Microsoft’s Chief Executive Steve Ballmer gave the CBI’s annual lecture this week.

Describing the recent recession as a complete economic “reset” Ballmer covered two areas in his lecture that are of interest to IT marketers.

The drive for a “new efficiency”: automation and information are critical

Ballmer commented that the number one objection he gets from CEOs about the IT industry is ‘I spend a lot on IT but I still can’t seem to lay my hands on the information I want, when I want it.”

Making a strong plea for further information and automation to drive out of recession, Ballmer said that the trick now is to identify things that will generate real productivity and innovation growth. H said that companies would need now, more than ever, to do more with less.

Arguing that whilst many businesses claim to be automated, incredibly few actually achieve it in any way that sets them apart meaningfully, Ballmer stressed IT’s role in turning paper processes into digital ones.

He commented that there was an accepted wisdom that new technologies had 40 year “innovation run” before they became mainstream. He used the example of the steam era. He said that he felt the computer world had seen a 60 year run to date, but that he could see more opportunity for innovation in the next 5-10 years than ever before. Ballmer put this down to IT’s ultimate flexibility – from PCs that will physically become ‘digital paper’ in the next few years through to PC applications that revolutionise paper-based processes and will allow pertinent information to flow to us when we need it.

Microsoft’s main measurables during the downturn

Most interestingly for us marketers, Ballmer told the CBI that Microsoft is focusing on market share and customer satisfaction as the two major measures of its success for the foreseeable future. Ballmer made the point that in a volatile market, revenues are no longer a “controllable” factor whereas market share and customer happiness are.

Along with the recession has come much advice for businesses to focus on keeping their existing customers. Perhaps this is a golden opportunity for marketers to demonstrate to the board exactly how much marketing programmes can protect and extend those key customer relationships.