Microsoft's Mundie on innovation

By Ramon J Goni
BBC News, in Seattle

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Janet Galore, of Microsoft's Strategic Prototyping Group, gives a tour of the house of the future

Every innovator has a vision for the home of the future and for Microsoft it involves being able to interact with your house through voice and touch. But how can technology firms still innovate during a global downturn?

It could be your kitchen reminding you to take your pills or your mirror telling you how beautiful you look on those jeans.

At least these are some of the ideas that Microsoft's chief research and and strategy office Craig Mundie outlines in a visit to the firm's headquarter's in the US.

While no-one can predict with certainty how technology will change our lives its Mundie's job to make calculated bets on the future.

As a member of President Obama's new science panel, he is also involved in helping the US administration understand the unfolding intersection between technology and society.

He is one of Obama's 20 experts who "will be focusing on some of the longer-term issues of science and technology and how they should help to guide the country forward," he explains.

Industry wide, he tells BBC News there will need to be more investment from both the public and private sector, particularly on the key issues of environment, health care and education.

As an appointee to President Obama's new science panel, Mundie says he believes technology has a role to play in helping revive the economy.

"Some combination of stimulus spending, corporate investment and longer term increases in government funded basic research should all be targeted at these problems," he says.

As a sneak preview of what this future will look like, Microsoft is taking a leap from the impersonal computer screen to people's basic needs at home.

Microsoft is hoping to lead innovation that sits not just inside your computer, your mobile, or a server, but in the very fabric of our homes.

Key concerns

The company's focus is also centred around one of the key concerns of the moment, the environment; both within Microsoft's products and on a wider level.

Mundie explains there is a need for a three-part plan to innovate in a very traditional sector.

Microsoft has suffered, as many companies in the technology sector, simply because of the decline in purchases Craig Mundie, Microsoft

"The first part is to work on our own products in order to be able to ensure they are as efficient as they can be. The second is to actually use our products to be able to lower other people's carbon footprint.

"And finally, the ultimate energy solution requires a variety of either low or zero carbon energy sources. For this to happen, I think the world is going to need some new inventions".

One of Microsoft's more modest steps in this field is an application to manage a company's carbon footprint.

"[It's] a dashboard for a company's carbon productive activities with which it can make informed decisions about what to do in buildings, for their people, having to manage the different types of activities such as travelling".

Of course a recession may not be seen as the best time for research and development. Many companies are struggling to survive and not all firms are willing to go out on a limb with something entirely different.

Difficult times

But Craig Mundie is confident that technology companies can be a catalyst in difficult times.

"All technology companies tend to be a source of innovation and new ideas. Frequently it takes some new thing to spark interest on the part of the public after they have been depressed for a while", he says.

At the same time he acknowledges the industry is not unaffected by the turmoil, Microsoft showed last month a 32% quarterly profit drop, the first in its 23-years history.

"Microsoft has suffered, as many companies in the technology sector, simply because of the decline in purchases. In our case, a large part of our business is driven by PC sales and those have declined year over year and with it our own revenues have declined".

As a result, last week Microsoft laid off 3,000 employees and more cuts are coming. In total Microsoft plans to close 5000 posts, that means more than 5% of it's staff will lose their jobs.

However, that initial picture is not as bleak as it may first appear. They are restructuring their processes and plan to also hire over 2,000 workers in the next 18 months.

Moreover, industry wide the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 70% of all new jobs in science and engineering between now and 2016 will be in the computing fields.

Mr Mundie also underlines the importance of having a breeding ground for innovation which "takes a certain set of factors that come together: infrastructure, capital availability and very importantly the overall academic environment".