Business development is a part of M&A - we identify signals in the market, whether its trends or disruptive technology, and bring them back and address the opportunities. I have three levers I can pull - partnerships, acquisitions, or investments.
— Peggy Johnson
Deals are always a bit lumpy. We look at, 'Is it solving a problem for us?' And if it does, we move to acquisition.
I spent almost 25 years at Qualcomm before joining Microsoft, so in a sense, I grew up at one company. During that time, I made a very big shift from the engineering side to the business side.
I just feel like you should be able to have a respectful work environment, because if you do, you'll be your best self.
I worked on anti-submarine warfare for surface ships.
Cyanogen has done an interesting job with their version of Android - the Cyanogenmod. And they're on 50-million-plus devices. And that's just another ecosystem that we wanted to tap into and to bring our Office apps to.
When text messaging first came out, you could only text within your network, whatever operator you had. It seems silly now, but once those walls came down, all sorts of applications and services were built on top of that. It ended up being good for everybody.
I can still hear my mom's voice echoing through the house, reminding me and my siblings to 'Make your beds!' It seems like such a small thing, but when you're one of 15 brothers and sisters like me, those small reminders about the importance of discipline and order are critical.
It's up to you to define your own brand of leadership and your own version of success.
Valuations are always much-debated. I try to center on what is the value to us. Is it solving a problems for us? If it is, we find a way to proceed. If the valuation has been overhyped on something and it doesn't make sense, we won't. It's very simple for me. I tend not to worry too much about the valuation. It's really what the value is to us.
I think our Acompli acquisition was an interesting one, which started with a partnership and looking at their mobile e-mail app on iOS and Android. And what I would like to highlight with that one is the speed that we actually turned that around and brought it out the door.
The 14th of 15 kids, I was the second youngest - not a coveted spot on the family totem pole.
My parents had two rules: You had to go to college, and you had to pay for it yourself. So we all did.
Acompli is just a great example of a fabulous app.
I spend a lot of time in the Valley. I'm probably down there every other week or so.
'Rather than fighting over a piece of the pie, can we grow the pie?' is really our model.
I had to find my own terms for success, and it wasn't anything like what I was told to do.
M&A at Microsoft is a team sport for the senior leadership group. They're all involved in it, and we all play different roles. My role is the first centralized business development role at Microsoft.
At many companies, business development is treated as a sales tool for incremental growth, but I believe that business development can bend our growth curve in a big way. It should accelerate our ability to grow, helping us quickly close gaps or leap ahead of competitors.
I grew up in a big, blended Irish Catholic family just outside of Los Angeles.
Once I was able to be my more authentic self, I felt like that's when my career really took off. I was just my own voice.
We fully recognized that our customers have a variety of devices. They're carrying all sorts of things. And we want to bring our world-class apps to those devices.
I'm an electrical engineer, and when I first started out, there was nobody who looked like me out there. I worked at Qualcomm, and I remember coming into meeting rooms, and I could never get the floor. I could never get my opinion across.
Great things happen when you converge services and devices.
Very early in my career, I thought I had to conform to one style of leadership - lead by being the loudest one in the room, with the sharpest elbows.
