Mark Olson (Dave Samson / The Forum)
Amid the decor on Mark Olson’s office walls – logos, ad campaigns, and other design work highlights – hangs a framed print bearing a not-so-subtle message: “Screw Microsoft.”
It’s more of a conversation starter than a declaration of war. After all, Olson spent nearly two decades with Great Plains Software and Microsoft and credits both for his professional development. And as a substantial shareholder in the latter, he isn’t interested in seeing Microsoft crash and burn.
But it’s also a window into why the longtime brand manager stepped away from the corporation of 90,000-plus employees to go into business for himself.
Olson is a member of the informal club that shares perhaps the most common resume bullet point in Fargo-Moorhead: Microsoft and Great Plains.
It’s a group that populates the leadership ranks of a number of regional firms – Brent Teiken, chief executive of Sundog, Spider Johnk of Spider and Company, and Lighthouse1 chief executive Jeff Young all have roots in the company.
They’re all tied together by Kevin Bacon-style degrees: Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who worked for Microsoft.
And most everybody knows somebody who moved on, whether spurred by new opportunities or in pursuit of a change of scenery.
For Olson, the move came after 18 years with the company. He helped stamp the Great Plains brand into the public imagination, and eventually become Doug Burgum’s go-to communications executive and speechwriter.
But he didn’t care for the red tape at Microsoft. Managing a brand message through multiple layers of corporate approval “would really take the edge off a sharp idea,” he said. And Olson never liked going from a brand built on trust to one that was under investigation from the antitrust division of the US Department of Justice.
By the time Burgum left in 2007, “I got to a place where I was happy to step off and work for myself,” he said. So Olson downsized from a corporate titan to one-man brand consulting firm in downtown Fargo called Mojo – it’s his nickname, derived from a sloppy signature of his initials, “MGO.”
“I never liked large. I always liked small,” Olson said. “When I got done with my Microsoft career, I went about as small as you can – one guy.”
For Andy Westby, a 10-year Microsoft veteran who left this year to head the fledgling Fargo office of medical tech firm Preventice, the move was an opportunity to play a more direct role in a company’s success.
“Your ability to have an impact is muted at a larger company,” he said. “You break free from some of the process and bureaucracy that comes from a larger organization.”
Or as Shane Kvalevog – one of Westby’s first hires at the Preventice office – put it: “No more meetings to plan meetings.”
Kvalevog, a 14-year Great Plains and Microsoft employee himself, left in part because he felt he was nearing the apex of his career opportunities in Fargo as a web designer. To find new challenges, he said, “you’d have to move to Seattle.”
When Kvalevog came to Preventice, Westby wasn’t the only familiar face in his new office: The landlady was a Great Plains expatriate herself.
Not everyone takes on that designation by choice. Diana Wilberscheid’s 21-year career with the company came to an abrupt end in 2009 when her position was eliminated along with about 20 others.
But the network of former employees has a way of taking care of its own: After doing independent consulting for a year (some of it for Microsoft), Wilberscheid landed at Burgum’s Kilbourne Group.
Burgum himself ran out of room to advance, at least in Fargo.
“At the level that I came in at, there really wasn’t any place to go unless Steve (Ballmer) was going to leave, and Steve wasn’t leaving,” he said.
There might have been new opportunities if he’d moved to Redmond, but staying in Fargo was a priority – and ultimately one of the reasons he’s now a Microsoft expat too.
The grind of commuting to Redmond on a regular basis, which wore on Burgum in his tenure as Microsoft vice president, is another factor that inspires some to look elsewhere. For some employees, spending one week a month at corporate headquarters is common. Tracy Faleide, a manager who was with the company from 1986 to 2005, said she “lived out of a suitcase” for stretches.
“You turn 40 and you’re like, ‘Really, is this the deal? Is this the way I want to continue?’ ” she said.
Now, she runs Bellwether Works, her own communications and professional coaching firm in Fargo. In spite of the challenges, she credits the company for valuable opportunities, from travel to professional development to figuring out how to cope with a major merger – a common refrain among former employees.
“People will ask me, ‘I know you just left, are things that bad?’” said Westby. “There isn’t a person out there that I would tell, ‘Don’t go work out at Microsoft in Fargo.’”
Even Mark Olson – he of the provocative wall signs and posts on his Mojo blog that rail against the “collective arrogance and ignorance” of a certain corporate giant – isn’t all doom and gloom about his former employer.
“I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing if I hadn’t had the opportunity to grow in both of those companies,” he said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Marino Eccher at (701) 241-5502
I also fall into the category as an expat of Great Plains and Microsoft (and before that ICONtrol, the first company Great Plains acquired).
Great Plains and Microsoft both offered me opportunities to travel the world, understand different cultures, assist companies and individuals work better and smarter. I wouldn’t trade them for the world.
But when it is time to move on, it is time to move on.
Nicely said, Terry, and couldn’t agree more. Great experiences and also good to move on. Very thankful for my time with both Great Plains and Microsoft!
What a great article – I couldn’t have said it better myself. Microsoft Fargo is a great place to be – right up until the point I got an unexpected offer I couldn’t refuse. Great experiences, great people, great perks. Global is so fun… and I have discovered, so is local. There is life on the outside – and it is wonderful, too!
I get a kick out of how he has a poster thumbing down MSFT when it helped him get where it is. I also laugh at the Mac on his desk which as company has tripled the entry cost to a computer while vigorously controlling applications that live on their systems. Boy you have really stuck it to the man with that purchase.
Nice computer? Yeah it is a nice one- I figure people who let a company tell them what type of computer to use are weak- so good job to this man not letting a corporation control him.
it is a nice computer
No, Great Plains helped him get where is is, not Mircosoft.
VERY true …nicely said
I started on the same path as Terry Borchardt. First, ICONtrol, then acquired by Great Plains, and finally acquired by Microsoft. I am a computer programmer. Working at Microsoft provided unprecedented access to current and new technology. The backing of my experience at Microsoft afforded me a great number of opportunities when I moved on in 2008. I am now employed at another world-class company as a programmer/analyst.
Working at GPSI/MSFT was a great experience, and my own success is still closely tied to Microsoft’s. I left six years and started by own software company. As I sat in a Microsoft cubical working collaboratively with people all over the world, I realized, “Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to work like this with a view of a lake in front of me.” Now I do.
Thanks, Great Plains/Microsoft, for giving me the confidence and skills I needed. I have nothing but well wishes for the future of Microsoft in Fargo.
The only thing that troubles me about the direction of their Fargo presence is the increasingly high percentage of contract workers. There are people I know who work on the campus today who probbaly should be “real” Microsoft employees. I know its cheaper to limit Microsoft’s generous benefits package to only the most indispensible of workers, but Fargo workers will be more productive if they know their “v-” email address (which brands them within the company as a contractor) will not hold them back from being upwardly or horizontally mobile within Microsoft.
Thanks for retelling the story in the Forum. Truly, Great Plains and DB have had a tremendous impact on the local economy and quality of life.
Darren Leno is right on the money regarding contract workers at the Fargo MSFT campus, I worked there briefly and found it to be a hostile environment with contract workers like myself personifying the upper end of the lower middle class
We worked in beautiful buildings but with no vacation or sick time and minimal medical insurance. I left when things became intolerable, didn’t take long.
Another expat chiming in! I was hired as an intern on the events team one month after the acquisition and was offered a full time position eight months later. I was a Microsoft employee for just over three years and have been working as a contractor and supporter of Microsoft Dynamics Partners through The Partner Channel since 2005.
I was afforded experiences and professional relationships that I’ll carry with me for a lifetime. Some of my best friends came from working on One Lone Tree Road, and I’m glad to still be part of the community.
Was a great experience working at Microsoft Great Plains>Microsoft Business Solutions. Got to interact with the “Partner Channel” on a daily basis, speaking with partners scattered all over North America. Am currently working “in the field” with a navigational software company in San Antonio, TX. Was glad to hear Mojo is up an running his own company – he’s one of the good guys! On the down side, there have been a lot of good employees let go over the past few years, in large part because of Microsoft’s paradigm shift (as differentiated from the Great Plains culture) of bringing in contract workers to replace Microsoft employees. I’m not faulting the business decisions that facilitate this shift, just bemoaning the loss of good people from the ranks.
I really enjoyed the article. He didn’t pump it up and kiss butt by saying all the fabulous things about microsoft (even though we all know there are many)- he stated the truth- not something many people can do. The article was well written and I enjoy the attitude of this real article.