Microsoft (MSFT) Presents at Credit Suisse 21st Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference (Transcript)

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) Credit Suisse 21st Annual Technology, Media & Telecom Conference Executives Dave O’Hara - CVP & CFO, C&E, Office, Dynamics, AI and Research Analysts Michael Nemeroff - Credit Suisse Michael Nemeroff Good morning, everyone, day two of the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference. Thanks for joining us. We are thrilled and delighted to have Dave O’Hara, who is the CFO of Cloud and Enterprise, Office, Dynamics, AI and Research from Microsoft. Dave, welcome. Dave O’Hara Thank you. Michael Nemeroff And before I begin, I was asked to read a safe harbor statement from Microsoft. Before we begin, Microsoft may make some forward-looking statements during this presentation and you should refer to their SEC filings for the Risk Factors relating to their business. That’s true whether you are here in person or listening on the web. With that out of the way, Dave, welcome. Maybe for the audience members, if you could just give us little bit of a background and your role at Microsoft? Dave O’Hara Sure, thanks. Well, the simplest way to describe, Michael, I think is that I’m the CFO for the commercial business which includes our cloud business and that cuts across Cloud and Enterprise, Office and Artificial Intelligence and Research and many other areas. So, that’s my current role, came into Microsoft through the acquisition of Great Plains many years ago, worked in the dynamic business for a while, was the CFO for the online business and CFO for Office and then Cloud and Enterprise and then as also that came together. Michael Nemeroff So, basically everything that grows at Microsoft is what you’re responsible for? Dave O’Hara Not everything, but I would say that it’s a unique position as Satya pushes for more and predictable and consisting growth, we have a lot of levers that we can pull. And so, I think within that remix, there are a lot of really good healthy growing businesses. Michael Nemeroff So, you’ve been at Microsoft for over 17 years. So, you’ve seen a couple of different CEOs in that position. Satya has come in. What do you attribute the success of Microsoft over the last couple of years? Dave O’Hara Well, there is a couple of things. Some decisions were made when Steve was still the CEO, like investing in Azure, for example, was the decision that was made originally under Steve’s watch. And Ray Ozzie, who I’m sure people know, was the original founder of that. Steve was there when we started the move to Office 365. Steve was there when we decided to get into CRM online business. And so a lot of that stuff was started many years ago. And I think what Satya did is really to step on the gas. And he just said, hey, the world is moving here faster than we thought and we need to get there faster than we thought. And so, he drove just better agility and acceleration I think as we move to the cloud and we were able to move resources over there and we were able to catch up. In a lot of the cloud services, we weren’t first mover but I think we did a good job, especially on something like Office 365 for Google Apps, cloud offering first. I think we did a really good job catching up and passing them and becoming the market leader. And so, I would say, the simple answer for me is Satya drives sort of the cultural shift in terms of agility and acceleration and really focusing on growth. Michael Nemeroff Does this feel like a new age for Microsoft, completely different than it’s been over the last five years? Dave O’Hara Well, if you’re there, I think it’s harder to see sort of the instant change. I think the market perceives if there’s some instant or overnight change, and there really wasn’t. It was more over the course of a few years. I do think we are in a better position than we were. So, if there is an incentive of the new age, I just think we’re better positioned in the cloud, we are better positioned even in SaaS and the Office 365 offerings. And so, overall, I think the Company is better positioned for growth than it was five years ago.