Byline: DAN RICHMAN P-I reporter
When most people think of Microsoft, they think of personal computers. Pieter Knook's mission is to help them think of phones, too. And personal digital assistants, the small handheld computers that are becoming increasingly popular.
Knook, perhaps the most thoroughly international executive on the Microsoft Corp.'s staff, is a corporate vice president, heading efforts to forge corporate relationships with cellular and conventional phone companies worldwide.
In January he also became responsible for developing and marketing personal digital assistants powered by Microsoft's Windows CE operating system.
But for Knook, 44, the pleasure of life at Microsoft doesn't lie strictly in doing deals.
"What I get a kick out of is productively affecting someone's life," he says in his mild British accent. "If we do a good job, we make your life more productive, whether it's helping to write a press report or remembering someone's birthday."
That kind of far-reaching effect can also occur at a national level.
"In Asia, when we met with (South Korean President) Kim Dae Jung in 1998, the dialogue was extraordinary," he recalled in a recent interview.
"We figured out how to help the country move from a manufacturing economy to a knowledge-based economy. I'm not saying it's making that transformation because of our efforts, but the notion that we could make a difference to an economy is so incredibly powerful. It really excites me."
The excitement began in 1990, when Knook came to the British subsidiary of Microsoft as a consultant. He built up Microsoft's consulting business, then became general manager of the company's customer-systems group. In a later role, he was responsible for the Microsoft.com Web site, which under his direction became the third-largest site on the Internet.
For four years, starting in 1997, Knook was president of Microsoft Asia, overseeing sales, marketing and support. Microsoft Asia, with 3,000 people and 20 locations, has 12 subsidiaries, in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and India.
Under his leadership, the region more than doubled revenue expectations, becoming Microsoft's highest growth area for several consecutive years.
Living in Tokyo with his English-born wife, their young son and daughter was a challenge, he recalls.
"For the first six months, we didn't understand whether we were buying toothpaste or shoe polish," he said.
But the family developed a deep affection for Japanese culture, manners and lifestyle. And living abroad was a "super-rich" experience for his children, similar to his own, he said.
In January 2001, Knook was asked to create a new group focusing on building partnerships with phone companies throughout the world. The idea was to sell Microsoft's software to the phone companies for use in both their own offices and their cellular handsets. Microsoft also wants to partner to provide Internet access domestically, and to sell e-mail, news, stock prices and other information and services through its MSN Web site.
Knook says he was the logical choice for the job because of his background. As one of "maybe four or five" employees who has worked in all three of the major regions where Microsoft does business - Europe, the Americas and Asia - he says he could "navigate the complexities of setting up a sales structure that crosses those geographies."
Knook is a native of Holland who moved to France at the age of 2, then back to Holland at 5, and then to England at age 8.
Knook's training was also important. Telecommunications companies are highly technical, and few people in Microsoft's sales organization come from a background that prepares them to understand the details. But Knook studied engineering at Cambridge University and later learned to program.
Under his watch, Microsoft has signed multimillion-dollar deals with several overseas phone companies, including Japan's DoCoMo, Korea's KT and Germany's Deutsche Telekom, the largest telecommunications company in Europe.
When Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer formalized the deal with Deutsche Telekom Chief Executive Ron Sommer in March, "I hadn't done all the work, but my group certainly did, and as the leader of that group I can take a certain sense of pride," Knook said.
In his new role, he reports directly to Ballmer, with whom he says he has a good relationship.
"That's not to say we agree on everything, but I think basically he has a level of trust," Knook said.
Microsoft's relationship with phone companies remains a small part of the company's business. But that's a challenge to which he plans to rise.
"Our big growth opportunity is to persuade them that the PC platform, rather than their traditional Unix, has a lot to offer inside their data centers," Knook says.
The timing for that pitch is perfect, he says, because the phone companies are under such intense cost pressure that "when we say things are much cheaper on a PC platform, they really listen now."
The companies have plenty of room to expand their market for simple cell phones in the United States, where the penetration rate is only about 50 percent, compared with 80 percent in many European countries. Naturally, Microsoft is trying to persuade the companies to back phones powered by its Windows CE operating system.
Personal digital assistants - some of which now include phones - are a tiny category compared with cell phones, with 10 million to 15 million shipped each year as against 400 million cell phones. But because they retail for between $200 and $600, they bring in much higher revenue.
Microsoft "started off floundering a little bit" with its PocketPC-brand personal digital assistants, Knook says, because it advertised based on the fact that the devices were powered by Microsoft's operating system.
"The reality is people don't care about the operating system. They care about what it can do for you," Knook said. "Once we focused on that, it was a breakthrough."
Over the past six months, PocketPCs have gained momentum in their battle against Palm and Handspring, which dominated the market. Personal digital assistants just coming onto the market in Europe have not just cell-phone capability but also wireless Local Area Network connectivity, giving them high-speed Internet access at airports, coffee shops and other locations that have installed the necessary equipment.
Knook says he has become the "official career guidance counselor" to any Microsoftie contemplating living abroad, because he so strongly advocates that experience. But his own experiences adapting to new countries haven't always been easy.
When he arrived in England, at age 8, he didn't speak a word of English. A resident of the United States since 1994, Knook now speaks four languages - Dutch, French, English and German - plus a little Japanese, and he's learning Swedish so he can speak with his wife's mother. He and his family live in Medina.
Brian Boruff, a general manager supervised by Knook, moved his wife and two girls from Philadelphia to Paris based on his boss' urging.
"He is a great leader, great with customers and extremely smart," Boruff said recently. "He can look where Microsoft is headed, look where a telco is headed, and crisply articulate a five-year plan on how they can work together."
Having leaders like Knook - sensitive to the effect Microsoft has on international economies, "battling somewhat our 500-pound gorilla image" - could help Microsoft rise to the challenge of being a world organization, not a U.S. organization, says Fredrik Winsnes, a general manager who works for Knook.
"Pieter's smooth edges are the type of thing Microsoft sorely needs," Winsnes said.
P-I reporter Dan Richman
can be reached at 206-448-8032
or danrichman@seattlepi.com.
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