On the last day of our Dublin trip we had the chance to visit Microsoft at their Dublin campus located in Leopardstown, half an hour south of Dublin. This €134m state of the art building inaugurated in 2018 offers over 34,000 square metres and is the home to over 2,000 employees. The Dublin division has more than 100 different nationalities which is representative of Microsoft’s pledge for diversity. All sectors can be found within the campus; engineers, operations or digital sales and human resources making this location central to the company’s European activities.

We were welcome to the company and introduced to Microsoft’s mission established by their CEO Satya Nadella in 2014; empowering every individual and organisation on the planet to achieve more. This mission is not limited to their clients; the DreamSpace is a space on the campus where Microsoft welcomes schools and allows them to interact with various new technologies. This endeavour is an example of Microsoft empowering and interesting the younger generations in technology. We were then toured around the lavish building, a marvel combining design and technology. The notable “digital waterfall” at the centre of the building, is an example of this. Spanning over four floors, it integrates seamlessly in its environment and provides a pleasant sight from all offices and restaurants.

Following the office tour, we were introduced to an energizing business case that revolved around the use of Microsoft technology to digitally transform coffee chains. 5 teams scribbled down their ideas by taking inspiration from the knowledge gained in last 6 months. For instance, One of the teams reflected back on the teachings of Mr. Frank Goedertier during the Managing Customer Experience & Technology Trends course and pitched the idea of using the services of Microsoft Teams and Azure to let customer choose his favourite Barista and even give him the possibility to create his own mixture using cloud service of Azure. Two relevant Microsoft employees gave constructive feedback on the ideas and were impressed by the quality and diversity of the ideas that were pitched in just one minute.

This visit enabled each Vlerick student to experience and understand better the three key elements that drive such a big company.
1. A passion to evolve
2. A passion for people
3. A passion for employees

The visit also gave us a valuable insight into how such an important company upholds certain values through digital technology, which lies at the heart of our master degree. At the end of our visit, smile on our faces, glitter in our eyes, each Vlerick student was mesmerized by the experience and look forwards towards the window of opportunities at Microsoft.