THE PRINCIPLE OF AGILITY

Raikes talks about how many palm devises failed before Palm because hugely successful. Microsoft is still working on a tablet PC, though efforts in the past have failed. Microsoft's entrepreneurial success is characterized by persistence: keep investing and keep trying, says Raikes. Persistence is a part of agility. You learn to respond and then you keep trying, he adds.




Group vice president of Productivity and Business Services (PBS) at Microsoft Corp., Jeff Raikes is responsible for Microsoft's Information Worker Business Group (IWBG). He also oversees products and sales for small and midmarket customers and partners, and the company's licensing programs for organizations. In addition, Raikes manages the Business Solutions Group and the Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners group.

Previously, Raikes was group vice president of the Worldwide Sales and Support Group, responsible for providing strategic leadership for Microsoft's sales, marketing and service initiatives. Before that, he served as senior vice president of Microsoft North America, a position he had held since 1993.

Raikes joined Microsoft in 1981 as a product manager and was instrumental in driving Microsoft's applications marketing strategy. Promoted to director of Applications Marketing in 1984, he was the chief strategist behind Microsoft's success in graphical applications for the Apple Macintosh and the Microsoft Windows operating system. In this role, he drove the product strategy and design of Microsoft Office, the leading business productivity suite. Raikes was promoted to vice president of Office Systems, where he was responsible for development and marketing of word processing, workgroup applications and pen computing. Before joining Microsoft, he was a software development manager at Apple Computer Inc.

For contributions to the software industry in the development of Microsoft Office, and in developing opportunities through the Solution Provider program and other innovative efforts, Raikes was inducted into Computer Reseller News Magazine's Computer Industry Hall of Fame in November 2003.

Raikes holds a bachelor's degree in engineering and economic systems from Stanford University. He served on the board of directors of the Software Publishers Association from 1987 to 1993 and twice served as the chairman of the board. Raikes also served on the board of the Washington Technology Center.

A native of Nebraska, Raikes is a trustee of the University of Nebraska Foundation. He is involved with numerous community activities, focusing on education and children's issues. As part of a community effort to preserve major-league baseball in the Pacific Northwest, he joined with other Seattle business leaders in 1992 to purchase the Seattle Mariners baseball club.