Senior Director
Redmond - WA United States
The big idea: In 25 words or less, please tell us how this Fast 50 Nominee is helping to address the planet's problems.
Microsoft Unlimited Potential is the company’s commitment to create social and economic opportunity for the estimated 5 billion people worldwide that currently receive little or no benefits from technology.
Please describe how this nominee is using business as a force of positive change. What technology, idea, or strategy is the nominee using -- and what problem, such as global warming, poverty, or pollution, does it address? (suggested length: 100 words)
Through three focus areas—transforming education, fostering local innovation, and enabling jobs and opportunities—Microsoft Unlimited Potential is changing the face of public-private partnerships and developing new business models leveraging subscription computing, and other innovative solutions to make technology relevant, accessible, and affordable for everyone. One example is Windows MultiPoint, which enables many students to share a single PC using multiple mice.
Combining the company’s business interests with its long history of philanthropy and work in developing nations, Unlimited Potential strives to “build digital bridges,” expanding on the belief that technology has tremendous potential to help connect communities and enable worldwide social and economic growth.
What are the results, both financial and social? How has the nominee's business performed, and what impact has it had on the problem it addresses? (suggested length: 100 words)
While reaching people at the bottom of the economic pyramid is a growth area for the company, the ultimate impact of Unlimited Potential is best seen though the millions of people whose lives and communities have already been enriched because of access to technology. For example, this year we announced a recommitment to Unlimited Potential’s Partners in Learning education initiative, which has touched the lives of 40 million students and two million teachers around the world this past year alone. The success of this initiative is evident in places such as Aragon, Spain where students in a rural primary school use portable Tablet PCs to transform lessons and learning into exciting interactive experiences.
