Raikes explains that PowerPoint was created as a new way to present overhead slides. Microsoft made the bet that people would be willing to change the way they present information and launched PowerPoint into one of their most successful applications. You have to listen to your customers, but you also have to see beyond what your customers do now to what they might do in the future, he says.

1. Be Open to Opportunity
2. Overview of Microsoft Today
3. Challenges in Structure Transformation: Microsoft Business Divisions
4. The Principle of Agility
5. The Importance of Vision
6. Innovation in Business Models
7. The Value of Broad-Based Leadership and Experience
8. Small/Medium Businesses and the Internet
9. The Principle of Persistence
10. Choosing the Path That is Right for You
11. Can a Company Be Successful at Both Software and Hardware?

Jeff Raikes lectures on Entrepreneurship for Stanford University students, May 5, 2004. As 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. In this Stanford lecture, he talks about product innovation in software, choosing the path that is right for you and the principle of agility.

Related Links: www.microsoft.com
Last Updated: Mon, Jun 5, 2006

Course Details:
- Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Speaker Series
- Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner (ecorner)

Original Course Name: Entrepreneurial Thought Leader Speaker Series.