Brian Groth's Life at Microsoft
A technologist helping marketing and advertising
Handbook for a manager
Business 2.0 has a good article about a handbook of sorts that they say CEOs swear by. Below is my...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 12/20/2005
Fellow Microsoftees: Let's get a rail system
This blog is for my peers at Microsoft: Having this cool little rail system around campus would make...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 12/07/2005
Microsoft Student 2006
I don't have kids and I'm way past the 8th grade. However, I am very jealous that I didn't have...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 12/07/2005
Strategy Focused Organization
Thinking about applying Balanced Scorecard ideas to an organization comes down to making that...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 11/29/2005
Presentation Tips
How do you try to pitch an idea to peers or upper management? I use PowerPoint probably more often...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 11/27/2005
Traveling the world, missing our dogs
Lorie and I are visiting Microsoft Technology Centers and squeezing in some vacation in Beijing,...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 11/06/2005
Decision Making with businessThink
I recently read businessThink and got a few good tips out of it. The premise of the book is to...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 10/28/2005
Why I work at Microsoft
I recently posted my resume on my blog, and this resulted in a few people to contact me wondering if...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 10/27/2005
How can Microsoft help change the world?
I've been doing some thinking and figured I would ask the blogsphere.... How would you combine all...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 10/27/2005
A $20 Cookie for Katrina Victims
Here is how I just paid $20 for a chocolate chip cookie: Sara Ford works here at Microsoft She grew...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 10/06/2005
360 Degree Review
A few months ago I participated in a “360 degree review” where my colleagues, manager, peers, and...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 09/29/2005
Balanced Scorecard
I recently finished reading Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step by Paul R. Niven and if you manage any...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 09/09/2005
The World is Flat
The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman is a great book to read for anyone interested in how the...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 08/22/2005
XBox 360 Design Review
A friend of mine (Alan Shen) helped develop the UI and pointed me to a good write-up of the process...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 07/30/2005
Theo's Last Hop: Our Rabbit's Eulogy
For some reason, I feel like sharing this with anyone who is interested: Theo’s time was up, so...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 07/22/2005
Buzz Marketing
I just read Buzzmarketing by Mark Hughes thoroughly enjoyed the marketing stories about Miller Lite,...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 07/12/2005
The start of something exciting
Watch Steve Ballmer's interview on Channel 9 to get an idea of how excited Steve is (and I'd say...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 07/11/2005
Life as a Support Engineer, circa 1994
For me, some of the more interesting blogs I see from Microsoft employees are about “the old days”....
Author: Brian Groth Date: 06/27/2005
Recommended Statistics Refresher Info
In my last entry I asked for some good references for statistics books that I could use as a...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 06/07/2005
Good Statistics Book
It has been a while since I took any sort of statistics course. As a part of my new job as Business...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 06/01/2005
Applying ideas from Good to Great
Good to Great, by Jim Collins, has been out since 2001, but I just now got around to reading it....
Author: Brian Groth Date: 05/15/2005
Microsoft Technologies Available for Licensing
This is pretty amazing. We are making quite a few technologies available for others to build...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 05/04/2005
Microsoft Small Business Center, a Tablet PC, and a 5-year old
A friend of mine has a very talented 5-year old daughter who has been using a Tablet PC to draw...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 04/30/2005
Demos and Evangelism
Here are a couple of quick tips for those of you doing demos and generating excitement about your...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 04/18/2005
Organizational Agility
This is another in my series of management tips, but this one can easily be applied to anyone in a...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 04/02/2005
Business Management Tips
Since I am getting more interested in topics about “how to run the business” and “how to manage...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/31/2005
Business and Marketing Leadership Tips
Below are my blog entries that are related to leadership, managemen, and marketing. The URL will...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/31/2005
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
As an effort to improve my marketing skills, someone suggested that I read "The Tipping Point", by...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/24/2005
Dogs at Microsoft
And no, I am not talking about the discontinued “Microsoft Dogs” product, of which I actually bought...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/24/2005
Ten Reasons Why Blogging is Good For Your Career
Tim Bray, who works for Sun Microsystems has written up a great list of why blogging is good for...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/11/2005
MSF Agile
I just came across the core ideas behind the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) for Agile Software...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/08/2005
Using the netsh Command-Line Tool to Fix Connection Problems
I was recently helping someone in Chicago with an interesting problem that led to me using the netsh...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 03/01/2005
My Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: ISTJ
I am an ISTJ. Specifically, this means that I: Have a moderate to clear preference for pulling...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 02/12/2005
Blog from MSNBC to MSN Spaces
Thanks to Mike Torres for pointing this one out: MSNBC & MSN Spaces - Blog This!
Author: Brian Groth Date: 02/10/2005
Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
I have just completed a week-long training to get my Green Belt Certification for Six Sigma. It was...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 02/05/2005
Life at Microsoft, in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA)
Since the overall subject of my blog is "Brian Groth's Life at Microsoft", I figured I should point...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 02/03/2005
SOA Demo on MSDN's Channel 9
Our video is now live on https://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=38823. To repeat the...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/31/2005
Windows Media High Definition Video
Robert X. Cringely has an interested article where he guesses that the Mac Mini is going to be a...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/27/2005
BioDiesel Update: 33mpg on 100% vegetables (no petroleum)
A few people have asked me how the VW New Beetle (does anyone call it that, or just a “bug”?) is...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/26/2005
Fellow Microsoft Bloggers - where will it lead?
As you may have read, there are a bunch of Microsoft people from around the world in Redmond this...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/18/2005
Good Demo Tips
I just found this useful blog entry, even though it is a few months old. It is from The Demo Coach...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/17/2005
Defending Microsoft’s Products and Bill Gates
At the risk of getting flamed from in the blogsphere, I’ve got to stand up and voice my opinion...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/14/2005
Passion by employees = great ideas and products
The Seattle PI has a story about The story behind Microsoft's new hand-held multimedia device, which...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/12/2005
TulaFale: A Security Tool for Web Services
TulaFala looks to be pretting interesting. It is part of the Samoa Project from Microsoft Research...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/11/2005
Managing Yourself
This month’s (Jan 2005) edition of the Harvard Business Review is all about how to either get...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 01/09/2005
Starting a New Project
My team and I, plus numerous others not on my team, are starting to build a new version of the demo...
Author: Brian Groth Date: 12/21/2004