Microsoft's Global Partner Strategy: 400M Businesses, 1 Platform with Ralph Haupter
Fresh out of the studio, Ralph Haupter, President & CRO, Small Medium Enterprises and Channels at Microsoft, joins us to explore how Microsoft is empowering 400 million small and medium businesses globally across 56 counties through a partner-first strategy that combines platform standardization with deep specialization. He shares his career journey spanning over 20 years at Microsoft, from running Europe to leading Greater China, building Asia's geographical operations in Singapore, and eventually taking on global SME strategy. Ralph explains that Microsoft's unique advantage lies in being a platform company at its finest, offering a complete technology stack from productivity to infrastructure, security, and applications—all with core AI integration—while relying on a specialized partner ecosystem to deliver local expertise and support. He highlights how partners are creating entirely new business models on agentic AI while emphasizing the four critical partnership moments from transaction to ongoing support that most companies neglect. Closing the conversation, Ralph shares what great looks like for Microsoft globally on the SMEs and Channels front.
“The partner program for us is a place where we want to have expertise for our customers. The only way to make that happen is to standardize on portfolio and standardize on offering.If you don’t provide standardized offers — if the experience in Word, for example, is different in one country than in another — you can’t build an ecosystem that helps partners scale with expertise. I call that a platform company at its finest.We have the full assortment — from the productivity world to infrastructure, security, and applications. And if you’re a small or medium enterprise, the last thing you want is to have four meetings with four people, serving four different types of coffee to four different vendors, just to get a full-stack solution for your business.” - Ralph Haupter
Profile: Ralph Haupter, President and CRO, Small Medium Enterprises and Channel (SME&C), Microsoft (LinkedIn)
Here is the edited transcript of our conversation:
Bernard Leong: Welcome to Analyse podcast, the premier podcast dedicated to dissecting the pulse of business, technology and media globally. We are post 500th episode and in a new brand and in a new era. I'm Bernard Leong. What better way to start off this global times where we think about small and medium business enterprises, how are they enabled digitally and globally across the world. With me is Ralph Haupter, President and CRO, Small Medium Enterprises and Channels at Microsoft. As we explore how Microsoft is actually enabling digital transformation for small and medium enterprises globally through a partner first strategy. So Ralph, welcome to the show.
Ralph Haupter: Thank you so much for having me this morning.
Bernard Leong: Given that this is a new era and you're my first global guest on the show, I want to always start off with some of the things that do not change, like your origin story. How did your career journey begin and what led you to Microsoft?
Ralph Haupter: It's more than 20 years. Funny enough, as a German, I started actually in Paris. My first job at Microsoft was running the European distribution network for Microsoft at that point. Then I had chance to do a couple of country leadership roles. I was running the Germany office first. Then I got a call going to Asia, and not knowing a lot about Asia, going to China. Then I was running our greater China business for almost five years. Then I had the pleasure to live in this beautiful country here in Singapore for five years, and at that point I was setting up Asia as a geographical operation for Microsoft. A couple of years I went back to Europe, Middle East, and Africa. In July, formally in general, we start thinking about how to organize our division for small and medium businesses. That's what I started six months ago.
Bernard Leong: From the start from Germany all the way across the globe, you have lived and led teams across Europe and Asia. How does all these global experiences shape how you think about your leadership philosophy and what perspectives have they helped you in thinking in this now increasingly interconnected world?
Ralph Haupter: It's a great question. My biggest moment was really when I came to China in a sense of, at that point I was with the company I think seven, eight years. I understood Microsoft. I would say to some extent how to operate in a country. But then you go to China and the game plan is a new game plan because it's different environment, different setup. So going into a mental model where you need to bring, I would say two cultures and two things together. A business model of a global company, Microsoft, with a geographically setup like you have in China. Getting into a space of being, I would say intellectually flexible and having grey as a great color. It's not black or white, it's actually grey, which makes a difference: finding a way, finding space for both. That was my biggest moment. After six months being in China, I said, "Oh, but there's something I need to do different here."
Bernard Leong: You have spent a significant time in China and then you came to the Asia Pacific. The cultural nuances are very different in the whole of Asia. If you think about Japan, Korea, they have different cultures as compared to Malaysia and Indonesia. How does those cultural changes also make you think about leadership as well as how you think about building business units across these diverse, geographically diverse and yet culturally diverse region as well?
Ralph Haupter: Look, first, the definition of Asia for us at that point was including greater China. That was India. Then you have Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and then [rest of] Asia. So it just has the whole portfolio. I think one of the biggest one is really giving space to leaders in the country to tell us as an organization what is needed for the country to perform. That can be sometimes misleading to people because they try to reinvent Microsoft in their own country, which is not the purpose. But understanding what type of businesses you have in the different places. So you have in India, a very local oriented business. So there are local financial big businesses which need to serve in their circumstances. You have Australia companies who are very organized in a structure looking like the U.S. and the UK. You go to greater China, which was growing fast and the biggest market out there. I would say that the change and learning was that our sweet spot there is serving companies who come as a global company to China. Our sweet spot is helping companies in China who grow global. That understanding and knowledge base, making that one then part on how the portfolio needs to be established for that one, that is key. So being clear on how you listen and understanding, getting these signals, is super important.
Bernard Leong: From your career, are there key lessons that you can share with a younger audience who's listening to this conversation? If you were to redo this again, for those young audience out there who's thinking about today in today's world where it is AI, you know, in our times we have already gone through three eras: the PC era, then the dot com era, and then the mobile era, and now the AI era. What would your advice be?
Ralph Haupter: I'm always cautious on giving advice. I would say, what works for me? Then let people have the chance to reflect. So first of all, when you think about global, you need to make sure that you get out of your comfort zone. So to some extent find space to take risk. Where you want to put your energy, where you want to put your professional path and career, but take it intentionally and feel good about it. Then you need to bring curiosity to the place, because what you have learned in one market may not fit to the other market. But with the right level of curiosity and with your knowledge base and experience, if you're able to blend these two, the curiosity of the new and the learning of the old, then I think you bring yourself in a much better position to help people think through. Then the last one I have always appreciated is: you are surrounded by very, very smart people. So the question is how can you basically untap the potential and help them to see through and then jointly do something? So it's not about outsmarting who has the better knowledge. It's always about finding where is the knowledge and help people grow in that task. Because everybody wants to be successful, so let's just help them.
Bernard Leong: That's very good advice indeed. So, let's get to the main subject of day. We are going to talk about Microsoft's small, medium enterprise and channels and strategy. What does it mean? Because in the realm of digital transformation, we always think about large enterprises, but actually the small medium businesses are formed, I think in most economies, with the exception of Singapore, which is 4% multinationals, but in most countries, it's usually 99% of their economies. So, to help my audience understand this, what does your role as the president of small, medium enterprise and channels actually entail?
Ralph Haupter: So we run a team globally which is really taking care on the success of small, medium enterprises. There are always big, global financial institutions, manufacturing institutions, but the reality is we have more than 400 million companies globally which are small and medium enterprises.
Bernard Leong: Are they usually self serve or do they work together with your channels?
Ralph Haupter: That's the whole belief and conviction we have, that all of these smaller companies need support in their local context. These companies are more than 50% in some countries of the GDP, they have 80 to 90% of our working population consolidated. So what they still need is somewhere in Manila, somebody who has the local expertise; or somewhere in Hong Kong, who has the local expertise in a combination sometimes of real technical knowledge and market expertise where you need to have a regulatory knowledge. How do you do tax report? How do you do accounting in Thailand? I mean, all these things are very unique and very specific, and I think that is where our conviction is first.
Our mission that we want to empower every organization we need to live it through. Not only having the big companies, but having the same service, the same capability for all companies, but then having a deep understanding that the roots of these companies are somewhere very, very local and serving them in that local environment. We have conviction that we need an ecosystem to help there, which we call channels. Generally the definition of partners who have expertise or have IP in a very specific environment. That's where we want to double down and foster & help success.
Bernard Leong: So what makes Microsoft's mission to support small and medium enterprises globally now as a unique opportunity in this period of the AI era?
Ralph Haupter: Let me start with the AI perspective. Small and medium enterprises face enormous challenges competing globally. Technology is just as critical for them as it is for large corporations, but accessing and leveraging these technologies is often more complicated—they simply don't have the capacity to tap into everything available. That's why our deep conviction is to work with our ecosystem to build solutions that are easy to use, sometimes industry-specific, and accessible in local contexts. At the same time, we believe it's essential to offer companies a portfolio that's as simple and holistic as possible. So we're balancing two priorities: helping SMEs stay on top of AI capabilities right now, while understanding they're not departments with thousands of IT specialists. Serving them with that reality in mind is absolutely critical.
Bernard Leong: With generative AI tools now available—particularly Microsoft's Copilot—do you find that small and medium business owners have a better means of supercharging their productivity? I see that SMEs have a lot of flexibility, and even running a small business myself, I can see the potential impact.
Ralph Haupter: We're seeing real-time examples where things are creating genuine step-change opportunities for small businesses. Think about their basic challenges: they need to handle tax reports, find employees, manage travel expenses, and maintain customer engagement tools. In all these areas, AI provides a simple way to access knowledge, information, and competitive insights—which is critical when small businesses want to understand how to enter global markets.But what's even more fascinating is what happened when we announced that Chat Copilot is available for free within the Microsoft stack. The adoption rate has grown massively. Now we're seeing our partners build agents. So it's not just about having the capability to use generative AI with Copilot—we're moving into a space where the ecosystem, ISVs and small consulting companies, are building agents that get specific jobs done for small companies. That's what I find truly fascinating and represents a tremendous opportunity for us to invest and help.
Bernard Leong: As a Microsoft veteran who's seen different CEOs, the transformation under Satya Nadella has probably been a big influence on your work. How does his leadership come across to you in terms of thinking about the cloud, AI, and enterprise apps like Office 365 for the customers you've served?
Ralph Haupter: Look, there are a couple of principles where I feel Satya is helping us—and the industry—stay focused and deliver. First, when he started, he was very clear that he wants us as an organization to empower every person and every organization on the planet. You don't do that if you have SMEs out of scope. So you need to understand there's something broader to focus on. That's one.Second, Satya often talks about our responsibility to generate surplus. Technology as a purpose needs to serve small businesses to become better. That's how we get measured and that's how we need to focus on delivering our stack.It's also very clear—and his leadership here is super precise—that we need to have relevance in countries. We respect local regulatory and privacy rules, which is extremely demanding. Many countries have very high and unique standards. But as a global tech player, you need to build a global platform while reflecting local requirements.His vision on AI is also very clear. Our purpose is being a platform company. We're seeing large language models grow and evolve. We don't know which one is the right bet to take, and from that perspective, we want to be the best at servicing all of them so you don't need to worry about which platform or which model to bet on. We take responsibility for having all these models available, and from there you can work with your partners to build applications.
Bernard Leong: Speaking of applications—in preparing for this interview, I turned on Microsoft Word and used the Copilot prompt to help me. I fed it your background and asked it to suggest the best questions. It's really remarkable how Copilot is now integrated across the entire Office 365 suite.Given your global view of small and medium enterprises and channels, how do you balance global strategy with local execution across different regions? Earlier you highlighted the importance of curiosity—being curious about each region or country you go to.
Ralph Haupter: The truth is I'm a big fan of standardization and clarity about what we serve and what we offer. I think it benefits us as a company, but it also benefits small businesses. When they get standards and technology at scale, it helps their productivity, pricing, simplicity, and flexibility.One thing we're super clear on: our partner program is where we want expertise for our customers. The only way to make that happen is to standardize the portfolio and standardize the offering. If you don't provide standard offers, if you deviate, the experience becomes different from one country to another. You can't build an ecosystem that helps partners deliver expertise at scale. That's where we're doubling down.
Bernard Leong: I see. I'm thinking back to when I was at SingPost and we were switching to Dynamics as a point-of-sale system. Dynamics as a product still required customization, and that's where your partners come in. Despite working in different tech companies and talking to various tech companies, Microsoft's partner ecosystem is the envy of the industry.Spanning every continent, what global strategy are you driving and how does it translate into impact for partners and customers?
Ralph Haupter: Great question. Building a partner ecosystem requires substantial investment. By the numbers, we believe we have the biggest ecosystem of any company right now. But we still put enormous effort into helping partners on two dimensions.First, we give them space to differentiate. Second, we help them specialize. If you look at our Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, we emphasize designations and specializations. You're not just an "Azure partner"—you're an Azure infrastructure expert, or an Azure data expert, or a Dynamics CRM expert, or a Fabric data specialist.When you're a small business customer—and this is what I'd encourage all customers to do—you say, "Here's my problem. I'm looking for an expert who can give me a CRM system for my industry." Then a partner can come forward and say, "I'm certified, and by the way, I have three references in this specific area of CRM." That's where we invest heavily in our ecosystem.
Bernard Leong: I see. So in doing that, can you share, like, say the partner dynamics, how does it vary across the different regions under your purview? Let's compare, say like North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, for example.
Ralph Haupter: Maybe the way to look at it is when we really look at the ecosystem. There are most probably two dimensions. One is we try to understand in which functions and capacity do we need more partners? In which function capacity do we want to have partners more trained? So as an example, if you look at our security growth, it is very clear that we need more partners on our security portfolio. When you look at our Azure infrastructure play, it is very clear that the AI business there on the existing partners gives us space to grow, but we just need to help them use AI technology to build these agents, which we think is coming forward, making a difference for our customers. So these are two very different dimensions, really kind of new partners for some product portfolio where we see growth. Then existing partners to help them being very differently skilled and trained.
Bernard Leong: You've worked with partners across numerous regions. Can you share standout success stories about partner specialization and ecosystem collaboration?
Ralph Haupter: Security stands out immediately—it's one of the hardest challenges for customers and the industry. The consultative capability of security partners has become incredibly sophisticated. What's fascinating is that most security partners have no interest in license sales. They're hyper-specialized on the product but focused entirely on implementation and optimization—tuning your car, not selling it. That's a unique dynamic in the security space.On Dynamics, our ERP and CRM platform, partners are diving deep into AI integration. This is disrupting standard SaaS applications because we've built what I believe is the most AI-integrated ERP and CRM platform available. Partners are replacing standard processes with AI-based capabilities, and the demand is explosive.In data, we're seeing unprecedented partner adoption in the Americas, with everyone standardizing on Fabric and scaling faster than projected. This is now emerging in Asia and Europe. Most remarkably, we're seeing entirely new business models emerge around AI agents. In Germany alone, over 20 partners launched in the past six months focused exclusively on building agents. A year ago, we couldn't even articulate what that business would look like. Now it's a thriving sector.
Bernard Leong: That security point resonates. As CIO of a construction conglomerate, Microsoft's security training tools were invaluable—phishing simulations, mandatory training for failures, multi-factor authentication enforcement. These features are critical for any mid-sized to large company. Security is indeed the top priority for every CIO.What's one thing Microsoft does for SMEs and partners that others don't?
Ralph Haupter: Two things define our philosophical approach.First, relentless focus on specialization. We're demanding partners—we have high expectations and continually raise the bar quarterly on what specialization means. This rigor is essential because customers deserve truly specialized expertise.Second, our complete platform integration—which some competitors frame as a weakness, but I'm convinced is a decisive advantage for SMEs. We're a platform company offering the full stack: productivity, infrastructure, security, and applications.Small and medium enterprises don't want four vendors, four meetings, and four separate relationships to assemble their technology stack. They want one unified experience. That's where Microsoft is truly differentiated—bringing these components together seamlessly.
Bernard Leong: The completeness is impressive. At different stages of digital maturity and company growth, there's a solution from your stack that meets their needs.
Ralph Haupter: What I aim to build—without bragging—is customer confidence through demonstrating that every product has core AI integration. When we launched our generative AI initiative, every engineering lead immediately ensured AI experiences were embedded throughout the stack. You experienced this in Word—deep AI integration. The same exists in Excel, our security stack, our CRM applications. It's comprehensive.Customers need to understand how this creates differentiation and why integration matters. This is where we're crystal clear about our identity: we're a platform company that relies on partners to serve small and medium enterprises. We're not pretending otherwise.
Bernard Leong: Building on your emphasis on specialization—which requires training—do you invest significantly more time training partners on AI, data fabric, and Dynamics? SMEs typically need customized solutions.
Ralph Haupter: You've identified one of our toughest challenges. Partner ecosystem training is critical, with certification as the moment of truth. Customer training is equally vital.We invest heavily in scale mechanics, sometimes partnering with governments and institutions. It's our most complicated and capital-intensive effort. While we've improved using technology platforms for training, human behavior remains a barrier. Organizations often view training as "losing workforce for a day" rather than gaining improved capabilities the next day. This mindset prevents uptake of available training.We've restructured our approach, particularly for resellers who engage customers directly with local expertise. We leverage our distribution platform extensively to deliver geographically customized training at scale.
Bernard Leong: The Cloud Solution Provider program is central to Microsoft's partner strategy. I'm exploring becoming a partner myself—we can discuss that later—but how is CSP evolving globally, and what regional adaptations have been necessary?
Ralph Haupter: Great question. The program's fundamental intent is enabling partners to combine our products with their own IP [intellectual property] and bundle it for customers. When customers contract with partners, our offerings and IP are part of the bundle. But the critical component is the partner's capability, IP, and knowledge. This approach deliberately primes the partner, not Microsoft.
I believe there are four pivotal moments in successful partnership engagements.
First is the transaction stage—determining product and consulting needs for a project. This is the traditional pre-sales phase.
Second—and I believe undervalued in our industry—is the proof-of-concept moment. Instead of endless PowerPoint presentations about possibilities, a partner can spend two days showing customers what's achievable with their data for AI or analytics. This immediately transforms the conversation and builds conviction. This consultative pre-sales POC is critical.
Third is the full project implementation post-sale. This is where execution happens, where we help partners succeed through co-investment methodologies and technology support.
Fourth—and we're intensifying focus here—is ongoing support and lifecycle management. Partners must be the go-to resource for customers. This is unique in our industry and largely overlooked. I want Microsoft to be different, to be valued for ensuring partners can provide frontline support.
The Cloud Solution Provider program brings partner IP and knowledge to customers through these four stages: transaction, consultative pre-sales, post-sales execution, and support throughout the relationship lifecycle.
Bernard Leong: You're right. From my experience as a tech vendor, post-sales partner support was often weak, creating mismanaged expectations.
Let me explore Microsoft's approach to partner differentiation. Is there a distinction between consulting-focused partners and technology providers—like those working with databases in the Microsoft ecosystem, GitHub, or Copilot with Azure Cloud? How do these different partner types engage customers differently?
Ralph Haupter: Absolutely. The differentiation goes down to customer type—partners behave differently accordingly. It's somewhat of an art, but we're very deliberate.
Global system integrators have specific behaviors, needs, investment profiles, and customer engagement expectations. Large ISV software companies have entirely different requirements regarding platform definition, sizing, and capacity.For small and medium enterprises, I need a scale ecosystem with local presence—almost zip code level.
When I was in Canada recently, the reality in Toronto is that you also need a strong partner ecosystem in Calgary. For SMBs, geographical proximity between partners and customers is critical. You must be surgical about this.
Bernard Leong: How do you maintain alignment, trust, and execution excellence across such a vast, diverse partner network serving different industries? In large markets like India, China, or Europe, you have everything from micro businesses to near-large enterprises. How is consistency maintained?
Ralph Haupter: Transparency is the key factor—being clear about partner roles and Microsoft's support infrastructure.
CSP enables this clarity. We tell partners: "These are the four program steps. You own the IP, engagement, and contracting. We're the platform company."We're explicit about opportunities: "We see growth in security. You need to build security capacity and invest because we jointly see customer demand. Your base is in Shenzhen—invest in certification there because demand exists."This give-and-get model works because of precision: "This is your role. This is my expectation." That clarity is essential.
Bernard Leong: Clarity is key. This next question is important because I teach digital transformation at NUS Business School. We dedicate an entire session to partner ecosystems because many industry professionals don't distinguish between platforms and partners. When I bring in partner ecosystem experts to explain these dynamics, it's invaluable.
What's the one leadership principle you've found crucial when working with partners at both global and local levels? That would be an interesting lesson for my students.
Ralph Haupter: The most critical principle is absolute clarity on the joint business model—being very precise about sharing opportunities and the business model with partners.What I've learned in the past six months is that data-driven joint discussions about business opportunities and partner performance against peers make the real difference. Partners are businesses that want to understand how they can perform, contribute, and serve their customers best.
Where people go wrong is maintaining fluffy programs: "I have a program, I offer you something." The last mile requires helping partners with data and having substantive joint discussions about performance and market opportunities.
Bernard Leong: So you're saying: identify the target segment upfront, define the business case, perhaps target 20 specific companies. Be very specific about what Microsoft provides and where partners add value. Is that correct?
Ralph Haupter: Exactly. We analyze portfolio and customer demand. Everything starts with understanding customers—where they are, what markets they serve, their needs, their portfolio gaps. Security is obvious with AI, but many companies also have outdated data infrastructure or 15-year-old CRM systems desperately needing modernization.Being specific about opportunities, enabling partners technologically, and providing clarity on platform usage—that's what makes the difference.
Bernard Leong: Shifting to your global leadership—what principles guide you in building high-performing, cross-cultural teams? And how do you enforce a growth mindset across distributed teams?
Ralph Haupter: I'm always open to correction, but the most critical element in running a global business at this scale is achieving scale itself. That requires clarity, simplicity, and standards.
Here's the test: Whatever solution you're developing, pause for thirty minutes. Have a coffee, walk around the building. Return and ask: "Can I do this for a thousand customers? A thousand partners?" If yes, proceed. If it's a one-off, it doesn't work.
Bernard Leong: On scaling—once something works, how do you generate momentum? If someone demonstrates success with a thousand organizations and wants to scale further, what's the process?
Ralph Haupter: Very clear in my mind. I run a global organization intentionally—examining geography while maintaining global expertise. I focus on positive standard deviation signals.
Best-performing markets indicate what drives success. I capture those learnings and share them globally. Sometimes exceptional performance emerges from unexpected markets. Last week, we saw outstanding performance from a specific Asian country—exceeding major European and American markets.
Rapidly unpacking that success and sharing insights across markets is how global organizations function effectively. Everyone can contribute to scale.
Bernard Leong: Regarding resource allocation—should teams experiment before requesting resources, or is that a separate consideration?
Ralph Haupter: Be thoughtful before defaulting to resource requests. Avoid creating hype cycles where POCs automatically trigger resource demands—that's risky.Focus on signals. Organizational intelligence means capturing performance signals, understanding them, and unpacking them properly. When conviction exists and signals genuinely require resources, act decisively—secure resources and optimize deployment. I'm not resource-constrained, but I need strong, well-understood signals.
Bernard Leong: What about anomalies—unknown unknowns that appear interesting but lack clear patterns? How do you evaluate those as market signals?
Ralph Haupter: Leaders must build organizations that filter noise while identifying positive signals for organizational improvement.Apply the scale test: take a coffee break, walk around. If your solution still demonstrates scale potential, execute with clarity. Ensure everyone understands which positive signals deserve amplification.Leaders must say, "I recognize this signal," then test it across markets.
Bernard Leong: What's the one question you wish more people would ask about Microsoft's partner ecosystems?
Ralph Haupter: "Where do I find a partner with very specific expertise to get this job done?"
Bernard Leong: So let me ask that—where do I find a partner for a specific job? Even as someone considering partnership, navigating ecosystems is daunting. The Microsoft ecosystem has countless solutions requiring specialization. How does one navigate effectively?
Ralph Haupter: I'm less concerned about partner navigation. Specialization requires effort, but that effort connects you authentically to our technology ecosystem and helps you identify the right stack.My point is really about customers. I want customers to ask partners pointed questions: "Our data assets need help—do you have that expertise?" "We want to build an AI-powered customer interface—can you do that?" "Our security posture needs improvement—can you help?"When customers articulate specific needs, it creates space for partner specialization and helps everyone focus on delivering real value.
Bernard Leong: My traditional closing question—what does great look like for Microsoft's SME and channels organization in the next decade?
Ralph Haupter: Hard to quantify, but emotionally, success means market sentiment saying: "Microsoft and their partners are where I go for technology advice."
I've traveled to 56 countries doing business. When governments in markets where we've operated for 20, 30, 40 years acknowledge how we've helped grow their countries—that's incredibly rewarding.
Achieving that same sentiment from small businesses—"You've been around, you've helped us grow, you've enabled us to go global, you've supported us through security challenges"—that's where we need to break through as a company. That would be awesome.
Bernard Leong: Thank you, Ralph. I really appreciate this conversation. It's been invaluable for understanding how partner ecosystems actually work. I've drawn many lessons from you—especially the idea of taking a walk and thinking things through before acting. Thank you so much.In closing, any recommendations that have inspired you recently?
Ralph Haupter: I've been in Asia for a couple of weeks now. I've lived here before, and I'm genuinely inspired by the agility in how people think about problems. That attitude of finding solutions in a global context, even when it's incredibly challenging, is very unique.
This morning, walking out of my hotel, I saw billboards announcing the Formula One race happening soon in this town. It's really changing the city. The spirit around Formula One is fascinating. As a German, you can get immediately drawn into discussions about engine specs, racers, driving dynamics—all of it.But here's the reality when you really think it through: a lot of races aren't won on the course. They're actually won in the pit stop. The pit stop is where many people, many hands, and extensive knowledge need to come together perfectly. That's what makes the huge difference.That's where we try to make a difference from a philosophical perspective. It's not about the individual—it's about having one goal and making people work together. In that moment of execution, being perfect—that's the copilot mentality.
Bernard Leong: Thank you very much. How can my audience find you and learn more about Microsoft?
Ralph Haupter: The easiest way is LinkedIn. Just search by name and find me—I'm happy to connect.
Bernard Leong: You can find us everywhere now—YouTube, Spotify, and all podcast platforms. Ralph, many thanks for the conversation. I look forward to speaking with you again.
Ralph Haupter: Thank you very much, Bernard. It was wonderful to be here. Thanks for opening the week with such a great discussion.
Podcast Information: Bernard Leong (@bernardleong, Linkedin) hosts and produces the show. Proper credits for the intro and end music: "Energetic Sports Drive" and the episode is mixed & edited in both video and audio format by G. Thomas Craig (@gthomascraig, LinkedIn). Here are the links to watch or listen to our podcast.
