Pixel Power: Inside Microsoft’s Marketing Playbook

How does Microsoft stay ahead in global marketing? Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft, reveals the tech-powered approach that’s powering tomorrow's industries. 🔍

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Transcript

Steven: 0:01

Welcome to the Tomorrow's World Today podcast. We sit down with experts, world changing innovators, creators, and makers to explore how they're taking action to make tomorrow's world a better place for technology, science, innovation, sustainability, the arts, and more. On this episode, host George Davison, who is also the host of the TV series Tomorrow's World Today, sits down with Kathleen Mitford, Corporate Vice President of Global Industry Marketing at Microsoft. She shares her inspiring journey from fashion design to technology, while emphasizing the importance of curiosity, mentorship, and responsible AI as key drivers for future innovations like the metaverse, which could transform digital interactions across industries. Today we have a special guest. Her name is

George: 0:49

Kathleen Mitford and she's from Microsoft.

Kathleen: 0:53

Hey, George. I'm so happy to be here today.

George: 0:55

Well, we're thrilled to have you here. And we're hoping that you're going to share some of your life story with us, as well as some of your corporate story, if you would.

Kathleen: 1:03

Absolutely.

George: 1:04

All right. Well, why don't we talk a little bit about Microsoft? Maybe we can learn some background there. How did the company get started, if you could share that?

Kathleen: 1:13

Yes. Microsoft started with two friends, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, who had a dream. So like many other companies, the company's been around for decades. decades, and they started with mainframe operating systems, but then had this dream to put a personal computer on every person's desktop. Yes. And that's where, again, many decades ago that they started, and now at Microsoft, we're much broader than that, and our vision is to empower every person and every organization to achieve more.

George: 1:46

Wow. That's a wonderful accomplishment and a dream to make a better world out there, right?

Kathleen: 1:52

Absolutely.

George: 1:53

So inside the Microsoft operations, how do you fit in? What's your position all about?

Kathleen: 2:00

So at Microsoft, I'm Corporate Vice President of Azure Marketing. And what Azure is, that's our public cloud. So think about it. We used to store information in files, you know, in our desktop, at home, or at our office at work. But now all that information is stored up in the cloud. So what my team do is we work with our great teammates across Microsoft on what is the long-term vision for Azure, what's our business strategy, what's our market strategy, and of course, in the title, marketing, how do we tell that story to the world?

George: 2:33

That's sometimes a tough thing to do, isn't it?

Kathleen: 2:36

Well, taking something like technology that sometimes can be complicated and telling it in a very simple story that applies to a wide audience, that's really a talent in being able to simplify the complex.

George: 2:50

Right. I mean, when you get into the field of inventing something new, right? You identify a challenge, come up with ideas, try to come up with the invention, so to speak. And then if you can translate it into something simple, maybe it is adoptable by the general public, right? But telling that story to a general audience can be quite a challenge. And we've seen that in the past.

Kathleen: 3:13

Yes, and something that goes across many different industries. So think about the cloud. We use that in our personal life. We use that in business. So again, making that applicable to everyone.

George: 3:24

Yes. Thank you. All right. How about some more background information, if we could? How did you get to the position that you're in today? You didn't always work at Microsoft. Can you take us back a little further?

Kathleen: 3:39

Yes. I actually have a very interesting career for somebody in technology. I actually started my career as a fashion designer in New York. So I went to school for fashion design, studied fashion design, and worked as a designer for many years in New York and the company I was working for was implementing at the time something called PLM or PDM product data management to be able to do the designs on the computer and because I was the youngest person in the design department they said Kathleen how about you help us implement this technology and then I spent so much time on the phone with their software company telling them what their technology should do but they said why don't you come and work for us so that was my entry into technology and that was over 20 years ago Isn't

George: 4:23

that amazing?

Kathleen: 4:24

It is. I wanted to be a fashion designer from the time I was seven. We used to have these things called fashion plates where you would switch out the shirt, the pants, color them different. And I never thought that after I achieved my goal of being a fashion designer that I would switch to a different career. But they're actually very connected. With fashion design, you're designing clothing. With technology, you're designing technology that's helping people. So it still has that same creative process of trying to understand, you know, what your customers' needs are and then designing the best solution.

George: 4:58

Wow, that's quite an interesting jump from fashion to technology. But there's a lot of technology, a lot of older, let's say, traditional arts, you know, like fashion or making clothing and translating it into the future. There's a lot of industries like that that have moved in recent years.

Kathleen: 5:17

Yes, there are.

George: 5:18

How about mentors? Do you have any mentors that were kind of shaping your future I

Kathleen: 5:24

do have mentors you know I would say that my parents were probably my first mentors like my dad had his own business and looking at my dad going to school at night working hard to provide for myself and I have three sisters and in addition to my dad I had an aunt a sister Marie Moen she was a nun and we called her Aunt Ray and at a time when you didn't see many women in executive positions in addition to living a life of service as a as a nun she was an executive at a hospital in the hospital administration. So I always looked up to her. I always enjoyed the days when my mom would take us to go have lunch with her and our secretary would take us in. So she inspired me at a young age that you could have dreams, dream big, and to really achieve what I wanted to in life.

George: 6:14

Well, thank goodness for her. You know, young minds just getting shaped by positive people, finding challenges to solve that, let's say, that haven't been solved in the past. I had some of that in my history as well. And so thank goodness for, what was her name again?

Kathleen: 6:33

Her name was Sister Marie Moen, and we called her Aunt Ree, or Ree-Ree.

George: 6:37

Aunt Ree. Okay, well, we like that story. All right, so if you could do one thing over again in your high school years, what would even early college. What would it be?

Kathleen: 6:49

You know, I was thinking about this question because I had the luxury of seeing the questions ahead of time. And I actually don't think there would be anything that I would do over in my high school or college days. I think I had a pretty balanced high school. I studied hard. But I also was involved in a lot of different activities. And different activities such as the community service corps, giving back to the community, things like being involved in the play. So having that wide variety of experiences and not just studying all the time but having a balance to making sure that I was involved enough in my school work but also doing other activities as well and the same thing in college when I was in college I did summer interns related to the fashion industry I actually worked in a warehouse for a small design company doing a variety of different things inspecting the clothing unpacking the boxes even getting to design some of their marketing materials. So I think doing those things, I don't think there's anything I would have done different when I was in high school or when I was in college. One thing I wish I would have done is I never got my MBA. When I graduated from college, I started a job right away, and I was lucky that with my career, I was able to travel the world. So as a fashion designer, I got to go to the different factories in India and Pakistan and places like that. So I prioritized having a career that allowed me to experience going different places.

George: 8:21

Yes.

Kathleen: 8:21

But now I always wish that I'd gotten my MBA.

George: 8:24

Well, that's interesting. Would you, if you did get your MBA, would that have, you know, enhanced your career, do you think? Is that why?

Kathleen: 8:33

I don't think it would have enhanced my career. It probably would have allowed me to start with a higher salary when I was in my early days. I think it also would have maybe helped advance some of my learning beyond just the craft that I was doing, you know, as an MBA. A lot of the experiences that I have now on collaborating, leading teams, speaking in public, you know, I think some of that would have come from the MBA, the business side of it, the business side, really being able to look at a business and how do you drive the profitability of a business, not just, you know, revenue growth, understanding things like what investors are looking at and when they're judging companies. Those are the type of things that I learned in my career. that maybe having an MBA would have helped accelerate.

George: 9:19

I understand, yes. All right, so how about hobbies? Do you have any hobbies that release you or give you good creativity?

Kathleen: 9:30

Yes, I'd say running and gardening. But running is the one that releases me and gives me creativity. I start every day with a workout, and I run three or four times a week, and I have my best ideas when I'm out on a run. and especially you know if it's I live in Seattle and it rains a lot so on the days when I'm not on a treadmill but actually outdoors in nature on a trail it's just very you know kind of freeing to be out there I find it very calming and that's when the great ideas can flow I also use that time to listen to a lot of audible books so if there's something that I am trying to learn new on my runs I'll use that time to listen to those books

George: 10:15

that's one Wonderful. You know, trying to find that spot in your life where you release and let the mind just float around a little bit and let the ideas flow in. Everybody's different, but if you can find that little spot, it's wonderful. I can find it sometimes in different locations. I don't know why, but this time of the year, I like to cut the lawn.

Kathleen: 10:35

Okay.

George: 10:36

And I really, nobody can get me on my devices. Just leave me alone. I just want to be by myself for a little while. I put thoughts in my head that I want to think about and then next thing I know I can think deeply through them as I'm making pretty little lines in the grass you know pretty simple stuff but it's helpful

Kathleen: 10:56

you know it's the same approach that I take when I go out on my run so ahead of time I'll be like okay I've got these three big challenges or problems that I want to solve you know and I'll set myself up even before the run and thinking about what is it that I'm trying to figure out with that particular that particular problem or challenge

George: 11:15

that's great Preloading the challenge. Let's chat a little bit about the future of your industry, if we could. Knowing what you know today, what advice would you give to a person interested in entering your industry?

Kathleen: 11:29

I would say, stay curious. If you look at my career and my background, I don't have the typical background for a technology executive, starting as a fashion designer. But I've always stayed curious when there were new opportunities that came to me and not only with new opportunities but learning about new things so whether it was talking to somebody that was in a role that I was looking at maybe getting into if it was a type of technology that I wanted to figure out if I wanted to work in a business group with that type of technology playing around with it on my own so I believe that curiosity and staying open to new ideas and knowing that there isn't always a straight path that your path in your career can be a little bit like a windy road

George: 12:19

and

Kathleen: 12:19

that's okay because I think having lots of different experiences really enriches

George: 12:24

us. Yes, I agree with you. There's something beautiful about that windy road. I don't know why but when we were younger I had this vision that it was going to be a straight up career path and it was always kind of this and figure it out and try to adjust to things that I wanted to improve. I think young people are uh, always wondering how do people attain these career paths and uh... to me it's like another science that needs to be discovered right

Kathleen: 12:54

right and there's different ways for different people on actually exploring those different paths you know and again it has to do with the personality for me being curious it's about reading it's about talking to people it's about getting my fingers dirty with different things so you also have to figure out for yourself what works for you what gives you joy What makes you happy in trying new things?

George: 13:19

Do they encourage that kind of thing at Microsoft? Do they have training in the field of improving yourself? Is that a fair way to say it?

Kathleen: 13:29

That is a fair way of saying it, and Microsoft has a lot of that. Microsoft actually encourages you to try new things. If you look at people that have been at Microsoft for, let's say, 20, 25 years, which we have a lot of people in my team that have been at Microsoft for a long time, which is great, they've worked in almost every different business in different roles. Even within product marketing I have a lot of people that were in engineering or were in a completely different function. So they encourage us not only to try different roles at Microsoft but also give us a whole ton of learning tools to help us. Learning tools whether they are classes that you can take and watch online, subscriptions to different types of books. We have these great things where every month there's a different speaker that comes in

Steven: 14:16

that

Kathleen: 14:17

of course is recorded and you can if you miss it if you miss it live you can watch it recorded but it's people from different types of backgrounds sometimes it's sports players that come in sometimes it's people from film it's great executives that have done different things in their career I mentioned athletes so it gives you different perspectives on different people's life and what approach and what path they took

George: 14:44

that's wonderful that's part of what we're doing today

Kathleen: 14:46

This is the best part of my job. Oh, there

George: 14:49

you go. Do you believe that anybody could be successful? And if so, what do you think some of the most basic building blocks need to be to empower our youth?

Kathleen: 14:59

Yes, I absolutely believe anybody can be successful. If you go and look at some of the great professionals out there, many didn't start in a very high position. They worked their way up there. And some of the building blocks are one of the reasons why I'm so excited to be here are things like STEM. So I think being curious about STEM, understanding what those possibilities are, playing around with different technology, I think are some of the building blocks, particularly for getting into more technology-related industries.

George: 15:37

I agree with you. There's STEM in fashion, right? You have to learn how to cut and engineer, make a pattern, shape things, package things, market things, right? STEM is involved in all those things, as well as STEAM. And from what I heard, you have a little bit of background in STEM and STEAM on a professional level as well, on the engineering side.

Kathleen: 16:00

I do. Prior to being at Microsoft, I worked for a company, PTC, that they had their roots in CAD, computer-aided design, and that's where you make 2D and 3D models. So, yes, I had a lot of experience there and a lot of experience in STEM and working with students and providing technology to them.

George: 16:22

Yeah, we're seeing amazing things. Inventionland and education, these young people are going and doing these invention contests with us, and some of the creativity is amazing. That free, creative mind that they have and uh... They reach out to the professionals in their community as well as their teachers to try and make whatever dream they have to build it. And they build so many skills doing that. It's exciting for us to see that emerging right now.

Kathleen: 16:55

Yeah, not only the skills that they're building, but also the ideas that children come up with and younger. They're actually things that are very valuable that we often see a lot of those get actually implemented in industry.

George: 17:09

I'm excited. Once they get older, or they're going to solve some other big ones that we didn't see. They're going to look at what we created and they're going to say, oh, I can make that better.

Kathleen: 17:17

Absolutely. And that's a good part of it. That's what we want them to do.

George: 17:22

Right, right. We want that next generation to succeed. All right, so let's see here. What's the next one? What is one project that you think your industry has struggled with but you think would elevate humankind?

Kathleen: 17:37

Yes. I think the industry, I think we can elevate humankind with AI, especially with responsible AI. And that's one of the things I really like about Microsoft is Microsoft isn't just about technology, but how do we provide that technology in a responsible way, in a safe way, in an accessible way. So AI has been around for a while, but I think we haven't cracked the code yet on how AI can be used in a broader way?

George: 18:10

Well, I'm hoping so. Being a responsible steward of that area is very, very important. I just read that America, we've just put the fastest, largest supercomputer on the planet again. What can you do with AI and that kind of power and such a wonderful, powerful way of doing things in the future? You mentioned that you like to do gardening. I don't think we understand everything we need to understand about plants in general. I don't know. I'm looking to see how they apply AI into that world of biology and plants and things. I think it could open up quite a few different doors for the future.

Kathleen: 18:53

I think it could as well. And also being used for things, you know, you mentioned plants, but doing things like sustainable agriculture as well. And how can you use AI to help predict exactly things like what are the best growing patterns, pesticides, whatever that may be, to provide more sustainable food sources.

George: 19:13

Yes. That would be nice to have

Kathleen: 19:16

long

George: 19:16

term. All right. So we're going to ask the last question today, unless you have questions of your own. But what do you think is the next big innovation in your industry?

Kathleen: 19:28

I think the next big innovation is the metaverse. You know, we think about the metaverse today for doing things like gaming and playing games with a friend. But I think there are so many more possibilities with metaverse and what what we can do, not just in things like gaming, but how we engage with each other, how we engage in a business environment.

George: 19:51

Could you explain to our audience what a metaverse is? We want to make sure they all grasp that concept.

Kathleen: 19:57

Sure. If you think about a metaverse, a metaverse is an online environment. So if you think about a game, you're in a game, you're playing, you can see the different avatars of people playing in the game. Yes. You can make your own avatar. The metaverse is that environment where you're envisioning all of this. So if I take it to a business environment, think about doing something like a Teams call. And on the Teams call, we're seeing little boxes of everybody's faces sitting at their home office or their desk or wherever they are. But in a metaverse, we can decide to put ourselves in an environment. We want to pretend that everybody is sitting around a boardroom table and have our avatars like you and I are sitting here talking today, but again, doing that in a completely virtual environment, in something that feels realistic.

George: 20:50

So in that world, you could be at home. in an environment that you're comfortable with. Your avatar would then go into a digital world. My avatar would go into a digital world. We could create a digital space like this and communicate with an audience. Is that fair

Kathleen: 21:09

to say? That's exactly it. So George, think about this. I'm sitting next to you here and I'm based in Seattle. So I had to fly from Seattle here to Pittsburgh to have the conversation. But imagine that we had a digital representation of this room and You had your avatar sitting there, and I had my avatar sitting here, and I could be at my home office in Seattle.

George: 21:29

See, that to me is exciting. And think of all the different jobs in the future. You're going to have all sorts of digital engineering construction to create, let's say, these types of sets. Instead of doing it physically, do it through digital means, right?

Kathleen: 21:43

That's right. Doing it all digitally. But then also making it. There's something about when you're with somebody in person that there's a different type of energy that is created that I think sometimes gets lost. when we're not together in person. And what the metaverse is trying to do is to keep those connections of the type of interactions that we have when we're near each other, but in a digital way.

George: 22:08

I hope they can accomplish that.

Kathleen: 22:10

I know they can.

George: 22:11

Oh, really? All right. Well, I'm excited about the future after this meeting with you.

Kathleen: 22:16

Me too.

George: 22:17

Well, Kathleen came to visit with us today, and we appreciate your time. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

Kathleen: 22:23

Well, thank you, George. I really appreciate the offer to be here today.

Steven: 22:27

Well, that's another edition. Bye, everybody. And find us wherever podcasts are available.