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‘One-to-one touch’ with Customers |
Since July, Marietta (pronounced Muh-REE-tah) Davis has served as Microsoft’s Greater Southeast District general manager where she oversees approximately 300 employees. As the top Atlanta-based Microsoft executive, she focuses on servicing Fortune 50 companies. She talked recently about her new role, her duties as Microsoft’s top representative in the community, as well as being the mother of two autistic sons.
Q: Were you always a computer geek?
A: Just the opposite. My degree is in television production. I started out at IBM. They were looking for communications graduates. They gave us a logic test, and I did quite well. I tell my husband that it proves I do have common sense. I went into an 18-month binary training program.
Q: Did it seem like they were teaching you to think differently?
A: At the time, it did seem a little like brainwashing. But it’s interesting. What they were doing was teaching us how to handle every situation that would ever come up. There are many times when I’m dealing with my customers that I revert back to that training. It was very intense but useful.
Q: Why did you join Microsoft?
A: I’m coming up on my 10th anniversary. I was working for an offshore Indian-based technology company when I had my second child. He had special needs, and I decided to step out of a leadership role and into an individual contributor role. I was looking for a fiscally and socially responsible company. The Gates Foundation was ratcheting itself up. I wanted to work for a company that wanted to make an important difference in the world and would also support my journey, allow me to change course and accept whenever/whatever I want my destination point to be.
Q: What is Microsoft’s impact in the area?
A: I’ll just talk about the economic impact of Windows 7. By year end 2010, 24 percent or approximately 38,000 IT jobs in Atlanta will have some relation to Windows 7.
Q: What are your professional challenges?
A: It’s trying to get close to my customers with a one-to-one touch. I have the second largest district in the U.S., and I want to reach out to as many customers that I can. I deal with the Fortune 50 companies. I have counterparts who work with the small- to medium-size companies. It’s a matter of scalability. I’d like to clone myself and be in Charlotte, Tampa, Atlanta.
Q: What do your clients want?
A: They want the solutions we bring to the table for the same amount of money. They want greener technology and innovation.
Q: What are your civic passions?
A: I’m active in supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education that encourages young women to enter the science and technology fields. I serve on the board of TechBridge, a nonprofit organization that helps other nonprofits leverage technology to accomplish their goals. I’m also very passionate about the recruitment of women and minorities in the workplace and want to be a mentor. Above all, I’m heavily involved with the Autism Society of America.
Q: Tell us about your sons.
A: Both my boys suffer from autism, but at different levels of functionality on the spectrum. My oldest is quite high functioning, however my youngest is more severely affected and also has auditory neuropathy — a very unique hearing loss. So he needs special attention.
Q: What is your biggest fear for them?
A: My biggest fear was moving to Georgia where they would not get the services they need. My younger is more challenged, and Georgia did not rank very high — like Virginia, Maryland or Washington State — on services. But I’m very surprised and incredibly pleased. The schools in north Fulton County are a hidden jewel. We’ve embraced them as well as other assets that will help them leverage and find their potential, such as the Marcus Autism Center and the Marcus Jewish Community Center. Having said that, I wish there were more services, like nanny agencies, that deal with special-needs children. Nannies who sign or can deal with autism.
Q: What was your reaction when you got the autism diagnosis?
A: I was devastated, for 48 hours. I was raised to believe that to whom much is given, much is expected. So I went from ‘Why me?’ to ‘Why not me?’ I think my husband took it a little harder. He’s a man and had all those father-son things in mind that he may not do with them.
Q: How do you handle it?
A: I am blessed to help take care of and raise two wonderful boys. What better environment can they be in than with a family where they are supported emotionally and financially? We look at the glass as half full and look for those small victories. I get joy when my son goes into the store, buys what he needs, makes change and comes home. We really are blessed.
Meet Marietta Davis
Age: 50
Title: General manager, Greater Southeast District, Microsoft Corp.
Husband: Randall Davis
Children: Tyler, 16; Connor, 12
Education: Bachelor’s degree in business and television production, Bradley University in Peoria, Ill.; MBA from Loyola University in Chicago
Hometown: Des Moines, Iowa
Currently resides in: Alpharetta
Hidden talent: Singing. I do a great Tina Turner impression, especially “Proud Mary”
Hobbies: Golfing, reading, exercising
