Up Close & Personal with Carlos Lacerda, Microsoft Malaysia MD

by **Cals** Sat 03 Aug 2013, 22:41

Published: Saturday August 3, 2013 MYT 12:00:00 AM
Updated: Saturday August 3, 2013 MYT 7:32:22 AM
Up Close & Personal with Carlos Lacerda, Microsoft Malaysia MD

BY CHERYL POO

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
IT is the middle of a typical work day for Carlos Lacerda and he is frowning slightly, his gaze sweeping between the computer screen and and a jotter pad where he is hastily filling in numbers.
The new Microsoft Malaysia managing director is battling one of his triplet daughters in a mathematical IQ test via Skype.
It has been a way to stay in touch with his family (in Portugal) who will be relocating to join him in Kuala Lumpur over the next few months.
The world is so different today, he says, showing us the daily pages between his daugher and himself.
“We see how information technology has revolutionised the way we live. These days, kids do their group studies and homework online by video conferencing. We have advanced so much that the European Commission is concerned that children bred in Portugal will leave the country when they grow up,” he says.
Lacerda needs little prompting to share his thoughts, most of which are interwoven with globalisation matters.
In the past six years, Microsoft Malaysia underwent new growth across its businesses under the leadership of Ananth Lazarus, the former managing director who has just assumed the role of the software giant’s Asia Pacific partner sales lead.
Now with Lacerda on board, Microsoft will be experiencing an additional focus: Growth in human capital.
Moving forward, Lacerda, who has served in leadership roles in Microsoft’s business groups as well as sales and marketing functions in Europe, has signed on to the company’s pledge of “Transforming Malaysia Together”.
To double the size of Microsoft’s subsidiaries, Lacerda’s priorities would be education, businesses and public users.
And to hold all these plans together, Lacerda’s attention is on one key task: Grow Microsoft’s pool of talents.
Since his arrival, he has made a few changes to key positions in the company as well as in the subsidiaries.
Several guys from Europe have been roped in for the element of diversity and to foster greater learning.
Lacerda’s hopes are that Microsoft is perceived by its customers and talents as the go-to employer in the country.
“I want people to join us as we are stirring up something great for the country – with social responsibility,” he adds.
“I want to make sure that when I leave, I do so with a strong local team in place,” he says. “And we need a strong representation of women leaders in the company. There has to be a good balance with respect to races and people of all ages.”
In Europe, the retirement age of 65 has been pushed up to 70.
People tell Lacerda that he is elitist and idealistic about his plans but his doing away with hiring barriers are to engage talents with strong personalities.
The quieter personalities and those less English-oriented are not necessarily “lesser” talents, he says.
“These principles come from experience and making mistakes. We must learn from them,” he says.
“The best way forward is to recruit people who are better than myself,” says Lacerda, who held various leadership roles across Microsoft’s business functions in Europe.
His trajectory to the big roles in the industry was really inspired by a key revelation post graduation: The world was changing and he didn’t know enough about computers.
“I thought I was really outdated,” he recalls.
Stints in computer engineering firms at that time were crucial to his development of a global-mindedness, a much-needed skill in the information technology industry.
He pauses to offer a parallel.
“Much as I need my computers today, my girls must be global-minded. I may be wrong, but I expect that in the next decade, the cultural differences between Asia and Europe will lessen greatly. And all of this has plenty to do with how technology is shaping us today,” says Lacerda, who speaks English, Portuguese, French, Italian and Spanish.
He explains how crossing borders in Europe was a big deal in his youth.
“When I was young, Portugal was my world,” he says.
Today, however, that concept is lost on his children.
What’s the big deal?, they say. Weren’t they still in Europe?
He goes on to explain the considerations for his family to experience Asia when this role opened up to him.
Essentially, Asia’s polite, sophisticated culture appeals to him from a cultural standpoint.
“Over here, kids come up to us to thank us in a humble tone. We don’t have that back home,” he says.
He compares that to his native culture, where in meetings attendees have no qualms cutting into someone else’s speech and batting for their points to be accepted.
“That’s completely normal for us and someone like me. But people here are polite and it compels me to listen to opinions. I do feel that this way of life is healthier.”
Lacerda smiles as he recalls how, lately, European peers tell him that he is “getting Asian”.
From the time that Portugal joined the European Union in 1986 and subsequently adopted the euro five years afterward, the spotlight on the nation meant a great inflow of foreign direct investment.
“But because it did not happen organically, it didn’t sustain over the long run,” Lacerda says.
Portugal’s overdependence on external economies eventually pushed its internal debt depressingly high, he says.
“Unemployment here is low. In Portugal, it stands at 17%,” he says. “When you live in such an environment, it can get quite negative.”
Even so, it was not the nation’s dire situation that compelled him to come to Asia.
“I did it for the sake of my children’s exposure,” he says.
He wants to prepare them for different cultures, to understand that anywhere in this world, good values are essentially the same.
“It’s a strong conviction that I’ve always had,” he says.
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Age:[/b] 52
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Highest qualification:[/b] Post-doctoral degree in Business & Administration from Lisbon University Institute (ISCTE)
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Career:[/b] Managing director of Microsoft (M) Sdn Bhd and former CEO of Paris-based Farminveste IPG
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Hobbies:[/b] Restoring classic cars, listening to Jazz
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Values:[/b] Respect, work ethic, diversity
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Inspiration:[/b] Family, passion for technology
[b style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: none;"]Favourite Place:[/b] The outdoor