I knew the environment would be dynamic and fast-paced – a reflection of its focus on driving innovation in the cloud. And I understood that CEO Satya Nadella had implemented some serious cultural changes over the past few years. I identified with Microsoft’s emphasis on empathy and empowering others to achieve more, but it wasn’t until I started that I realised Microsoft genuinely practices what it preaches, from diversity and inclusivity to building technology that makes a difference in society.

These thoughts came to mind again recently, when I spent the week at Microsoft HQ in Seattle with 176 fellow MBAs from 23 countries at Start Strong to kick off the Microsoft Aspire MBA programme.

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a two-year programme designed to help MBA graduates build strong relationships, accelerate leadership, and develop a meaningful career with Microsoft. So, what did I take away from our first in-person event?

Building authentic human connection

I’m not talking about networking in the traditional sense. This isn’t a job fair. Think interaction that fosters genuine connections between people who may have different backgrounds but similar career goals.

It started with a simple day one ice-breaker:

What do you feel? What might be distracting you? What is your intention for the day?

As basic as it may seem, we can often forget to touch base with team members who may be feeling stressed or down. By vocalising our feelings, it helps to focus our purpose for the day.

Across four days, we were assigned to different groups and participated in a variety of activities designed to help us to build as many authentic human connections as possible. In the workshop ‘The power of human connection’, we were paired with each other to answer questions like…

What do I love the most? What do I fear the most? What do I hope for the most?

Building trust in a safe environment is the name of the game here – and with someone I’d never met before, running  counter to common belief that trust must be built over time. As the facilitators mentioned, ‘trust is something you give someone, not something you earn.’

This idea also extended to the ‘Finding my values’ workshop. Here, where we talked extensively about our triggers, acknowledging our emotions, and pressing pause to figure out the course of action. Verbalising what my triggers are – an overflowing inbox is one, another is being hangry! – helped me understand what I bring when I’m not at my best, and the impact it has on others.

We win when we empower others and collaborate

‘Partnerships are journeys of mutual exploration, and we need to be open to unexpected synergies and fresh ways to collaborate. Openness begins with respect – respect for the people at the table and the experiences they bring, respect for the other company and its mission.’ – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Hit Refresh

While Satya was talking about partnerships with our competitors, it can also refer to internal competition, and the common perception that business school students are vying to outdo one another.

From my experience, that hasn’t been true. During the MBA, collaboration brought more benefits than competition. Don’t get me wrong, healthy rivalry in the professional setting of a case competition can be stimulating, but I always learnt more working with my classmates rather than against them. This has also been true about my time so far at Microsoft – our KPIs demand we build on others’ work and help colleagues succeed. My teammates often compliment each other on their work or how they tackled a problem. We give each other kudos, and are genuinely interested in each other’s perspectives during meetings.

During our week, we simulated running Microsoft for 4 years where the goal was not just revenue and consumption, but also to foster a culture of inclusivity and customer obsession. Halfway though, teams were told to swap one member out for a member from another team. Though our team came close to last place, a key lesson learnt was around on-boarding and asking the incoming team member what worked for them and what our strategy was, instead of just carrying on business as usual.

One of my favourite workshops was a hackathon to develop a sales tool or process to help the 30,000 Microsoft sellers improve information flows between themselves and customers, or between themselves and internal stakeholders.

My team saw people from finance, HR, tech sales, product marketing, and CMO join together to come up with SAM (Seller Automated Messenger), a chat-bot in the guise of a cute owl. Using machine learning and AI, the bot was able to assess customer requests and route them to the right seller. By inviting the sales specialist on our team to start by explaining her pain points, and by bringing in expertise from our different business areas, we were able to quickly map her problems to solution areas. It’s another example of how diversity helps us better collaborate.

Don’t know it all, learn it all

It’s no secret that Microsoft has a learn-it-all culture, but what does that really mean? Jo Sweales, Microsoft UK’s L&D Business Programme Manager, believe it’s, ‘someone who’s keen to obtain as much information, different points of view and detail as they can in order to perform to the best of their ability and deliver the greatest results. They understand that feedback is crucial to both bring the best solutions and their best selves every day.’

Start Strong was the beginning of our learning career at Microsoft. An example was the tech workshop where we analysed customer requirements for a fictional sports league association. We were tasked with designing a solution to modernise their e-Commerce website and backend services using Azure PaaS.

Several times in the discussion, I found myself looking on cluelessly while the cloud architects in our group delved into fault tolerance, regional failover plans, and blob storage. As someone who normally likes to hit the ground running with three-part frameworks, I found myself unable to contribute technically. In the end, however, the non-technical members of the group and I asked so many questions that our solution had few holes in it that could be poked. I also really appreciated how the more knowledgeable team members took time to explain the difference between PaaS and IaaS, for instance, even finishing off with a demo of Visual Studio.

The power to do amazing things

And it’s not just learning about our products. This is an opportunity to take on new skills, habits, ways of working, and continuously improving to deliver the best for internal and external customers. Most people I’ve met at Microsoft are naturally curious. They almost always probe deeper into any given piece of information or data, yet their self-awareness enables them to take on board any feedback.

My personal learning list is getting longer by the day – it’s literally titled ‘things to do when I have time’. It ranges from Azure Fundamentals through to courses on LinkedIn Learning and our AI Business School. And that’s before we start on the countless free eBooks employees can borrow through Microsoft Library. By the way, one of the books on Bill Gates’ reading list, Nine Pints, is a fascinating read about blood and its history.

As Microsoft’s Global Aspire Program Manager Toni-Marie Lowney – who seamlessly pulled off this event off with her team – put it:

‘All of you have the power to do amazing things and as you start your career in Microsoft, the Aspire team are all looking forward to seeing, hearing about and being a part of your journey.  As you return to your role and teams next week challenge yourselves to think differently, to apply what you have learnt and to continue to invest in yourself.’

Find out more

For more information on the Microsoft Aspire MBA, check out the careers page.

If you’re interested in our learn-it-all culture, take a look at How to introduce a learn-it-all culture in your business: 3 steps to success and watch the session from Future Decoded.

About the author

Alissa joined Microsoft UK two months ago, having completed her MBA at Madrid’s IE Business School, and is part of the Microsoft MBA Aspire programme. As paid media lead, she ensures that locally relevant stories and key insights are being delivered to the right digital audiences at the right time. Passionate about tech for good and tech as an enabler to achieve more, Alissa also works on the digital marketing strategy for Microsoft’s UK AI output, covering everything from the AI for Good accelerator programme to AI research.

The post Starting Strong: 3 takeaways from Microsoft’s MBA Aspire Week appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.

But a closer look reveals that only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs in the UK is female, and according to a  Review of Female Entrepreneurship by Alison Rose, Deputy CEO of NatWest Holdings and CEO of Commercial and Private Banking, women are half as likely as men to pursue entrepreneurship. Yet, as Microsoft’s Executive Vice President of Business Development, Peggy Johnson reveals, women-led companies deliver higher returns over time than those founded by men. 

Biggest barriers

As a small business owner myself prior to joining Microsoft, increasing female representation in entrepreneurship and technology has always been important to me. At Microsoft, I’m surrounded by high-performing women, many of them also founders themselves, who do all they can to empower their customers and team members to achieve more. 

Some of the biggest barriers to starting a business identified in the review is cultural – that women are less likely to believe they have entrepreneurial skills, are more risk-averse and fear ‘going it alone’.  

To help address these concerns, we interviewed female founders who graduated from last year’s Microsoft AI for Good cohort, a 4-month accelerator programme delivered by Microsoft for Startups in partnership with the Social Tech Trust. Together, they’re helping UK organisations with a social mission to advance their AI solutions that fall into the following pillars: AI for Earth, AI for Accessibility, AI for Cultural Heritage and AI for Humanitarian Action.

Amanda Pickford, founder and CEO of thermal imaging software start-up ThermaFY, graduated from last year’s AI for Good programme under the AI for Earth umbrella. Isabel Van de Keere, CEO of Immersive Rehab, creates interactive physiotherapy programmes in virtual reality for people with neurological upper limb mobility limitations and balance issues. Immersive Rehab was part of the AI for Good 2019 cohort under the AI for Accessibility pillar, joined also by Rene Perkins, the CEO and founder of CityMaas, a disability-friendly travel app that leverages crowdsourced data, AI and adaptive filtering technology to recommend the best routes for both able and disabled travellers. 

We asked them what they thought the top skills were that had helped them achieve success in starting their own business and getting their idea off the ground. 

1. Taking risks

ThermaFY CEO Amanda Pickford describes herself as an entrepreneurial pioneer, having left school at 15 and started her own business at 19. She identified an issue around the interpretation of the images and took advantage of an opportunity to develop software that could use machine learning and image analysis to produce visual reports, at first in the equine market. Amanda saw first-hand how risk-taking paid off, saying that:

“One of the first things I did was working with a research company. I wanted to test our software and ensure it did what it said on the tin, so we did a research project with the Veterinary School at Edinburgh university. And they loved it!”  

Shortly after, Amanda connected with Bosch, who ended up selling their software through their distribution networks. This was the moment that led to ThermaFY developing efficiency software to tackle heating inefficiencies for the housing industry.  

Since graduating from the AI for Good cohort, Amanda has seen a change in her business, both from a skills and business growth perspective: 

“We came [into the cohort] as app developers. Now we have a suite of tools, training modules, metric dashboards and so much more. Additionally, I couldn’t pitch for toffee, the tools and confidence that Microsoft and their team have given me has transformed the way I now pitch, this will have a major impact on me and the business as we go forward.” 

Amanda, who was recognised as Innovator of the Year in this year’s Women in Enterprise Scotland Awards, has this advice for other female founders: 

“Go out and give it a go. Don’t be scared of failure. Go and try and tackle some of the big issues in society. Give it a shot… it’s good fun!” 

CityMaas CEO, Rene Perkins, also believes women should be bold with their vision.  

“Be confident in your own vision and ability to deliver – this is very important to external stakeholders and investors, who tend to be male. Ultimately, though, female entrepreneur or not, we need to remember we are all individuals. Please let your individual self-shine through, don’t be afraid to be open and show your knowledge, skills, experience and most importantly the challenges you’re facing. Only when you are fully aware of your current challenges at a detailed level you are able to ask for specific help from like-minded individuals and organisations around you, as I experienced during the AI for Good programme.” 

Amali de Alwis, UK Managing Director of Microsoft for Startups, echoes this sentiment: 

“Be ambitious and you have absolutely more knowledge that you think you have, so have a go and get started!” 

2. Communicating with empathy

Building rapport with employees, setting the company vision and delivering a business pitch are moments when communication skills need to be at their peak. Isabel Van de Keere, CEO of Immersive Rehab, explains why she thinks communication skills are of particular importance. Immersive Rehab, who recently took their virtual reality physiotherapy solution to trial stage in various hospitals and rehab clinics, was recognised by TIME Magazine as one of the 12 innovations that would change healthcare in 2020.

“Being able to articulate your company’s mission and why you founded it is key to engage customers, users, corporate and investment partners. Listening is equally important to get feedback from your different stakeholders. And lastly, enabling two-way communication with employees is something I strongly believe in,” says Isabel. 

3. Building resilience

Both Isabel and Rene ranked resilience as a key skill for female entrepreneurs. 

“Building a business is hard and can often feel like you’re on a rollercoaster with many highs and lows on the journey. There will be hopefully more highs than lows, but in order to get through all these stages of building a business, being resilient and having the perseverance to pursue your mission and vision for the business is key,” says Isabel. 

“Surround yourself with a great support network, both within the start-up world of founders and outside of the start-up bubble, as this will help to keep your resilience up and allow you to reflect on things, helping you stay grounded in hectic times. And finally, try to sleep well, don’t forget to get some personal me-time every day and exercise to stay on top of things or spend time doing your ultimate de-stressing activity.” 

Although having subject matter expertise and the technical acumen to launch a business are important, developing crucial soft skills can help more women overcome the oft-experienced ‘imposter syndrome’.  Increasing female representation in the start-up scene makes room for people with different experiences to create technology to help solve challenges for all of society and meet the needs of our increasingly diverse world. 

At Microsoft, our mission is to empower every person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. That’s why we’ve launched the Female Founders Competition through Microsoft’s venture fund M12 in partnership with Malinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures and Mayfield Fund, and closer to home for the second year running, the  AI for Good accelerator programme.

Applications are now open until 22 November 2019, so if you’re an entrepreneur with a social mission thinking of using AI to advance your tech solution to make the world a better place, apply now!

Find out more

Watch the session with Dr Isabel Van de Keere, CEO of Immersive Rehab, on how virtual reality can be used to transform the patient experience for rehabilitation. 

Listen to the Women in AI panel from Future Decoded discuss ethics and AI for Good. 

About the author

Alissa joined Microsoft UK two months ago, having completed her MBA at Madrid’s IE Business School, and is part of the Microsoft MBA Aspire programme. As paid media lead, she ensures that locally relevant stories and key insights are being delivered to the right digital audiences at the right time. Passionate about tech for good and tech as an enabler to achieve more, Alissa also works on the digital marketing strategy for Microsoft’s UK AI output, covering everything from the AI for Good accelerator programme to AI research.

The post 3 skills to position female founders for success appeared first on Microsoft Industry Blogs - United Kingdom.