It's all about the excitement, impact, passion

The 33-year-old Washington native says he likes intensity -- there's that word -- in his work. He also likes it, he adds, on his BMW R1100 RT motorcycle.

Microsoft and bikes "both demand intense concentration and being aware of where you are versus the competition -- which is to say, everyone else," said Visse (pronounced VISS-ee).

Now, after 6 1/2 years at the company, one thing on which he and fellow group product managers are concentrating intensely is making Microsoft's MSN Web site profitable.


	Bob Visse says he likes excitement and intensity, both in his job and on his BMW motorcycle. Listening to Visse may seem like hearing another of those company morale pep talks, but his co-workers attest that it isn't just hot air -- he's for real. PHIL H. WEBBER / P-I

MSN, a site offering varied content and services, is available in 33 markets and in 17 languages, which Visse said gives it a broader worldwide presence than any other Web site.

Roughly 230 million unique surfers visit monthly, and about 5 million people use MSN as their Internet service provider. Archrival AOL doesn't release figures but is generally believed to have more ISP customers and fewer site visitors. Yahoo! has about 186 million unique monthly site visitors.

But MSN has never been profitable.

Microsoft's chief financial officer, John Connors, said in November that it "will be a profitable business soon," according to Merrill Lynch analyst Henry Blodget.

Connors acknowledged that from 1995 to 1999, MSN had "very limited progress and lots of losses," said Blodget. In the spring of 1999, it moved four key executives to MSN -- Rick Belluzzo, Yusuf Mehdi, Brad Chase and David Cole -- "and the progress from that point forward has been pretty remarkable," Connors said.

Visse works most closely with Mehdi, conferring with him nearly every day.

"It's been a long haul," agreed Visse. "Today we're building a lot of services, like the music service we just launched. But I think MSN will be a major contributor to Microsoft within the next five years."

Visse's group oversees MSN's communications, promotion and advertising. He works closely with focus groups, determining what features customers want and will pay for, and figuring out how to explain and sell those features. He also works closely with software developers, both sifting through their feature ideas and helping them implement ideas that come from others.

His most important achievement at MSN so far, he said, is launching the enhanced browser called MSN Explorer, because it "made MSN a better service and so helps us compete harder against AOL."

MSN makes money from ads and subscriptions. Ads are a "very significant" part of the business, though he won't reveal what proportion. Ad revenues have seen double-digit growth over the last year, and plans call for signing up some "very big" conventional and Internet-based companies, he said.

Subscription revenue today is limited to selling Internet access. But the sweeping .NET initiative envisages selling services as well, perhaps including video phone calls from the PC, mobile notification of when your favorite musicians are coming to town and automated purchase of concert tickets on your behalf.

"A member of MSN will get a certain set of services, though we haven't totally determined what that membership is going to look like," he said.

MSN is "at the top" of hot jobs at Microsoft, Visse said. "Windows is always hot, Office is interesting, but MSN is right in there as one of the top places at Microsoft to work."

Visse's job is a long way from accounting, the field his father, a Bellevue accountant, tried steering him into during college at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

"I quickly learned it wasn't for me," he said.

Though he served as treasurer of the student body, politics -- one early career consideration -- didn't grab him either.

Upon graduating with a degree in public administration in 1990, "as a Northwest guy, I considered aerospace and technology," he said. But marketing gigs at two Seattle-area aerospace companies proved disappointing.

"Aerospace wasn't exciting. It was just another job. It didn't give me the chance to impact people's lives," he said.

Hmm. The "i" word.

"I desperately wanted to get into something where I could do that," he continues. He landed a job at Microsoft in 1994, selling support contracts to New York businesses.

"I was super excited," he recalls. "My family was excited."

The "e" word.

Because Microsoft reorganizes once a year or more, Visse has held many positions there, some lasting only a few months. Those include improving Windows 95 based on user feedback and helping launch Versions 3 and 4 of the Internet Explorer browser.

His proudest achievement at Microsoft so far is polishing the Windows 2000 operating system to such a luster that it won glowing product reviews from all the major technology magazines.

"Stable, sophisticated and worth the upgrade," wrote News.com. PC World called Windows 2000 "big, brawny and surprisingly swift" and named the operating system's Professional Edition "Product of the Year."

Said Visse, "The product really delivered the needs of consumers. The thing I was passionate about is giving people a really reliable experience."

Now the "p" word.

Excitement, impact, passion. Where does all this talk come from?

He explains.

"I'm lucky enough to have been raised in a family that provided all the basic needs. Now I have a wonderful wife and wonderful kids. So maybe now I'm at the self-actualization phase."

Visse has a 2 1/2-year-old son, Ben, and a 3 1/2-year-old daughter, Hannah. His wife, Erika, a former Microsoftie, is now a homemaker. He lives in Duvall -- good riding country, with fast roads, sweeping curves and little traffic.

He works long days. Typically he starts work at home at 7 a.m., arrives at work for meetings that start at 9, stays until 8 p.m., eats with his family, then works at home for another hour or two.

Making money for Microsoft is important to Visse. But money isn't what drives him or his co-workers, he said.

"It's using technology to improve people's lives, working on something you believe in," he said. "The rest is a wonderful side benefit."

He thinks of working at Microsoft as "not like just another job." For example, Visse has become more technically expert even though he has no formal training.

"I'm not a developer, but I can tell you about kernel mode architecture and how device drivers work," he said. "If you're voracious and you'll learn and read the books and do your homework, you can insert yourself and get technical. I think people who are successful here go the extra mile and learn. It relates to getting passionate."

That word again!

But Sarah Lefko, a product manager who works under Visse, said his enthusiasm is genuine.

"Microsoft executives do use the word passion in encouraging people to love what they're doing, but Bob really is gung-ho," she said. "He's got good ideas and sometimes crazy ideas. He stretches. And he asks the tough questions in a very good way. This is what Microsoft wants."

Adds Lora Shiner, an MSN general manager, "He has that can-do, self-reliant attitude. When he finds problems, like with customer service, he takes customers' issues personally and clamps down like a bulldog until things are fixed. You could call it ... passion."

Yeah, he's for real.

P-I reporter Dan Richman can be reached at 206-448-8032 or danrichman@seattlepi.com

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