The Whole Nine Yards

Abstract

In 1994, I* was given the challenge to develop a worldwide outsourcing strategy for Microsoft’s marketing programs. At the time, Microsoft was a $4 billion company working to realize Bill Gates’s vision of putting a computer on every person’s desk. In order for Microsoft to achieve this objective, it needed to reach as many people as possible through as many venues as possible, so marketing was a big deal at Microsoft. The company was hiring the best and brightest marketing talent in the business and was challenging them to come up with new ways to reach customers all over the world, resulting in creative new “Marketing Programs” as a key way to reach potential customers. More than a dozen marketing programs had emerged, each needing a different set of operational requirements. Some of these included:

• Disk and document fulfillment

• Courseware program

• Microsoft Certified Professionals

• “Select” corporate licensing program