Microsoft Mission and Vision Statement

Microsoft's mission statement reads: "Our mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more". It appears on the company's about page, at the top of its annual report, and in the opening lines of most executive speeches. Microsoft does not publish a separate one-line vision statement. The mission serves as both.

The statement has three parts worth reading closely. "Every person and every organization" defines the customer as everyone, from a student on a free account to a government running a national cloud. "On the planet" removes any geographic limit. "Achieve more" describes the product as an increase in what the customer can do, not as a piece of software.

Microsoft mission statement, current and former

Satya Nadella introduced the current mission soon after he became chief executive. It replaced two earlier statements that candidates still see quoted.

The original aim, under Bill Gates, was "a computer on every desk and in every home". It was a goal rather than a formal mission. It was also largely achieved, which is one reason the company replaced it. Do not present it as the current mission.

The former mission, under Steve Ballmer, was "to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential". The current statement keeps the idea of potential but changes the subject. The customer now includes every organization, not only businesses, and the verb is "empower" rather than "enable".

Microsoft vision statement

Microsoft has no published vision statement separate from its mission. Any one-line "vision" attributed to it on third-party sites is that site's summary rather than company wording. What Microsoft communicates instead is the mission plus a described culture. The culture answers the question a vision statement normally answers, which is how the company intends to behave.

That culture has four named parts. A growth mindset is the belief that ability is developed through learning, so employees are expected to be "learn-it-alls" rather than "know-it-alls". Customer obsession means starting from the customer's unmet need rather than from the product. Diverse and inclusive describes the goal of a workforce that reflects the customers it serves. One Microsoft is the expectation that teams cooperate across product lines instead of competing with each other. The company also states three values on the same page as the mission: respect, integrity, and accountability.

How candidates use the mission

The mission is most useful in the "why Microsoft" question, and it works only when connected to a personal story. Quoting the sentence on its own tells the interviewer that you can read a website. Quoting it and then explaining what "achieve more" meant for one real person you helped tells the interviewer why you want this job.

An example opening has three sentences. "Microsoft's mission is to empower every person to achieve more, and the project I am proudest of did exactly that. I built an internal tool that cut a two-hour weekly report to ten minutes for forty analysts. Their response is why I want to build tools where that number is millions". The pattern is the mission, one measurable story, then the connection to the role. Full sample answers are in What is the best answer to why Microsoft?. What is Microsoft's main goal? covers how the mission translates into current company priorities.

Slogans and taglines are a different thing

A mission statement describes purpose. A slogan or tagline is advertising copy attached to a product or campaign, and Microsoft has used many of them. Two of the best known are "Where do you want to go today?" and "Be what's next". Each belonged to a specific period rather than to the company permanently. If you were searching for the slogan or motto, that question is answered in What is the motto of Microsoft?. In an interview, quote the mission, not a tagline.

How to Prepare

• Learn the current wording exactly. Interviewers notice when a candidate quotes the Ballmer-era statement as if it were current.
• Pick one culture attribute and prepare a story for it. Growth mindset is the one Microsoft interviewers ask about most, so have an example of a skill you learned because a project required it.
• Draft your "why Microsoft" opening in three sentences. Mission, story with a number, connection to the team. The variations in Why Microsoft Answer interview? show how to adapt it by role.
• Rehearse the behavioral round as a whole. Grokking the Behavioral Interview covers the story structure Microsoft interviewers expect.