Microsoft Chairman John W. Thompson Talks Tech Trends, Business Strategy, More

“I don’t think anybody knows what the industry will look like in five years because every eight or ten years there’s an inflection point,” John W. Thompson, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, said when asked how the company’s business will evolve in the next few years. “There’s a pattern of change and it’s difficult to predict.”

Thompson, a Silicon Valley icon who succeeded Bill Gates as chairman of Microsoft in 2014, joined UCLA Anderson Dean Judy Olian in a wide-ranging conversation Monday before a capacity crowd in Anderson’s Korn Convocation Hall. The event was part of the school’s Robertson Lecture Series on Global Business Leadership, which provides students, staff, faculty and others the opportunity to hear top business leaders discuss issues that affect global business and the political economy. The lecture series is made possible by Chip Robertson (FEMBA ’06) and his family in conjunction with UCLA Anderson's Center for Global Management.

With Olian guiding the hour-long conversation, Thompson touched on a variety of topics. While declining to predict what Microsoft will be like in five years, he did say the company would be guided by three core principles. First, he said, the company would focus on personal computing with a goal of making it easier for people to interact with technology. Second, Microsoft will look to help users become more productive through business enterprise software such as Office and Word. It’s in this realm that Thompson believes many users will feel the effects of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

“The third one is obviously the cloud,” Thompson said, noting that in 2014 Microsoft pivoted from protecting its Windows operating system and began shifting emphasis towards the cloud.