Microsoft's "Dawn of a New Day"

Very interesting article on the BBC news site today about the "Memo to all Staff" published by Microsoft's chief software architect Ray Ozzie, posted soon after he announced he was leaving the company.

The memo can be read here. It's written in the relentlessly upbeat style of a very senior American software executive who is acutely conscious of his responsibilities, but it's a stark warning to Microsoft.

It speaks about the impact of moving away from "computing artifacts" like PCs and software on DVDs, and locally stored files in folders. Instead, he predicts that we will see "a world of continuous services and connected devices".

But this isn't the future. I've been working just like this for some time. It's called my iPhone and my Blackberry, using Salesforce.com's mobile data amongst other services.

Ozzie's memo is not just a challenge to Microsoft, It should also be seen as a stark warning to business development teams relying on conventional sales processes and behaviours.

The changing world that he confidently predicts will undoubtedly accelerate the demise of conventional selling.

It really is time to change from behaving like conventional sales people and to become genuine business development coaches.