To have such boss that full with enthusiasm, optimism, spirit, confidence are almost everyone will, so do I. Especially in this kind of situation where it’s so hard to get confidence neither being optimist, we do need a leader that can boost our spirit and gave a good example.

Just watch this video, it will tells you everything you need.

Well, some people might mock on him, but for me isn’t that good to have boss like Steve Ballmer. I’m here copying a note of a friend who has wrote his personal impression on Steve Ballmer’s visit in May 2009 to Jakarta.

Please enjoy.

My Seven Observations From Steve Ballmer’s Visit to Indonesia

By: Kertapradana Subagus – EPG Major Account Manager, Microsoft Indonesia

On Monday May 11th 2009, Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer paid a visit to Jakarta despite all of the travel warning advisory surrounding the Indonesian General Election. This was Mr. Ballmer’s first visit to Indonesia following previous stopovers by other founders of Microsoft—including Craig Mundie (Chief R&D) and Bill Gates himself. To be honest, I’m quite impressed. I’m not just saying this because I work for Microsoft, but their willingness to actually set aside their time and effort to come to Indonesia several years in a row is a statement of their belief in the potential of Indonesia. There were many questions around Microsoft’s recent performance, strategy roadmap, open source, etc. Here are MY PERSONAL seven quick takeaways from Mr. Ballmer’s visit to Indonesia:

1. Economic Reset
SteveB mentioned that what we currently face is not an economic crisis where things go up, down and then up again. He prefers to call it an ‘economic reset’ where things go down and… stay down. Companies have to fundamentally restart and rebuild many of the success that they have achieved in the past. So, expect a slow and painful recovery in the next few years—especially in the US and Europe.

2. Indonesia’s Unlimited Potential
However Mr. Ballmer did point out that things look promising for Indonesia compared to other APAC nations, as the Indonesian government is still predicting positive economic growth for 2010; which is another testament to Indonesia’s resiliency toward economic calamity and turmoil. Indonesia’s demography consists of small affluent class up top, medium emerging middle class and large bottom of the pyramid. It is the upward movement of the latter two classes that will catapult Indonesia’s awaited growth. SteveB believes that Indonesia will achieve this “while I’m still the CEO of Microsoft”. Amen to that Mr. Ballmer! I like your optimism.

3. Innovation is Key
Despite the crisis, Microsoft will increase its spending in R&D to US$9.5 billion in FY 2010! That is because SteveB strongly believe that in Indonesia, as in other parts of the world, IT can be more than just a business enabler and help to reduce cost and increase productivity. Expect more new products to be out in FY 2010—and maybe some of Microsoft’s best product to-date such as Windows 7 OS, Office 14, Officer Servers 14, new Unified Communication, new SQL database suite, etc.

4. “With Less Do More” over “Do More With Less”
One of the attending business client actually brought this funny subject up: today CIO is actually an abbreviation from Cheap Information Officer or Chief Innovation Officer. Haha. Pretty good joke. This is due to increasing pressure felt by many CIOs whom expenditures are sharply slashed but still demanded to support operation and all of its growth. Expect more aggressive cost-effective Microsoft focused solution offerings and campaigns such as Business Intelligence, Unified Communication, CRM and Virtualization. Which brings us to the next subject…

5. Mr. Ballmer On Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)
This will always be a controversial subject any way you look at it. Surprisingly though, SteveB was quite calmed and composed when asked about this issue. Instead of discrediting FOSS or anything as such, SteveB opted to focus on showcasing the value of Microsoft products. FOSS might give people zero initial acquisition cost, but he strongly believes that Microsoft still provides the best Total Cost of Ownership compared to any of the FOSS solution offered out there; plus he has references of companies and countries who decided to switch back to Microsoft after initial consideration of moving to FOSS. He concluded with a position that Intellectual Property in all of its form should be protected and appreciated. From this standpoint, I personally don’t expect Microsoft Indonesia to be making any vulgar or coarse notion toward the current FOSS movement.

6. Focus on Local Software Economy
SteveB repeatedly brought-up the importance of developing the Indonesian local software business. He firmly believes that an improved local software economy will create more jobs and foster innovation that will ultimately boosts the overall Indonesian macroeconomic. It is imperative that the government sector, the business sector and the education sector work together to create an ecosystem that is conducive in nurturing the growth of Indonesian local software business. The very good news is that despite the recession, SteveB will continue to sponsor programs aimed to cultivate local software businesses such as BizSpark & DreamSpark. By the way, while he was here SteveB made the time to personally award the winner of Microsoft software development contest that was participated by 9,000 students nationwide. Very cool.

7. Indonesia is Indonesia’s Biggest and Best Market
Lastly, in relation to the Local Software Economy, SteveB reminded us that the Indonesian local market of 250 million people is by far our biggest and most accessible market. Many companies want to go international and be the exporter of IT, but this is where the growth potential for Indonesia is. Like the way it is in China and India, should the local ISVs here are able to dominate the domestic market it will automatically propel them into the international playing field.

All in all, it was an enriching experience being able to engage Mr. Steven Ballmer on such a personal note (although I have a friend who did it with Warren Buffet, what a punk). SteveB is your usual average Joe by appearance. He wore an old black suit that was not fashionable or trendy in any way. His shirt and shoes looked comfortable and was probably a couple of years old. He didn’t even have a watch on for God’s sake. Bottom line is, he was not flashy in any way. The content was all within—the moment he speaks you could feel his tremendous passion and love for the company almost instantly. The kind of paternal enthusiasm and love that you’ll probably only find in other business founders.

Alhamdulillah God is Good. Looking forward to more encounter with him and hopefully other prominent figures out there.