author looks at how Credit Suisse is working to “think different” about its customers.



“Stephan Kubler spends each and every working day spying on Credit Suisse customers. He’s part of a small team led by customer-experience renegade David McQuillen, a 36-year-old American who’s challenging the top executives at the blue-chip Swiss bank to get out of their Zurich offices and–gulp!–meet some customers.


…says McQuillen: “You need to go out and talk to customers to find out what they want.”


“You can do this stuff in two or three days–you don’t have to spend half a million dollars on research. Just go and observe.” 


I completely agree.


I was asked recently how much I interact with customers. I’ll argue not enough, but as I’ve noted previously, we run surveys, focus groups and lots of meetings to talk about customers. I meet with people across the company and hear what their customers — our customers — are telling them, asking from us, lamenting about and (in some cases) giving us praise. I get more out of visiting with customers in retail shops, on the road, in formal gatherings (sometimes in our Executive Briefing Center – here’s one example), via phone and email. And I share this with the people I work with across the company: some people are better at getting the word out than I am, but I work at being an advocate every day for our customers and partners…


And our execs hear the word on the street, too: this from Fortune Magazine:



“[Steve] Ballmer asked [Kevin] Johnson to work closely with [Ray] Ozzie and run organizational interference for him. Before this new platforms job, Johnson had spent 2 1/2 years running Microsoft’s sales, where he talked to customers every day. He shares Ozzie’s user-first obsession more than any other top executive, and the two bonded immediately.”


And this from Kevin Turner in the Mercury News:



“I travel around the world. It’s a global job talking to customers and partners and our people. Here I’m meeting with an all hands. I’m meeting with customers and partners and having the same spirited discussion and take it a back to our people.”