As I travel around Europe extolling the value and benefits of collaboration, I find occasionally that the importance of Ray Ozzie in the Microsoft mx is not well understood. Today, as I pass (once more) through Heathrow I am going to have to buy myself a copy of Wired. The latest edition has a profile of Ray, progenitor of Lotus Notes, Microsoft Office Groove and now Microsoft Mesh for the doubting Thomas's to read 'on demand'.
Ray has been a great influence on my life (I have told him) and is likely to remain so for the foreseeable future and the article clearly explains why.
The wrap up from the Wired interview is interesting:
"Here's the deal," Ozzie says. "Somewhere in my first year, not in the first few months but before the CSA announcement, I had to make an internal decision. If I want to be here, is it to make Microsoft successful or to have a good project, a good experience, whatever? It was an issue of engagement. I asked myself, why do I do what I do? I enjoy solving complex problems that involve technology, people, organizations--the whole mix. So I made the internal decision to do what I can to make Microsoft successful, and that was it. Yes, it took me a while to understand what that meant. No, I haven't worked here for 20 years. But every day I'm up at 5 am and at work at 6 or 6:30. I don't get home until 8. I'm doing everything I can to make this company successful."
The whole peice can be read here