Coverage of
The 2002 Microsoft Stampede Conference
By J. Carlton Collins, CPA 

Burgum's Key Note Session

Doug Burgum kicked delivered the key note session, which as usual, was designed to be more inspirational. Presented below are a few highlights of Doug’s key note presentation:

The keynote presentation was kicked of  with  a young child on sax, followed by a movie about potential, followed by a grown man on the sax, followed by back up by a live band, followed by vocalist, accompanied by 3 screens on the main stage and 4 faded screens on the walls and ceiling. The suggestion is that the young boy who played the sax moderately well has the potential to become as good as the experienced sax player who followed him – this guy was really good.

Doug Burgum is introduced and he immediately started talking about “the Human Potential”.

Burgum warned first time Stampeders that his keynotes will not include a lot of product – rather he prefers to talk about a journey. He reminded us that past themes have included Lewis & Clark, Marco Polo, James Cook, and Time & Longitude.

Doug continued talking about “Human Potential” and he asked the question “How high is up? He then talked about Lance Armstrong – the 4-time winner of tour de France – who rode 60,000 -70,000 miles last year just in training. He reminded us that Lance is a  cancer survivor, who now has a heart beat rate of just 30 beats per second. If you are interested in this topic, you can learn more about it here: http://www.lancearmstrong.com/.

Burgum suggested that maybe Microsoft should be funding research on how high is up, how is the human potential – rather than dwell on so much tragedy.  

Doug posed the question: Have you ever asked yourself “what am I doing?”.

Happy people are more willing to help other people. There is no correlation between happiness and wealth, academic achievement – instead happiness correlates to serving others and dancing.

Doug then listed the values by which all 52,000 Microsoft employees were recently evaluated (see picture)

One of the things that impressed me most at the conference was learning about the basis Microsoft uses to evaluate employees. As shown in the screen above – here is the criteria:

1. Integrity and honesty.
2. Passion for customers, partners and technology.
3. Open and respectful with others and dedicated to making them better.
4. Willingness to take on big challenges and see them through.
5. Self critical, questioning and committed to personal excellence and self improvement.
6. Accountable for commitments, results, and quality to customers, shareholders, partners and teammates.

I applaud these criteria. I applaud Microsoft for these criteria. It is a provable fact that you get more of whatever you measure – and by measuring employees more on values rather than numbers, Microsoft provides the incentives in the right places. In essence Microsoft is encouraging employees to show respect, integrity, honesty, and a commitment to self-improvement. I have already incorporated these criteria into our organization – thanks Microsoft!

Doug’s mother was in the audience, she is 87 years old.

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