Kurt's Thoughts

Much has been made about Steve Ballmer not being a the Silicon Valley Tech Summit coordinated by President Barack Obama.  The media, in their everloving verve for headlines and advertising impressions, ask the question, “Why?  Why was Steve Ballmer snubbed by the President?”

THE TECH SUMMIT WAS REGIONAL
I think the answer is best summarized by this ZDNet article:

• Obama’s big tech powwow invite list: A few stunning omissions
  http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/obamas-big-tech-powwow-invite-list-a-few-stunning-omissions/45062

IBM’s CEO Sam Palmisano was invited. 
HP’s CEO Lee Apotheker wasn’t invited. 
Jeff Bezos CEO of Amazon wasn’t invited. 
Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff wasn’t invited. 
…and yes, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft wasn’t invited. 

Because it was a regional event.  Plain and simple.

BALLMER JUST MET WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA
But I think another reason was best expressed by Ed Bott on Twitter:

Basically, while this opportunity is truly a rare opportunity for some, Microsoft’s leadership & founders meet with President Obama on a variety of topics on a somewhat regular basis.

For example:

• Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer just met with President Obama a couple weeks ago. 
  • Meeting & State Dinner w/ Chinese President Hu Jintao & President Obama – Jan 19 
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/microsoftpri0/2013980144_steveballmerexpectedtobeat.html
  • Lunch with President Obama – Feb 22
    http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/02/ballmer-lunches-with-obama.php
• Bill Gates meets with US leadership regularly over the state of the economy & education in America. 
• Meeting with President Obama & Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett – Dec 14^th (on Economic policy)
  http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-12-14/obama-said-to-meet-gates-buffett-on-boosting-economy.html
• Meeting with Vice President Biden – Dec 5^th (on Deficit Spending)
  http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/155009/gates_meets_with_obama.html
• Meeting with President Obama & GE CEO Jeff Immelt – Jun 10^th (on Energy policy)
  http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/06/10/us-obama-energy-idUSTRE6593QQ20100610

Contrary to what the media wants to spin this as – this was not a “snub”.  It’s important to understand that Microsoft leadership meets with US leadership relatively frequently – and one-on-one.  There’s no need for us to participate in a tech meeting when Microsoft has individual meetings with President Obama and his cabinet.

For those wondering, “Why”… it’s pretty simple:

• Steve Ballmer has a strong understanding of what US businesses are spending on and what their drivers are.  He has his hands on the pulse of America’s ever changing workforce and, being one of America’s biggest exporter of products to International markets, he has a keen eye on International relationships from an economic standpoint.
• Bill Gates is worried about public education, vaccinations, the oil crisis, foreign policy, the economy. 

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 19th, 2011 at 11:03 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.