Phil Sorgen's business is high-tech communications, but don't let that fool you. That isn't necessarily the way he does business.

To Sorgen, the transplanted American who assumed the reins as president of Microsoft Canada in January, it's still a people business.

It's apparent that the rising star in Microsoft's management ranks isn't one of those high-tech executives held prisoner by his e-mail server. The youthful Sorgen is a staunch believer in old-school face-to-face communications and relationship-building, which has been his calling card in his decade pitching Microsoft's IT products in U.S. markets.

And the native Texan plans to emphasize that personal touch with Microsoft Canada as the organization hits a pivotal stage of development.

Brennan O'Connor, Business Edge
Microsoft Canada president Phil Sorgen will continue to emphasize the personal touch as he settles into his new job.

1. Are you from an entrepreneurial family?

"As a youngster, I was definitely surrounded by people who were focused on business. My father was in a smaller private business when I was growing up. My grandfather was a very big influence in my life, my boyhood idol. He was in the United States postal service and held some very senior roles in that organization. That's where I learned a lot about people management, people leadership and how to progress organizations. My grandfather taught me some very important life lessons about how to connect with people, how to set goals, how to continue to refine them and drive towards them. He also taught me the importance of feeling accountable for your actions."

2. What were the most important lessons you learned about marketing success in your early years in business?

"The very first thing I learned is that we're in a people business and it fundamentally all starts with the people and the relationships you develop. People aspire to do business, to work with and even socialize with people that share similar values, are trustworthy and demonstrate integrity in their actions and how they interact with people. So it's important that you think about the people component of the job. It's not just about what you have to sell. It's about how you ensure and instill in them that you're someone who will be there for them."

3. How did you land your first job with Microsoft?

"It happened through being in the same industry. NCR (his previous employer) was in the high-tech industry and we had numerous opportunities to meet people in Microsoft, particularly in the Dallas office. I also saw the vision for where they (Microsoft) saw computing going and the role that they could play through software. That was very intriguing to me. So the combination of the experiences I brought and the direction I could provide for their company made it a very good fit for both of us. The leadership of a company is always something you look at when you make decisions on where you want to invest your time and your energy. And the leadership of this company was definitely one of the things that tipped me over."

4. How well do you know Bill Gates (Microsoft's founder)?

"I've met Bill Gates through business meetings. I look at him as a visionary leader who is very focused on innovation. It's why Microsoft continues to invest $6.9 billion US a year in research and development. We're a company that believes we have to have that spirit of innovation and we've got to drive further productivity in our organization to be a highly successful organization for many years to come. That I've definitely seen come out, not only in the culture of our organization but even in the business meetings I've been in that he has been in. In those meetings, he definitely drove that feeling through the organization. And I don't want to say Bill Gates is alone. Steve Ballmer (CEO) and many of our other executives are very strong in driving that spirit of innovation."

5. What impresses you most about Gates?

"I look at him as someone who's a visionary in how he thinks about innovation and how technology can solve real-world business challenges. The second thing I think about Bill is that not everybody that has strong technical acumen and vision is also a good business leader. And he's demonstrated and proven in his time running Microsoft that he's a great business leader. Thirdly, through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he's also a very charitable person who cares deeply about society. And those are three characteristics you want in the leadership of an organization you're associated with."

Phil Sorgen

6. What has your 10 years at Microsoft done for your personal development?

"During that time, Microsoft has evolved a lot as a company, so I've had an opportunity to grow along with it. I think I was one of those people that continuously tried to take control of things and I learned quickly in this organization that we have such great people around us that you've got to empower them to do their jobs and you've got to delegate a lot of the activities and the core things. You've got to make them very clear on what they're responsible for, then let them run their business and hold them accountable for the results. That was one of the most important lessons for me in a company that was growing very fast in employees. At the same time, I was scaling through the organization and taking larger areas of responsibility. You have to trust the people in your organization to deliver and that can only be achieved through clear goals, clear accountability and holding them responsible for the results."

7. Was taking the job as president of Microsoft Canada an easy decision for you?

"My family is so important and such a central part of my life, and I don't think you can be successful in life without having that balance of work and home life. So any time you make a decision that is uprooting your family, that's a serious decision. But getting to come to Microsoft Canada in this role was such an exciting opportunity. We have such a great group of people here. The spirit of this organization is not one that just wants to do business in Canada. It's an organization of people that want to be part of the fabric of the communities they serve. The combination of a great business environment, a great country and a great group of people that are aligned to the same values and beliefs that I share made it a very easy decision to come here and lead a very outstanding organization."

8. How do you plan to put your stamp on Microsoft Canada?

"One thing I've learned in growing through this organization is that I'm one person and it's not just about me. I have a great leadership team and this is a great organization. When I think about what my stamp would be, what my vision for this company is, I don't know if it will be such a unique and different stamp than that of my predecessors or of others that are driving the company.

"We want to make sure that Microsoft Canada is a fabric of Canadian culture and the marketplace that we serve, and that we're relevant in the communities we serve. The second thing is that we are very consistent and capable of taking advantage of the outstanding wave of innovation that's coming over the next 12 to 18 months at Microsoft. We haven't had this wave of innovation in the last five years. Our ability to take advantage of that growth will be something that's very important in my leadership of this organization. And the third thing is to have the best partner ecosystem in the industry. We have 25,000 partners in Canada and these partners do a great job leveraging our R&D investments and adding their own investments in IP creation that further extends and enhances the Microsoft platform to enable our joint customers to really realize their full potential. It's all about solving business challenges for our customers, and only together with our partners can we do that every day."

9. What do you consider your greatest challenge in Canada?

"First, the IT industry is a vibrant industry and there's so much innovation happening. Focusing on the competition is always a challenge we take very seriously and we have a tremendous respect for our competition. Through our partners and with our partners, we'll work very hard to demonstrate the business value to our customers. As we bring more and more solutions that Microsoft traditionally hasn't been in over the years, we've got to show that those products solve the business needs of our customers and represent the solutions that they're looking for."

10. How does the IT market in Canada differ from that of the U.S.?

"There are a few differences. First of all, as the new person in the country, I'm certainly not an expert in this.

But one thing Microsoft sponsored in 2005 was the Can>Win Conference. The Can>Win Conference brought together education, government and business to really focus on the issues facing Canada. And one of the most prominent issues, which also surfaced during the federal elections in January, was the importance of increasing productivity in Canada, which has traditionally lagged many other countries, including the U.S. What came out of the Can>Win Conference was a consistent theme that (what) will drive productivity is innovation, education and lifelong learning and anything that represents a barrier to innovation. The Information Technology Association of Canada released a study that showed that Canadian companies invest approximately 43 per cent less in information and communications technology than their U.S. counterparts. That alone says that we have to work more effectively to help show how Canadian companies can get a return on investment for the work they do."

11. Which of Microsoft's newer products will have the biggest impact on how Canadian companies do business in future?

"I wouldn't narrow it down to one. But I do think the consistent thread there is that all companies are striving for greater productivity. The enhancements that we're bringing out in products like Office, Windows Vista, our portal products like SharePoint Portal and our database products will give greater ability to develop tools that allow you to search your information much more quickly. The combination of all those and the integration between them are doing exactly what the customers are telling us they want. Our customers want ubiquitous access to their information regardless of their device, and they want their knowledge workers and their employees to be much more efficient and productive in their day-to-day work. The wave of innovation we have coming is pretty astounding ... and sets us up for tremendously good times."

12. What's your sense in terms of the outlook for the IT market in general?

"After around 2000, there was a lot of excess capacity in the marketplace. As an industry, we've been building back up from that period. When you look at employee hiring figures and you look at the number of employees in the industry, we're back above those (2000) levels again. You could say there's been quite a bit of steady growth and we're very bullish about the opportunity that IT represents. And the role of emerging countries like Brazil, Russia, India and China in the global economy, with very large populations, is going to change fairly significantly. All of the more mature markets are looking at how to increase productivity, and IT plays such a prominent role in that when done right. One of the things that it also creates is the demand for a workforce. Right now, two-thirds of all the computer science graduates in the world are coming of out India and China. So it's really important that business, government and education work together to get more students introduced into maths and sciences early on and start increasing the percentage of students enrolling in and graduating in the sciences."

13. Google has stolen some of Microsoft's thunder in recent years and there's a perception that Microsoft has been dragging its feet a little bit. What's your view of that?

"We greatly respect Google as a competitor and through our efforts with MSN we are continuing to invest a significant amount of R&D to provide the best search platform. So we're very focused on investing and doing a great job in that market."

14. Are you taking a long-term view of your job at Microsoft Canada, or do you expect to move to another role in the organization in the not-so-distant future?

"You know, I'm 60 days into this job and couldn't be more excited to be in this role. And I'm not thinking ahead of that. I plan to be here for a long time and I'm looking forward to building relationships here, both personally and professionally. So I'm very excited about being here and I've been committed from Day 1. Having moved a couple times before with Microsoft, there's never been a time that I've moved my family faster. I've got my daughter enrolled in school and we've put in our roots. We look forward to being in the Microsoft Canada family for some time to come."

15. What do you consider your strengths as a business leader?

"I'll start with people connection. Since the philosophy of people in the foundation is so deeply rooted in me, I think I tend to be a strong communicator. I think some of the world's best leaders are great simplifiers with the ability to take complex challenges and break them down into manageable tasks or manageable components that people can understand, act on and take action against. I think that's a strength of mine. And then there's the ability to think strategically and solve problems. That is something that I work hard to demonstrate every day. I think that's critical to your success when you're leading a business this size."

16. What's your ultimate career goal?

"That's a great question. A lot of people think of it in terms of a job. I think of it in terms of the kinds of things you get to be a part of and contribute to. And my career goal is to continue to be challenged and continue to learn every day that I come to work, and to continue to work around great people that motivate me and inspire me and that I have an ability to influence.

"And I want to continue to be part of an organization that I respect. I think too many hours of non-sleeping time are spent at work and it has to be a place you enjoy and an organization that you respect and trust and feel connected to. And as long as I have that equation, I know I'll be quite satisfied."

17. Do you aspire to be the CEO of the parent company some day?

"Right now, I aspire to be a great president of Microsoft Canada and I haven't thought that far ahead. There is no question about my desire and my ambition to do great things for this company and the people around me, because I really do think it's not fundamentally about me. It's about the team I'm a part of."

18. What would it take for an IT competitor to pry you away from Microsoft?

"You know, I have such a tremendous admiration for this company and I think there are such great things to come, so it's not something that's even entered my mind."

19. What do you think your late grandfather would say about the way your career has evolved?

"I think he'd be quite proud if he was here, not because I'm now president of Microsoft Canada but because every step I've taken along my career I've followed the same values that he held so dearly. Whether it reflected itself in promotions that gave me more senior roles or not, he would be proud that I always stayed true to my values and my beliefs and they were aligned with his. It wasn't so much what my grandfather said. It was how he demonstrated his actions in life and he always lived true to those. It just inspired you and taught you so much about doing something and doing it right, the difference between getting it done versus making an impact, the difference between how you thought about people and how you inspired people to be the best they can be - while learning to be the best you can be."

20. What's your most important personal goal beyond business?

"This may sound simple, but at the end of the day life is sort of fleeting. And to be happy, to be balanced and to have the support professionally and the support personally at home and to know that all of that is in balance, is the most important thing for me. And I don't think that when any one of them gets out of alignment, it's sustainable over the long term. So I've always strived to really do that self-assessment and try to be self-aware of whether I had that balance and was demonstrating it in both my interactions at home and at work. And with that comes that very simple term about being happy in life.

And I think that's such an important thing that people forget too often and forget to ask themselves and challenge themselves on enough."

Phil Sorgen

* Title: President, Microsoft Canada.

* Born/Raised/Age: New York/Dallas/39.

* Lives: Oakville.

* Education: University of North Texas, bachelor of arts degree; master's degree, business administration.

* Career: Sorgen entered the information technology industry as a national account manager for NCR/AT&T GIS, dealing with enterprise customers in the retail industry. His career with Microsoft began in 1996 as general manager for the Gulf Coast, overseeing operations in south Texas and Louisiana. Sorgen has also been general manager of Microsoft's U.S. enterprise sales operations Team and a member of the Microsoft U.S. leadership team responsible for business strategy. He was named Microsoft Canada president in January. He is on the board of directors of the Information Technology Association of Canada.

* Recommended business books: The Rise of The Creative Class, by Richard Florida; The World is Flat, Thomas L. Friedman; Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck.

* Favourite movie: Apollo 13.

* Pastimes: Golfing, playing soccer.

Microsoft Canada

* Profile: Microsoft Canada was founded in 1985. As a subsidiary of Microsoft, it provides sales, marketing consulting and local support for Microsoft products and services in both English and French. With 10 regional offices, Microsoft Canada's annual sales exceeded $1 billion in 2006.

* Accolades: Microsoft Canada was lauded in 2005 as one of Report On Business Magazine's 50 Best Employers and was also honoured on Maclean's list of Canada's Top 100 Employers.

* Windows of opportunity: Microsoft Canada has forged 25,000 small and large enterprise partnerships and has 200 Certified Gold partners.

* Community networking: Microsoft Canada has developed the I Can community programs, providing financial aid, software and volunteer support. In April of 2005, Microsoft Canada released the child exploitation tracking system (CETS), a breakthrough technology for deterring online child exploitation, used by Canadian law enforcement. The company's safe computing program, a joint initiative with the University of Toronto's Centre for Innovation Law and Policy (CILP), has developed seminal research on online child exploitation prevention (www.innovationlaw.org).

* Head office: 1950 Meadowvale Boulevard, Mississauga, L5N 8L9.

* Phone/Fax: 905-568-0434/ 905-568-1527.

* Web Watch: www.microsoft.ca

(Gyle Konotopetz can be reached at gyle@businessedge.ca)