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Home » Archives » Business

10 Questions

with Michal Čupa
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By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
April 4th, 2007 issue

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Čupa says Microsoft Czech Republic's award is great motivation to aim for a spot among the company's top five subsidiaries worldwide.
In March, Microsoft Czech Republic made headlines. For the first time, the branch was named Microsoft’s best national outlet over the past half-year. General Director Michal Čupa talks with The Prague Post about the award — and reveals what he’ll ask Bill Gates during a planned meeting.
➊ Congratulations on the award. How surprised were you?
The Čupa File
  • Job title: General director, Microsoft Czech Republic
  • Age: 47
  • Nationality: Czech
  • Education: Studies in electro-technology at the Czech Technical University in Prague, MBA from the University of Chicago and Master of Business Telecommunications from the Netherlands' Delft University of Technology
  • Previous job: Director of operations, Golden Telecom, Russia
  • Family: Married, two daughters
I can’t say I was that surprised, as we’ve striven to be our best. In 2006, we made significant changes — we created a new team of managers, set up a clear development strategy and worked hard on its fulfillment. A bit of luck is always needed in business. The opening of Microsoft’s first Center for the Support of Mobile Technologies, which will cover Europe, was a landmark, too. We can look to the future with optimism.
➋ Why do you think Microsoft Czech Republic ranked so high?
It is thanks to the changes we made last year. We started fulfilling our new development strategy, which we set early last fall. This year, we set some more goals, and our management is focusing on them. Also, our clear and open communication with business partners, which persuaded them to accept our goals as their goals, was essential for our success, too. We’ve confirmed that Microsoft was right in considering the Czech Republic a key market.
➌ What will be the ramifications of the recent award? Did Bill Gates have any message for you about it?
Gates hasn’t contacted us, but we received congratulations from Operations Director Kevin Turner and our direct superior, Vahe Torossian, vice president for Central and Eastern Europe. The award will certainly affect operations. It’s great motivation and a boost for all of us. I can predict Microsoft Czech Republic will in the next term rank within the top five branches of Microsoft’s 103 national outlets worldwide. It’s an ambitious goal, but we can certainly make it. In practice, our staff has to work hard to satisfy customers and business partners. And the new product that we plan to introduce to the market will further help us, too.
➍ You said you’d like to double the volume of Microsoft business here by 2009. Do you think you can better reach this goal by lowering prices or strictly fighting piracy?
This goal cannot be based on only fighting software piracy or increasing software prices. Microsoft is no longer a company that merely sells “boxes.” Today, we offer our customers tailor-made solutions. It is mainly the segment of corporate information systems that drives our growth. As a result, close cooperation with our business partners is essential. We could never be so successful without the business partners who install our systems for clients or who develop additional software. And our cooperation with mobile operators and hardware producers is equally important.
In terms of software piracy, we’d like to reduce it from the current level of 40 percent to about 26 percent, as it is in Austria. I have to disagree with a strict fight against piracy, however. We prefer motivating customers and explaining to them the value of original software. For example, we’ve made a 1.5 billion Kč [$71.3 million] investment into schools in the form of major price discounts on software. I’m happy we can offer the new Office 2007 at special discounts for students and households. Legal software also enhances the variety of uses of the new Windows Vista, which has been offered on the Czech market in three different versions.
➎ Why do you think piracy is so high here when only about 36 percent of households have computers? How would you reduce it?
Unfortunately, we’ve been facing the historic heritage of socialism, which devalued authorship rights. In the past, we were taught that real value can only be created by workers and farmers, and intellectual work was rather trivialized. People sometimes don’t see that development of particular software was backed by huge investments that have to be repaid. Software is as much a good as anything else. And software piracy is just as illegal as theft from a store.
We cooperate with the Business Software Alliance, which focuses on educating customers about the use and copyright policies of software. We also protect our software on our own. Users of illegal software cannot download all upgraded applications.
Following Microsoft’s priority to keep increasing security of its products, and of the Internet in general, our crucial security upgrades remain free of charge for anyone, whether they use legal software or not.
➏ A Microsoft study showed that Czechs have only average computer skills compared to other European Union citizens. Isn’t this an opportunity to offer educational partnerships to local schools?
Microsoft offers programs for both business partners and users. These are mostly programs for IT professionals. Lectures targeted to different levels of users are provided by our partners, such as Computer Help, Digi Trade, GC System, Gopas and others. We also count on educating the younger generation. I’ve already mentioned the 1.5 billion Kč investment into IT development in schools. Our Center for Modern Technologies at Schools has been examining the best possible use of IT at schools, and it provides lectures for school teachers.
Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about the opposite demographic, either. We’re starting a program for people over 45, who tend to have the biggest problems using computers. Increasing their computer literacy will help them remove barriers in looking for jobs.
➐ Last month, Windows Vista was launched here. Why was the marketing campaign not adapted to local conditions, instead of with slogans such as “Say Wow,” which means nothing in Czech?
The campaign targeted a group of computer users aged 18 to 35, because their investments into IT influence the perception of other groups most. The main message of the campaign was to point out that the new Windows Vista is already available on the Czech market. That’s why we found it most effective to use the global slogan, “Wow,” which worked not only in the Czech Republic but in 28 other countries worldwide. It would be premature to evaluate this campaign, but we can say that the sales volumes are better than we thought. Almost 2,000 customers registered over the first day after starting the campaign. The figures show that the campaign was successful and that Vista has been well accepted here.
➑ Before joining Microsoft, you worked in the telecommunications sector in the Czech Republic and Russia. Were there lessons in the East that are useful here?
Absolutely. The assignment in Russia gave me the experience of managing a major international corporation in a dynamically changing environment, and also some positive aggressiveness. If you want to succeed in Russia, you have to be much more aggressive than in the Czech Republic or Western Europe. You have to be able to make fast decisions. Russia is a tough but great school of management.
➒ The Microsoft Center for the Support of Mobile Technologies opened in Prague in January, the first such center within the worldwide network. Why here?
This center provides professional technical support to European mobile telecommunications network operators, their customers and manufacturers of mobile devices. The main task of the center is to deepen cooperation in developing new mobile products and services. The center will work toward educating the staff of mobile operators and will introduce the newest mobile technologies to other operators and software producers. The center will also monitor requests and comments of mobile operators and their customers. The backup information will then be passed to the development center in Microsoft’s U.S. headquarters.
➓ What would you ask Gates right now if you could?
I’ll have the opportunity to ask a question this week, and, honestly, I don’t feel very relaxed about it. After proving that a small Czech subsidiary can do a good job for Microsoft, I’ll ask what Microsoft will do for the Czech subsidiary. We’ve got particular ideas of how to further speed up our development. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get Redmond on our side.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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