On August 29^th, 2005 I realized how fortunate we were for postponing our meeting and was equally glad to hear my New Orleans teammates and their families were safe.  Like many others I watched the news coverage show just how ferociously nature’s wrath had unfolded. 

A year later as I reflect on Katrina, I am immensely proud of what I do and that I work with such great people at Microsoft.  The company responded immediately to make sure all our employees were safe and that their needs were taken care of.  Other employees all across the world mobilized to help deliver aid to South Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.    In late September, I heard that Microsoft and its employees had committed more than $9 million in cash contribution and technology solutions to the Hurricane Katrina response, half coming directly from employees pockets.  I am certain that number only increased from there.

Some very talented developers I know stayed up for days-on-end developing a web based solution that consolidates data on missing persons and evacuees to help families find each other (www.katrinasafe.com).  Another co-worker worked tirelessly using every available electrical outlet in her home to charge mobile devices for National Guard troops so they could better communicate in the area which perviously had very limited communication options.  Microsoft also has some great buses that travel around the country in our “Microsoft Across America” showcases that were used to provide internet and satellite communications throughout the region.  I volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol to take aerial photographs for damage assessment and relief mobilization.  And there are countless other stories of people I work with who rose to the challenge.  However, as I reflect upon my work in the year following Katrina, there  are some other, not so glamorous stories that need to be told.

First, is the story about my dear co-workers who call New Orleans home.   Together with their families they continued to do their job, not really knowing if their homes were standing or not.  Wondering if the friends they grew up with, their family, or their neighbors were OK.  They recognized very quickly that their job was to reach out to their customers and help them.  They reached out not only to our customers, but to our partners as well to understand what was needed to help their businesses stay up and running.  Serving customers through the worst natural disaster is a daunting task that my co-workers did without much regard for their own situation.  We have a marketing message entitled “People-Ready” that as I reflect upon Katrina, it is hard to be ready for such a disaster, but it definitely starts with the right people.  We had (and still do) the right people on the streets in South Louisiana to get the job done.  I am very proud to be working with them.

Next, is the story of how what we do everyday empowers businesses to achieve their goals.  This may seem rote, but its impacts are huge.  One of our customers told me in the days following Katrina that his company’s most mission critical system was the Exchange e-mail solution they had just finishing implementing.   The system did not experience any downtime and allowed people in their company to communicate the evacuation of their employees (and being a hospital), their patients.   Their previous system did not have the capabilities that would have allowed them to access email from any computer via the web (through Outlook Web Access) and this was a huge communication lifeline for them.  I certainly would not have thought that email really mattered because it is just such a routine part of my life that I take it for granted.  That company certainly looks at email in a new light.  Some customers were happy to be able to talk with our support technicians as they needed to quickly get help rebuilding their IT infrastructures.  Another customer saw the need to upgrade their database systems for better reliability, performance, and uptime.  When we released SQL 2005 in December, they immediately took advantage of its features to withstand another Katrina.  Several other customers followed suit.  Why?  They all realized that their IT systems matter.  The hold invaluable information about their employees, customers, and partners.  Information is the commodity that everyone was seeking in the wake of Katrina. 

·         Where were my employees and are they safe? 

·         What about our business and its capabilities? 

·         Where could we relocate to? 

·         How do we change our business practices right now to reflect a new reality? 

·         Where do customers call to reach us? How do we support them?

·         How will they find us so we can continue to be paid? 

These are all questions our customers asked, and the answers were found in the information technology systems we help keep running.  There are so many more glamorous stories I could share, but how we do our job every day to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential is the one that matters.  There is not enough time to tell the full story of all the ways our company has impacted the survivors of this disaster, through company orchestrated and personal efforts.  Our company’s generosity financially and in sweat equity makes me proud to be on such a great team.  But that is only followed by the pride I find in doing what we do every day really matters.