Microsoft: Inspiring women in tech

Microsoft is partnering with Telia in Finland to deliver an evolving customer experience; one made up of rich H2H (human-to-human) interactions. “We need to stay relevant with our customers with the right message on the right channel and at the right moment,” says Microsoft Finland’s CMO Janina Backlund. “The values a company represents are having a growing impact on this scenario.”

Value-Based Marketing

How those values are communicated is very important, believes Backlund. “You can't simply copy/paste value messages on top of something. They need to be authentic so you go to market in a way that matters to the audience you want to engage with. And those values need to be lived upon in the company’s everyday life; we really need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.”

Surface the Women

Microsoft has been running its #SurfaceTheWomen campaign for three years now; in tune with Telia’s aim to have 40% of its leadership roles allocated to women by 2023. “Gender equality is a conversation that needs to progress. Diversity and inclusion are written into our DNA at Microsoft,” explains Backlund. “These are core values grounding the way we develop our technology which needs to be accessible for everybody. Microsoft’s offering needs to represent the diverse audiences we aim to serve. This extends all the way to the teams we recruit; which must represent those same customers. It's difficult to create innovations that are actually meaningful for our end users if we don't make sure the teams developing them are diverse and value inclusion.”

Women in Tech

“#SurfaceTheWomen has given women in tech a platform and a voice to tell their stories,” adds Backlund. “It can open the industry for other women. For example, this year, we were very much focusing on the different myths that are related to the industry from a female perspective. We’re tackling the misconception that you need to have a certain kind of background to be able to build a career in tech. Women can come from all walks of life and #SurfaceTheWomen provides the opportunity to tell that story, share the backgrounds they have and talk about their career in technology. Ultimately, we aim to inspire other women to make that leap forward with their careers in tech.”

Testimonial:

“Our partnership with Microsoft is very important to us. They offer us a strong foundation for digital services and modern, digital workplace solutions and to our customers. Customer expectations in this kind of environment (the global pandemic) are all about employee productivity and satisfaction. We are also very focused on data security and our IT assets. Microsoft workplace solutions combined with our offering enables us to offer customers services that help them improve employee productivity and customer satisfaction.”

Kirsi Kantele, HR Director, Telia