My first visit to Microsoft HQ in Redmond

Having just recovered from my jet lag I wanted to share my thoughts of my first trip to Microsoft's HQ in Redmond, USA.

Firstly I had very high expectations of being there, I mean this is the home of one of the worlds largest tech companies!

We arrived on the Saturday afternoon and our first meeting was not till the Monday so I had a couple of days to acclimatise. We arrived at the hotel (my business partner and I) and the first thing we were greeted with in reception was the Microsoft Surface table (who remembers this?).

We then checked in to our rooms and started with a walk around the town. It is clear that Microsoft is not just an isolated campus outside of Seattle, but it's the fabric of Seattle, its everywhere. From a number of high rise buildings (I am told the senior execs are located here), to memorabilia in pretty much every shop right through to people walking around with Microsoft jackets on. Microsoft clearly flows through the veins of this city and it's making me more excited.

We were told by Microsoft employees in the UK that we must visit the Boeing factory as it's an impressive site. So off we set in our convertible Ford Mustang (when in Rome!) and drove to the factory in a place called Everett. We did stop off at a stereotypical American diner which was fab and incredibly friendly. If you get a chance I highly recommend you pop in Totem in Everett (make sure you are hungry!)

After breakfast we arrived at the factory. All I can say is WOW, this place is HUMONGOUS! In fact it's in the Guinness World Records as the largest building in the world by volume at 472 million cubic feed (13.3 million cubic meters). It was like being on the scene of a Discovery Channel documentary. We also got to see what more than £1 Billion Dollars of planes looked like!

So Monday arrives and I couldn't be any more excited, I mean I'd be planning this trip for weeks and having worked with Microsoft for nearly 20 years I felt that I was deserving of this trip.

We drove to the campus and after quickly realising that just typing in to the Sat Nav Microsoft Campus was a mistake, we refined our search and entered in the building number. I was starting to realise that this was not your average campus.

We entered the building from the underground car park in building 42 and were greeted by two welcoming receptionists who showed us to our meeting room. I must admit that at this point I was a little underwhelmed but I had no idea what was ahead.

We had our first couple of meetings and then decided to go for some lunch. So I've been to Microsoft lunch rooms in the UK on many occasions so I wasn't expecting to be surprised but I hadn't considered the enormity of this place. It was like being in a food court in a large shopping centre! Besides all the food the most impressive part was that Microsoft do NOT have people taking payment. Everything is done on trust and people can help themselves to food and use a machine to pay. This really impressed me and made me think that if you trust your people you will get more out of them. Microsoft really is a forward thinking and modern business.In the afternoon we had our EBC (Executive Briefing Council). This is a session held by the senior leads within Microsoft who discuss plans with all of the worlds leading partners. To get to our building all we had to do was hail a free Microsoft taxi who kindly escorted us to our building. This service is so well organised that they coordinate with the control room to collect other visitors/workers to share with the ride with you. 

Upon arriving at the EBC we were greeted by the likes of Phil Sorgen (Corporate Vice President), Clare Barclay (UK General Manager) and many other people. In the boardroom we were given Microsoft Surface tablets to use to make notes, albeit I declined so I could use my amazing Microsoft Surface Book (sorry couldn't resist showing off!).

The one thing that is clearly evident in Microsoft is that they drink a LOT of coffee. Practically everywhere you look there are coffee machines, people serving coffee and definitely people consuming coffee. I will forever more associate the smell of coffee with Microsoft. That said, did you know Starbucks was born in Seattle?

After our EBC day one we got a chance to go to the Microsoft store. This is where all employees can spend all of their hard earned money on Gadgets. Naturally to get there we were picked up by the Microsoft mini bus!

When we arrived at the store we were greeted by two life sized Halo characters (see leading picture). This is the stuff kids dreams are made of. I couldn't spend my money quick enough after convincing myself that all my Xbox one controllers needed upgrading and I needed more Microsoft pens and notebooks!

The next few days the wow experience continued. We got to play with the Microsoft Hololens which was truly unbelievable (sorry no pics allowed due to NDA's) but if you don't know what this is, watch this video and prepare to be amazed. We also got to play and learn about the new Microsoft Surface Hub (shipping now!). The Hub is going to change the boardroom/meeting room forever and if you haven't seen it in action check it out NOW!

Everywhere you go in the campus there is uber cool design and great tech. Inspiring posters decorated the walls and they give you the overwhelming feeling that you are a part of something special being here and people genuinely want to make this a great company.

For those of you who are feeling sorry for me that this was all work and no play! I did manage to take a few days off and drove to Whistler in Canada for 2 days skiing. As they say all work and no play......

Thank you to Microsoft and all the team for making my first trip a memorable one. I loved my time here and learnt so much. More importantly I know there are lots of great tech companies I could work with, but Microsoft are truly pushing boundaries and driving innovation in the work place and changing peoples lives for the better. I am proud to be called a Microsoft partner and I cannot wait to do more with them.

You can follow me on Twitter @feldmannews and on Facebook www.facebook.com/themitchellfeldman/

Generation Now

The one thing I hear a lot of recently is people referring to the next generation of people coming in to businesses. They tend to have lots of names ranging from the New Millennials, Generation Y or even the Facebook generation. Whatever you call them, the one thing that I do know is the undeniable effect that are having on businesses throughout the world.

I have recently returned from the Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference (WPC) in Orlando and during the keynote speech from Satya Nadella he played a video about North American Eagle, a company who are working to break the British land speed record. What the most remarkable thing about this video was not the awesome speed that would excite any petrol head, nor was it the technology and analytics capability that would excite even the dullest of techies, but for me the most unbelievable part was the IT Director. Why I hear you ask? The answer is simple, look at his picture below.

 

This is a kid who can be no older than 25 is not only the IT director but is responsible for a multi-million project that could potentially change the world forever. Crazy right? Well perhaps not. 

IT has changed so dramatically in the last 5 years that even the most technically savvy people are struggling to keep up with the pace of change. This is why companies like North American Eagle and my company Cloudamour are now looking for the next generation of people to help grow our businesses because they just get technology and understand how empowering it is. It’s sewn in to their DNA and the sooner businesses understand this, the sooner they can start to really benefit from their perspective and capabilities.

I am proud to say that apprentices account for 20% of my workforce and if you needed any examples of the positive effects they have had then you only need to know that we've gone from Start-Up to the Microsoft World Wide Cloud Partner of the year in 2 years (no land speed record but it's quick!).

Whilst I was thinking about this blog, I woke up this morning for my daily consumption of Twitter. After skimming through a few posts I was greeted by a newly released video from Microsoft promoting Windows 10. For me this really drummed home the importance of employing the next generation of kids as well as clearly demonstrating how IT is rapidly changing. Check out the video below.

What is really exciting for me is that I have recently had the honour of being asked to join an elite group of business leaders called Trailblazers which is a Government initiative that are responsible for defining apprenticeship standards. Suffice to say If I was excited before WPC, I cannot describe how energised I feel now; I mean I could be responsible for helping the next Brandyn Bayes!

In summary this is no longer about Generation X or even Generation Y, this is Generation NOW and if you don’t start adopting a policy around employing them, the only people that will be breaking records are your competitors!


Mitchell Feldman – CEO & Founder of Cloudamour - @feldmannews

For more information on Cloudamour - https://cloudamour.com For more information on trailblazers - http://bit.ly/1fhLf7f
For more information on North American Eagle - http://www.landspeed.com
For more information about Windows 10 - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/10

My invite to Downing Street

Yesterday I had the honorable duty of visiting No. 11 Downing Street to attend a drinks reception to celebrate some of the fastest growing and creative companies in the UK.

Suited and booted I arrived at the Downing Street gates on Whitehall at 4.50pm and my first buzz was the experience of walking through all the tourists who only could dream of going inside.

I then went through the security checks which were akin to going through Heathrow airport security. I was worried my oversized electronic cigarette would send them into an alert frenzy but fear not they let me through.

I then proceeded to walk past No. 10 and convinced the Policeman to let me do a selfie (see the leading picture). I felt rather regal at this point and almost out of place but was enjoying my moment of fame.

Upon entering No. 11 (some 20 photos later) I was greeted by the butler who ushered me in and was very keen for me to instantly depart from my mobile phone! I was gutted, I wanted to live tweet from inside, post pictures to Facebook but apparently it was a security risk! My mobile never leaves my side and I was suffering from FOMO (fear of missing out), but this moment was bigger that my eddiction (technology addiction) so I sadly parted company with my trusted Windows phone :( The only good news was that the butler wasn’t wearing a tie so instantly I removed mine and enjoyed the ability to be able to breathe again!

I then went up the stairs towards the drawing room and on the staircase the walls were littered with political satire cartoons that I assume were taken from the broadsheets over the past 50+ years. I found this rather bemusing as I was hoping to see a Van Gogh or even a Picasso but no such luck. Clearly comedy in politics is a big thing and I couldn't help but think how ironic this was.

I was then ushered in to the drawing room and was greeted with White Wine, Water, Orange Juice or Elder Flower water. I guess Mojito's and B52's are the drink of choice with our country’s finest. I decided on water as the last thing I needed to be was drunk and for those that know me, 1 drink and I am in trouble. This is the only time in my life I become a lightweight :)

I mingled with all the guests and MP’s and met with some amazing people from across the country including a teacher of Shakespeare to under privileged kid’s right through to a young kid who has won the contract from Google to do their street view images for inside businesses.

After about an hour we were then greeted by the rather youthful looking George Osborne. He was the consummate professional and whilst he was not able to give us much air time I genuinely felt he was proud of our success and was sincere in his praise. We did however manage to get a picture with him which will make my mum and dad happy! I also found out the George's father and uncle own Osborne and Little which is apparently a famous wallpaper manufacturers. Who knew?

After about 30 mins he left the room and I continued to work the room in my normal introvert way! I met with a great guy called Simon Marcus who is the conservative candidate for Hampstead. He was not only a true gentlemen but also gave me a lift in his taxi to my car so he absolutely gets my vote! After spending 20 mins in a taxi with him and his entourage I came to two definitive conclusions, Firstly I know nothing about politics and the language they were speaking was probably as alien to me as it is to my clients when I speak to about IT. Secondly I realised that there is so much bureaucracy in politics that I definitely wouldn’t enjoy it! Thanks Simon for the lift, I really appreciated it.

All in all this was a once in a lifetime experience and I really enjoyed it. I really felt honoured, humbled but at the same time really proud of myself for all that I have achieved in such a short space of time. I look forward to what the future has in store for me and Cloudamour next.