Enterprise Nation

Meet Steve? Yes, please!

The invitation came through a few weeks ago. It came from a company called Influencer 50, run by the very capable Duncan Brown.

The invitation was to join Steve Ballmer (worldwide chief of Microsoft) for breakfast and hear his views on technology and small business.

It took me all of 5 seconds to reply. Yes, please, I’d love to come.

Warming up

The action kicked off at 9am with a warm-up act of:

• Miles Templeman, Director General, Institute of Directors
• Robin Jarvis, Head of Small Business Unit, ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants)
• Adam Jackson, head of BERR (Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform)

Miles Templeman was my particular favourite and showed sharp observations that are mentioned below.

This was followed by a Q&A session which was good and framed with a growing feeling of excitement as time came for Steve to enter the room.

Making an entrance

And then there he was. Right in front of me. The real Steve Ballmer. Except there was something slightly unreal about him.. his voice. It was sexily raspy and became incredibly loud at the most unusual moments. There is a video recording of the event which hopefully we’ll link to so you can hear what I mean.

He didn’t speak for long but he did listen to the views of the audience; the audience being representatives from the UK small business community.

My question was:

“With 60% of businesses in the UK being started from home (and 33 million home businesses in the US) do you plan to come to market with a home business product? Because at the moment when I visit Microsoft.com it asks if I’m:

• A home user
• A business user

But I’m both!"

Steve B said the home business market is very big and important for Microsoft and he took the point. He then took a pen out of his pocket and wrote a note on a little yellow piece of paper. So who knows. Maybe the next time you log on to Microsoft home page it will say “welcome, home business owner.”

Whether it does or not, I’ve now got Steve’s email address. But then again, so does everyone else who was in the room. So much for getting my hair done. – Emma Jones

On a serious note, some serious points of learning from the morning:

• The UK economy is moving to a state where big companies are getting bigger, medium sized companies are struggling and niche businesses are thriving (this bodes very well for the home business sector)
• Technology is being applied by small businesses in three main ways:
• Defensive – to improve operations and productivity
• Attack – to spur expansion
• Business model – new businesses are being started that depend on technology as a platform in its own right
• 78% of small businesses are concerned about data security and continuity
• “I’m optimistic about the future” .. Miles Templeman, Director General IoD
• 74% of all businesses in the UK are one person businesses
• In 1931 politicians and economists came together and decided that the finance needs of small businesses were not being sufficiently met. Fast forward to 2008. What’s changed?!
• Only 0.03% of British companies are quoted on the London Stock Exchange
• “Small business is the single largest part of the business IT market yet still the most under-served” , Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive, Microsoft, 1^st October 2008