Microsoft's Offer Too Good For Californian To Pass Up

Economy

Profile

Richard Buck
The Seattle Times

February 5, 1985

Ida Cole Vice president, applications, Microsoft Corp.
Personal
Born in 1947 in Bethlehem, Pa.; BA, mathematics, University of Massachusetts, 1968; MBA, Pepperdine University, 1981; single, no children.
Career
Stewardess, United Airlines, 1968-70; scientific programmer, Litton Industries in Monterey, Calif., 1970-73; programmer and systems analyst, Bank of America, 1973-77; technical staff manager and national manager for systems development, Tymshare Inc. in Cupertino, Calif., 1977-81; applications software director, later a marketing director, Apple Computer, 1981-85.
Interests
Skiing, travel, symphonic music, football.

If Ida Cole has her way, Bellevue's Microsoft Corp. will take on a higher profile among the companies that write and sell computer programs.

Cole left California, and a key job at Apple Computer, last week to take on a top executive spot at Microsoft: vice president in charge of all computer programs Microsoft makes for businesses and consumers.

Microsoft makes two kinds of software _ external and internal.

Internal software, called an operating system and often built into the machine, defines how a computer organizes, stores and retrieves information. Microsoft's premier reputation comes from internal software: The company designed the operating systems for IBM's top-selling personal computers.

When those computers set the standard for the industry, so did Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system, and the company has collected millions of dollars in licensing fees as IBMs and their clones are sold.

Cole's job involves the other side of Microsoft's business: external or applications programs, which tell a computer how to do something specific like word-processing or financial analysis, or how to play a game.

``That's the high-growth area'' of the software business, she said. ``And there's no reason Microsoft can't be right on top.'' But it's a volatile business with a Top-40 mentality of best-selling programs that can gain and lose popularity almost overnight.

While Microsoft has some highly respected applications programs (Multiplan is one), and a perennial best-selling game (Flight Simulator) for the IBM PC, the biggest best-sellers are made by other companies.

Cole's job is to change that.

Last November, when she was marketing director for the Apple II and Apple III computers, Cole got a phone call from the founder and chairman of Microsoft. ``Bill Gates called me and asked me to come up and interview,'' she said. ``I didn't think there was any chance I would take the job, and I had heard it rained all the time in Seattle.''

But she accepted Gates' invitation. ``Microsoft has always been my favorite application software company,'' she said. ``I was very, very impressed with the people at Microsoft,'' and Gates' offer ``was too good to pass up.

``The thing I really love about Microsoft is that it has both the name and the financial clout to be a really big player and to do some very, very exciting things,'' she said.

But Cole knows success is far from assured. ``The scariest thing is that it's such a crap shoot,'' she said. ``And that's true of the whole industry. You can seemingly do everything right, and there's no guarantee'' that your product will avoid being left in the technological dust by a competitor.

But she thinks the opportunities far outweigh the risks. Late last year, she said, ``I just decided it was time for a new adventure. I'm ready, and I'm going to go for it.''