Jeff Raikes Quotations

Until now, business intelligence software has been too complex, costly and disconnected from the software tools people use to do their everyday jobs.

There are nearly 300 million PC users out there now, and so that gives us a very, very broad market. So we can put far more, you know, ten times more into R&D of the operating system, yet make it available for one-tenth or less the price.

One way to increase the impact that people can have in an organization is to give them access to the information they need. Until now, BI software has been too complex, costly, and disconnected from the software tools people use every day to do their jobs.

IBM legitimized the notion of the PC -- that it would not be just a hobbyist computer.

What Microsoft has done over the years is bring technology to mass markets, and we think the time has come to do that with business intelligence software. And we're building it into the Office tools that are familiar to everyone.

With Microsoft Office Live, we are making online services available for small businesses to create an enterprise-like IT infrastructure for them without the management requirements. Our goal is to make it easy and affordable for small businesses to have a more customizable Internet-based solution.

What we want to do is to make sure that we're working with you and our partners, the community.

Over the past year, we've reaffirmed our commitment to delivering breakthrough innovation by aligning our development efforts with customers' needs and their current technology environment. Convergence 2006 is certain to provide tremendous opportunity for Microsoft Business Solutions' customers and partners to share ideas and knowledge. Together, we are building a new approach to supporting information workers in the 21st century with integrated, adaptable business management solutions to enable better decision-making, improve productivity and help increase the efficiency of business processes.

Partners play a critical role in delivering solutions and applications to customers with the Microsoft Office System. The value of Solutions Competencies is that they enable Microsoft to deliver resources and training to partners that are meeting their customer needs. And for partners, the opportunity to highlight their expertise to customers is tremendous in the growing IW solution market.

That combination of focus is very, very important, it's very powerful, and I think it really uniquely positions Microsoft to be the best company to be able to meet your needs.

The $500 million, to be spent over a year to buy ads and expand its sales force, is the largest business-oriented marketing campaign ever for the company.

We do think this is a different economy than we saw two to three years ago.

We are on schedule for the launch of Office 2007 by the end of this year for businesses and by early 2007 for consumers. We have scheduled the launch of consumer version in such a way that it is available after the holiday season.

We are making online services available for small businesses to create (big business-like computing) for them without the management requirements.

Within a month, Ray was putting his thoughts on software-as-services on paper.

The software business was dominated by hardware companies, and everybody thought they would just come in and wipe us out. People forget that Microsoft took a huge bet to think that an independent operating system and programming language would be successful.

Activities such as the BAM Minority Student Day are part of a larger Microsoft effort to provide urban high school students with exposure to the real-life experience of working in the high technology industry. Through the event, we also hope to inspire young minority students to become the information technology leaders of tomorrow.

This acquisition advances our (business intelligence) strategy and our ability to deliver performance management applications to customers.

A combination of Microsoft technologies will always have more impact.

It's about breadth and depth and seamless activity across domains.

The Internet is crucial to running a successful business today, and companies that don't have at least an online presence risk missing out. With Microsoft Office Live, we are making online services available for small businesses to create an enterprise-like IT infrastructure for them without the management requirements. Our goal is to make it easy and affordable for small businesses to have a more customizable Internet-based solution.

There's a lot of good that's done for society in building businesses, but it's also great to be involved in those things where you can be connected to the community, to the world, and think about how you can use what you're creating, both in terms of your personal skills as well as your products or services to do good things for others.

Lawyers don't run sales forces.

I'm a person who enjoys the hands-on experience of anything I do. Get your hands dirty - that's the thing that drives and motivates me.

One of my great values that my father intuited, and indirectly taught me, is that you should always have a plan but be open to opportunity.

When families save, they can get through emergencies like a bad harvest or a medical emergency. But it's more than that. They can also plan for the future, gradually saving up for a small business or for their children's school tuition.

At Microsoft, the magic of software is used to take on very interesting challenges.

Even bad results teach you something, and you can learn your lessons and get better.

You know, being an entrepreneur is super hard work, and if you're not passionate about what you're doing, you're probably not going to succeed.

Enterprise search is becoming an indispensable tool to businesses of all sizes, helping people to find, use and share critical business information quickly.

In business, the market gives you feedback in real time. Your sales figures tell you what's working, what isn't, and how you need to change. If you don't listen to the feedback, you go belly up. In philanthropy, there is no market.

In business, there's a constant focus on developing strategies, reviewing executive performance against those strategies each year, engaging with opposing or different points of view, and having intellectual dialogue.

In order to succeed... you have to put a stake in the ground.

Great job. I really enjoyed reading your essay.