Phew.. what a week. All glory to God. Very interesting week in terms of the new gig but more than compensated for by the new things I am  learning. {supply chain, fulfillment and reporting/analytics}

Taking the bus as the primary means of commuting was quite an experience. However, 2 magazines and a book and countless songs later, I can get used to this men.

Talking about getting used to anything, this is not it. The plan is not to join the rat race and get used to being the rat in the crucible, the plan is to actually learn and use that knowledge in achieving my goals. I do not plan to get comfortable, fat and lazy. (been there, done that)

Business models - Although I met a lot of new folks this week, and a lot of them were very interesting and intriguing. The most important things I learnt were actually through reading and talking to folks. Testing the theory that entrepreneurs learn more by talking to other people, working the phones, I think this is true, but one need a foundation of solid knowledge to ask the right questions. I wonder, how many people actually understand the business model of their place of employment, how many actually read the financials and do their own analysis to understand where they fit in the scheme of things. I am really still trying to learn what Amazon is about, and what is the magic in a bottle. However, I have some interesting theories.

Meetings – in my opinion, meetings should be about decision making, however reality is they are not and that to a large extent they are time sinks.

Value – it is important for me to provide some value right away. I have a project that will help me do that come Monday. Hopefully, everything will not be overshadowed by meetings.

Overall, a good week. There is much to improve upon. Next week, I want to work on listening, analysis and writing skills.

Note: these are not my words and if you think the world is coming to an end because of the market swoon, read something else :)

" Software giant Microsoft (MSFT) is a great example of a super cheap stock. Microsoft is making more free cash flow than ever before in its history, about $18 billion a year. It's also got $21 billion of cash on its balance sheet. It literally makes more money than it knows what to do with.

All of Microsoft's outstanding shares added together at today's share price total roughly $218 billion. If you used $20 billion of Microsoft's cash as a down payment, you could borrow enough money at 5.6% interest (about what Microsoft would have to pay) to buy the rest of the outstanding shares. And you'd still clear over $6 billion a year to do with as you please."

For those who may not have heard, I am no longer working at Microsoft. Amazing !!

No, I was not fired this was a decision on my part to leave and this was a decision that was planned from the very  first day I joined Microsoft. I joined MS with what I called a 3-5 years plan. 3 to 5 years is enough time to learn a lot and also decide if you are making the right kind of trajectory to make you a lifer or not. In addition, I thought this is enough time to also decide on what I want to do with the rest of my life. I think I have a god idea, but that is another post, or series of posts.

Reflecting a little bit,  the last four years was awesome, I learnt a lot. Let me give some specifics. I learnt how the software business works, the insane margin, and the insane cost that goes into creating the product in the first place. (Oh No, this is not a MS thing, even startups have to pay this in sweat equity). I learnt what product management is and isn’t and the limitation of the discipline in an engineering led organization. Budgeting and Marketing in general, as well as specifics of enterprise software marketing and finally consumer marketing. Very few products in the world can touch the consumer base of Internet Explorer.

Of course, I learnt some sundry skills, I can create a mean deck (hem – PowerPoint presentations) although, I have to admit a good mcKinsey/BCG guy can probably do more beautiful slides, but I bet I can see through the bullshit. Ever heard of precision questioning and answering? I also learn to do excel, but by no means an excel jock. However, the most important lesson is confirmation of the business school theory, the people issues are the most important. Overall, the important thing was how to conceptualize ideas, communicate, get consensus and create a team to execute.

The most important thing about working at Microsoft is working with smart people, which among other things gave the place this sense of a college campus.

Over the four year, the opportunities and the privileges  afforded me by the flexibility makes it all so worthy and time flew by in a blur, from the Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 days, to the Novell compete days, to Unified Communications and finally to Internet Explorer. Now that the unofficial rotational program is over, it is time to start doing something in the real world.

{ printf “Hello, World”}     -Shola (King County Public Library)