Since Scott Oki left Microsoft as senior vice president in 1992, few Asian Americans were able to break the “bamboo ceiling” for a long time at the company’s top management. Then, Dr. Qi Lu was appointed as president of Microsoft’s Digital Division in 2008.
Dr. Qi Lu
Organized by the Executive Development Institute, the Asian community celebrated Lu’s achievement on July 29 at China Harbor Restaurant, the same day as Microsoft announced its deal with Yahoo in Internet search and advertising to position itself against Google, the no. 1 player in the industry.
That’s no coincident. Lu is a strategic thinker. He quoted extensively from Jim Collin’s book, “Good to Great” in his speech. That’s his vision, his division in a great company overtaking Google eventually.
Lu, a former Yahoo executive would be the next rising star to bring Microsoft’s online division up to the moon if CEO Steve Ballmer knows how to keep him.
Remember, Google stole Microsoft’s vice president Ka Fu Lee a couple of years ago to be its China division president, and both went to court because of the steal. History might repeat itself.