Announcing my departure from Microsoft

Dear colleagues, partners, customers, friends,

I have decided to move on with my career outside of Microsoft. To say that this was a hard decision, would be an understatement. Microsoft has been a source of tremendous learning, a place of inspiration, motivation and success, both personally and for the business. It has in many ways become home. And home is a place that is hard to leave. Before I get into the reasons why I am leaving, I would first like to say many thanks to many people.

To our customers – thank you for choosing our products, for using them and being passionate about them. You always were and always will need to be in the center of everything we do.

To our partners – thank you for all the feedback, patience, close cooperation and friendships. Over the years, I have made many friends in the partner channel, and had lots of good fun. I have learned so much from you. I have learned about the business, but most importantly, I have learned about the force that drives all of you – a passion for successful customers. It is something special. The way you light up when you implement a new customer, brought to me the understanding that this is not just about business, this is in many cases a deep personal passion in what you do. Something I will try to maintain in whatever I do. Thank you.

To my managers:

Michael Thomsen – on the first day at Microsoft, you told me that you have been to a course and heard this quote “we all die twice in our life, the first time is when we stop learning, the second time is just a formality”. This stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Andrew Jewsbury – in observing your communication style, I have learned that it is important what you share with whom, and that the communication needs to be adjusted for the audience. This stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Tommy Straten – in the way you were genuine with your teams, open, transparent and direct, while still maintaining mutual respect, formed in many ways my style of communication with my organization. This stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Rajesh Dadhia – you have taught me that the more crucial the communication is, the closer you need to be to a person. Less crucial, use email. More crucial, use phone or face-to-face. This stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Kim Ibfelt – while my manager only for a few days in my transition from AX to NAV, we maintained a relationship beyond that, which became a good friendship. Your intellect and analytical skills continue to inspire me to do better and push myself harder. Thank you.

Soren Abildgaard – in the patient way you approached the organization, carefully listening, yet still driving hard for results, has presented to me how important active listening is. This has stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Dan Brown – working for you has been inspirational for me and many others in the organization. Your unique style of being casual and easy going, with deep passion for analytical thinking, knowing what is right, and being on the right side of right, is something that I have built my professional persona in many ways. This has stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Erik Tiden – when I started working for you, I was this cocky kid that thought he knew it all and believed he could achieve anything by just pushing harder than everyone else. Your expansive experience in the industry, presented myself to me from that perspective and made me grow up professionally in so many ways. This has stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Kirill Tatarinov – in my interactions with you I have learned that if I am truly and fully transparent and open, I can have a genuine and casual interaction even with the most senior of execs. This has stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

Mike Ehrenberg – your unique style of having deep thoughts on every topic, being cerebral about any discussion and never falling for the “trap of obvious”, yet doing so in a humorous and casual way, inspired me to do the same. This has stayed with me, and always will. Thank you.

James Phillips – your intensity, passion for customer success, cutting through the crap in a respectful way, being able to see the big picture that has been staring at us all in plain sight, rationalize it, present it in a compelling way as a path forward, and executing with focus and measurable impact, is something that has shaped the way I work, and will stay with me always. I will miss our conversations. Always animated, fun, full of loud laughter. Thank you.

Last, but most important, to my team – I have never met a group of people more talented, more passionate, more dedicated to a product and the business. If I ever need a moral compass in my life on what is right, if I ever need to set a bar on what is excellence, if I ever need a north star in what a great team is, I will always think of you and the times we have spent together. Thank you.

Why am I leaving then? Ironically, the quote about learning I heard from my first manager on the very first day in Microsoft, is the very quote that is inspiring me to move on. Have I stopped learning at Microsoft? Absolutely not. However, an opportunity presented itself to me which will be even more challenging than what I am doing now in Microsoft (hard to believe, huh?). I am embarking on a journey in the HR software space. It is massively challenging. It will be a lot of hard work. It will not be comfortable. It will be painful. It is where I believe, that ultimately, I will learn more. This has always been a driving force in my career, and it always will.

As for the business – this is the right time for me to move on. Business Central is in great shape. It is a product that has now reinvented itself yet again, now for the age of digital transformation. Microsoft is fully committed to its success, from James and the SLT, all the way down to the most junior engineer. The business is growing at an incredible accelerating rate. More and more partners are getting ready every day and starting to sell. Apps on AppSource are growing with more in the pipeline. And, the team has a clear roadmap to execute on. My departure changes none of this.

This departure is painful. I have found peace in learning that for us that lead, if we do our job right, it needs to be painful. We will see the work we do flourish into success. We will go through challenging times, on our way to success, and in that process, we will build close relationships with the teams, the partners, the customers and everyone else we work with. It is the blessing and curse of leadership. The joys we experience in succeeding are the very source of pain at departure. That is how it needs to be.

If what I have done has had a positive impact on you, please leave a recommendation on my LinkedIn profile. If I have let you down in any way, know that it was only because it wasn’t there. I have left every iota of energy that I had, with this business.

My last working day will be Friday, November 16th, but I will make myself sporadically available beyond that to facilitate a smooth transition. I will also participate in recruiting my successor.

God speed, and stay in touch.

Yours sincerely,

Marko