October 28, 2002

MS Business Services & Douglas Burgum

Forbes: Microsoft bought Douglas Burgum's company and handed him a tall order: Boost sales by $10 billion in ten years. Seems impossible.

Douglas Burgum is an unlikely fit at the top of the world's largest software company. Microsofties have a habit of steering every conversation back to their product line. Not Burgum. At a sales conference in Minneapolis last month, he talked about everything but--the Dalai Lama, Captain Cook, the likelihood of life on Mars. In front of 1,900 software resellers, Burgum launched into a lengthy explanation of why his native state, North Dakota, should drop the directional precedent from its name. "The abbreviation would be obvious, you know," he remarked with just enough dry, down-home accent to hint a punch line was on the way. "Daaah," he bellowed. The audience roared. (full story)
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