Ballmer Talks: Microsoft Boss on India, Google and the Recession

If the company can't get H-1B visas for workers in the U.S., the CEO says in an interview, Microsoft will employ them elsewhere

By Pankaj Mishra and Bodhisatva Ganguli

There's little exaggeration in calling Steve Ballmer, along with the iconic Bill Gates, one of the creators of the modern IT industry. Ballmer, who has been the company's CEO since January 2000, now has the daunting task of conquering new frontiers such as the markets for search and the software which runs mobile phones. Having missed out on acquiring Yahoo for competing better with search rival Google, Microsoft is now preparing to enhance its Internet search offerings by exploring joint innovation with Yahoo, and investing more in developing newer features for wooing Google users and advertisers.

In an interview with ET, the only Indian publication he spoke to during a three-day trip, Ballmer says his company will leverage engineering talent available in countries such as India in order to fuel the company's growth. Ballmer also shared his thoughts on a wide range of topics including the impact of the global meltdown and the role of government.

Q. Do you think that the role of government, especially in the banking and financial services sector, has increased?

A. Two things happened last fall. Number one, we had a credit crunch and number two, we saw a change in government (in the U.S.). The conventional view is that the Democratic Party prefers a more active government role in many ways than the Republican Party. Certainly the government has been more involved, but part of that is because of change in government, part of that is a once-in-a-lifetime, unique economic circumstance. I don't draw any grand generalization about change, and what to expect. I think we are in very unique times.

I would say probably that's fair (to say that banking would see greater government intervention). At the end of the day, banking and finance is a regulated industry, certainly in the U.S. It's a natural thing for government then to occasionally play a more expanded role and we all know these are incredibly unique times.

Q. Because of the trend of greater government involvement, do you see more antitrust actions against companies, trying to see if companies have become more dominant? Or has it always been there?

A. It's always been there. I think we have had our turn mostly, I think other companies may get their turn in our industry, we will see. That's up to the regulator. But I would not expect to see trust review, at least in the U.S., change significantly because of the economic situation. I think at least in the U.S., this is more a blip in time than a massive shift, whether it's anti-trust, or regulatory involvement in the industry. That's how I tend to think about it but certainly if you look back historically, post the Great Depression, there were programs put in place that expanded the role of government. They didn't necessarily expand the role of government in business but certainly the state's role grew. We have to look back at history. Right now, though, I think it's a blip.

Q. When do you see the recession ending?

A. Well I actually don't think we are in a recession. I don't use that word and I say it's a reset. Recession some times implies going down, and coming up. I think this is a situation where the economy got to an unsustainable level based upon too high a level of borrowing, particularly by business and private individuals, and it's sort of like all of that air has to come out and it takes a while. And the government in some sense does not want it to come up too fast because there is too much societal pain if it all comes out. So, this stimulus in some sense is designed to let air out more slowly. Instead of being over quickly, it may take longer to get over, but it'll be less painful, which I respect. So I don't know if it will be fully reset for another year, two years. At that point, we will get that GDP growth. GDP growth comes from four sources: population growth, productivity, innovation and debt. Too much of economic growth in the last 10 or 15 years has been from debt. Once we reset, I think the only sources of GDP growth will be productivity and innovation, and some from population.

Just in the U.S.

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