Industry Interview: Jean-Philippe Courtois, President EMEA, Microsoft
By Alex Rahaman, Contributing Editor
 

When Jean-Philippe Courtois wakes up in the morning, he knows he has a full day ahead.

As the man responsible for all of Microsoft’s business in EMEA, Courtois oversees some 38 subsidiaries. While it is common knowledge that Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and Internet technologies for personal or business computing, perhaps less commonly known is that Courtois, since taking over as President EMEA, has seen Q1 revenues rise from $1.1 billion last year to $1.5 billion in 2002 – despite the worsening economic climate.

Prior to assuming his current position, Courtois was Vice-President for worldwide marketing. Courtois joined Microsoft France in 1984 as a sales representative, and has held a number of senior positions since.

Ariadne Capital spoke with Courtois in November of this year.

Q. What advice would you give for a US Company planning to take on the European market?

Really, I think there are three important things:

First, make sure that you understand diversity. The mixture of nationalities even within a country requires a whole skill set in itself. The importance of understanding regional and national differences should never be underestimated.

Second, focus on ecosystems and partnerships. Related to the first point, it is critical that a US company not travel with the belief that a relationship that works well in the States can be instantly replicated in Europe. Europe has its own ecosystem. I remember many a representative from a US Company partnering with Microsoft in the States, visiting us in Europe and expecting us to start doing business immediately. Trust needs to be built, in Europe and within Europe, for these partnerships to succeed.

Have patience! It has taken us 20 years to build a truly cohesive pan-European business, and I still feel it is incomplete....One size does not fit all in Europe.

Third, have patience! It has taken us 20 years to build a truly cohesive pan-European business, and I still feel it is incomplete. It takes time to understand a local region and any traveling CEO must take a long-term view.

Q. How would you compare the differences between the IT industries in the United States and Europe?

One size does not fit all in Europe; some countries have business cultures which impact their take-up of new technology. Some countries are early adopters, whereas others might take more of a wait-and-see approach. You just have to factor in this local context when you make your business plan.

Also, in terms of infrastructure, I think it is fair to say that most of the European population is behind the United States in terms of Home and SME user Internet connectivity.

European 3G license costs is another area of difference. The auctions came at a time when Telcos were buoyed by high -  some might say “optimistic” -  stock market valuations. As such, bidding was driven up into realms that made delivering a return very difficult, which has also impacted some companies’ economic future.

Europe has a ‘hot’ software market though – the software market in Europe is worth €54 billion and is the fastest growing technology sector in Europe. It does not have this perception, however, as most companies are much smaller than their US competitors. SAP for example is 8 times larger than its nearest European peer. Still, overall, I think that Europe still lags behind the US in terms of technology take-up, and this is reflected, for example, in the lower penetration of the Internet.

Q. What ‘hot’ new technologies are changing the way people work?

The vision for Dot Net is a ten-year one in which we are in Year Two. Its mission is to revolutionise the way people connect with other people and other businesses. Microsoft develops using industry software standards, which makes building these connections easy.

For example:

• Tesco is using Dot Net because it speeding up the development of a uniformed CRM platform. With this platform it is easier to personalise their offerings for customers based on their preferences

• L’Oreal sees the marketing potential of exposing a customer profile to a customer representative. For example someone could walk into their local boutique and a customer service representative could request permission to bring a customer’s buying profile up on her device to better serve them

• Government bodies such as Tourism España are using Dot Net to better connect their thousands of small tourism sites to their main Spanish Tourist Portal

• Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is using the system to more efficiently pass alerts to traders, broker, and agents

• Even consultancies that might have previously preferred a software requiring a greater integration overhead - to support longer project times – are having to move with the times. The perceived value of innovation for the client means that they are choosing us to develop better solutions for their clients

By embracing standards such as XML, I believe that the most exciting technologies will allow more to do be done by less. Web services can plug into existing legacy systems rather than replacing them for example. Overall there is a greater ROI argument for these new technologies (within 3-8 month projects rather than 2years+)

Q. What else, apart from Dot Net, excites you at Microsoft?

After 18 years at Microsoft, I still wake up each day as if thought it’s my first - although my new grey hairs tell me otherwise!

I feel that Microsoft has a unique opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives outside the arena of pure technology. This is reflected in our new mission to “enable people to realise their potential”.

I see the new economy being a knowledge-based one which is being driven by new software. Microsoft will be at the forefront of this innovation if it continues to strive to partner with new hardwares, government initiatives, and other organisations.

Q. What M&A areas do you see as interesting potentially for Microsoft?

Microsoft is not aggressively looking to make acquisitions, although recent history might suggest otherwise (recent purchases include Navision and Great Plains).

Our guiding principals are that we will invest in companies with great technology and people, but only if it closely aligns with the Microsoft strategy and is strongly needed, such as in our foray into business solutions. Like many companies these days, of course we have made investments that have not done as well as we had hoped - but we have learnt from them.

Really, rather than M&A, we prefer to build partnerships and invest in ‘going to market together’.  We have incubated a number of products from within, such as the tablet pc and the X-Box, and we are developing an incubation team in the United States (headed up by Dan’l Llewyn in Silicon Valley) and Europe to detect external innovation and further build bridges with the Venture Capital community.

Q. What was your lucky break?

I worked for a small software company in Nice when straight out of University. Whilst in Paris in 1984, I met a headhunter who told me about a small software company, based in the suburbs of Paris, with about 300 employees worldwide. I decided to postpone my trip back, met with them and joined Microsoft a week later!

For more information on Microsoft, see: http://www.microsoft.com/