Microsoft's international man a mystery no more

Jean-Philippe Courtois was named this week as the new president of Microsoft's International division, with responsibility for operations in Japan, China, the Asia Pacific region, Latin America in addition to France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the rest of the EMEA region.

Courtois was previously European chief executive, and has served as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Digital Divide Initiative Task Force and is a member of the South African International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development.

As Courtois begins to settle into his new role, which will be critical to Microsoft's future growth, ZDNet UK caught up with him.

Q: What are your priorities coming into this role?
A: I have four key aspirations in mind. The first is growth — growing the business and accelerating the growth of the business.

Second is to engage more deeply with the pubic sector worldwide. We need to look at how we deliver technology solutions to the local IT industry, and how we can improve that.

Third is emerging markets. I was tasked nine months ago with producing a report on this and I have been involved in shaping a long term strategy for Microsoft. I am very passionate about this.

The last priority is leadership. At the moment we have 15,000 people on the ground in 86 subsidiaries, working in sales and marketing and services and working in research and development in India, China and Europe. I want to make sure I can do a great job leading them.

You served as co-chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Digital Divide Initiative Task Force and are a member of the South African International Advisory Council on Information Society and Development. Emerging markets clearly interest you. Can you provide more detail on what you want to do there?
I had the great opportunity of being engaged in a number of countries with that work, and I can relate what we did in places like Romania and Argentina; for instance, what it takes to create a long-lasting relationship together. One thing we need is a five-year view of what we want to accomplish together. It is not just about selling software, but about building real solutions with governments and businesses.

But the thing we need to focus on as a company is to create a sustainable environment. For every $1 spent on Microsoft products, $7 is spent in the local community for locally-provided software and services. To develop this ecosystem of small companies we need to enable ICT.