>> Thanks, Brad. That was really inspiring.
In today's world,
digital tech intensity is more important than ever.
We look to each other to help us
understand where we're going and how we'll get there.
It's my extreme pleasure to welcome
Satya back for a few questions.
>> Thank you so much, Gav,
and a warm welcome to all of you who are watching Inspire.
I want to start by saying a big thank
you to our community of Partners.
Also want to take this opportunity to recognize
and congratulate all of the Partner of the Year Award winners.
It's amazing to see what you have been able to accomplish.
Thank you and congratulations.
Thank you for the work you do to serve our customers.
>> Satya, thank you so much for being here with us today.
COVID-19 has fundamentally reshaped how
companies across the public and private sectors are operating.
How do you balance where Microsoft is today
and simultaneously look at
how we're going to help customers respond,
recover, and re-imagine going forward?
How are you approaching this as you
talk to business leaders in your daily conversations?
>> No. You're absolutely right, Gav.
Across this phase or the three phases of response,
recovery, re-imagine,
digital technology and digital transformation is key.
In fact, I would say digital tech intensity
is key to both resilience as well as transformation.
That's what you see with the Partner opportunity, in fact.
Partners are able to work with businesses,
both create that business continuity and transformation.
The example we used with Patagonia and Sunrise Technologies and
how they use this federation capability of D365.
The fundamentally constrained warehouse as well as
retail environment and yet Patagonia was able to go do business,
that was amazing work by Sunrise.
Agriculture, I know it's Land O'Lakes
has been working with Tavant to
re-imagine what agri-tech and how to
put insights into the farmer's hands,
and change the entire business,
how it happens from the farm to essentially the shelf.
Or in security, we were able to see the work
in Australia by Vigilant IT and
Serenitas and how they use the entire end-to-end zero trust
technology framework to be
able to ensure security for that organization.
In public sector, we saw Piwik Pro working with one of
the largest EU governments and really use
the power of the Cloud to bring agility,
and efficiency, and analytical power at a time of acute need.
So you're absolutely right.
This is a tremendous opportunity for
our Partners because I think the architectural coherence of
our tech stack and our solution areas make
us so much more relevant as an ecosystem to our customers.
>> You're absolutely right.
I have been amazed at the level of innovation,
the level of agility and response that our Partners have had.
I think those are all really tremendous examples.
We just heard in your keynote,
you talk about the importance of having a corporate purpose.
Can you talk about how has this notion of purpose been helpful to
Microsoft and how should it drive
technology focused companies moving forward?
>> I think, Gav, going forward,
each of us have to have that core sense of
purpose that's grounded in the reality that if we are doing well,
that means the world around us should be doing well.
To me, that's at the core.
For example, even take our ecosystem here, which is,
to me for Microsoft to do well,
you all as Partners have to do well.
That's ingrained in our business model.
That's why I always talk about us being a partner led company.
But it's much more than that even.
Because the social purpose of a company is to be able
to create profitable solutions for people and planet.
That's what we are doing when we say our mission is to
empower every person and
every organization on the planet to achieve more.
We want to drive economic growth because of tech intensity.
But our economic growth is not just about economic growth,
it's also about creating more economic inclusion.
Whether it's first-line workers, knowledge workers..
Whether it's small business,
large business across all sectors of the economy in every country,
whether it is developed or developing.
That's most important.
Trust in technology, sustainability,
as well as making sure that we really are standing behind
the fundamental rights for people and against
any of these racial injustice or any of the discrimination.
So these are all things that
your corporate purpose should ensure you do.
So when we participate in any community or any country,
we want to make sure that our mission
and our purpose comes through in all of our activities.
Not just a set of words,
but it's the everyday decision-making.
>> Absolutely. That's so true.
It has to be so authentic.
That's the only way that we get motivated,
that we wake up every day and it's why I love Microsoft.
Microsoft just recently made a significant announcement to
address racial injustice across our culture and our communities.
What role can the Partner ecosystem play
in addressing these pressing societal issues?
>> First, this is a very important issue.
I would say second,
we need to start with our own selves.
To me and Microsoft,
we are redoubling our efforts.
We've been focused on it,
but we have a lot more progress to make.
Especially, I think the world has really seen and come together in
solidarity with the core issues that
the African-American black community
in our country in the United States have faced.
Therefore, it's so important for us to start
with representation and inclusion at Microsoft.
To start with representation at all levels,
this is something that I have to do more work,
everyone at Microsoft has to
do more work and that's where it starts.
But we have put forth
a framework that we want to hold ourselves accountable to,
which starts with Microsoft,
its own change, its own representation,
its own inclusion culture,
but does extend to our ecosystem as well as the communities.
I think each of you as
Partners absolutely can make a huge difference.
In fact, I think us working together perhaps in amplifying,
essentially, this universal frame that we
have is what we will need to do.
It's a very important priority for us and we're
going to have to keep coming back and making sure,
most importantly, that we're making
progress and we're holding ourselves accountable,
like we do for any other thing, like business results.
>> Absolutely. You have my commitment there.
Thank you for your leadership, Satya,
because it is an incredibly important conversation
that we need to continue to have.
We're seeing entire societies and countries
move from a global mindset to one that is nation first.
What does the COVID-19 pandemic tell us
about the state of international collaboration?
Is the trend of globalization going away?
Or do you think we're going to have
a structural shift towards de-globalization?
>> It's a very interesting question.
In fact, I remember coming to the United States
just as the Berlin Wall was falling and the last 30 years,
for sure, have been very different.
But at some level, I take
a very historical perspective on globalization.
Globalization has been going on for millennia.
It will go on for millennia.
The thing though to ask is,
what about all those communities and
people who got left behind in every country,
in the United States,
in the developing world, in Europe,
in Latin America, in Asia because of globalization.
The issue is that I think unless and until we can
ensure that every community thrives,
the world won't thrive.
That I think is the biggest lesson we can take from what you
just described as perhaps, new nationalism.
The new nationalism, at least in my view,
stems from the fact that the benefits of
the last phase of globalization were not evenly distributed.
That's where I believe Microsoft
and our ecosystem are so uniquely different.
Take even the fact that our participation in any country,
through the help of you all,
lead to more local surplus.
The more employees you have,
the more revenue and bottom line you have,
more of the customers you serve, small business,
public sector, large business,
the more surplus they have.
That's what I think is the license to operate.
As a multinational company,
I believe Microsoft only
will have a license to operate in any country,
is if you are creating local surplus.
That's ingrained in our business model.
So I feel, whether it's nation first or globalization first,
I think we have to understand that
unless and until you are creating local surplus,
you're not going to have an economic opportunity
and you're not going to have a license to operate in a country.
To me and Microsoft,
we're grounded in that.
Again, it's embedded in our core business model.
>> I think you're absolutely right.
Thank you so much, Satya,
for spending time with our Global Partner community.
As always, your insight has been enlightening. We appreciate it.
>> Thank you so much Gav. It's great.
>> Okay. So now here's Nick Parker.