I’m doing back to back posts based on Fast Company stories. Interestingly, June looks like another good edition (Scoble let’s keep this up going forward.)

Anyway, the June issue has a really interesting piece by Danielle Sacks titled “Can Alex Bogusky help Microsoft Beat Apple?” It focuses on Microsoft’s new ad agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky (CP+B) a and what they can do to help recessitate the Microsoft brand.

Interestingly, as I’ve been reflecting on this I think the answer may lie in acting a little more like CP+B. As background, 3 years ago Jen & I were in Miami for a long weekend with a friend who worked at the agency. We ended up up attending their Christmas party.

The thing that amazed me about the CP+B was how passionate they were about the work they did. The party literally consisted of them drinking and cheering as they watched commercials they had created. Every once in a while, one of the partners would grab the microphone and brag about how great some of these campaigns were. It honestly felt more like a cult than a company.

Interestingly, over the last few months I’ve interacted with a number of different Microsoft employees. What started as me joking around has ended up being a bit of informal research, which leads to my recommendation. I’ve started repeatedly asking different Microsoft employees what they are most proud of? Interestingly, almost all of them seem shocked and unable to answer!

The Fast Company article talks about this as well when discussing the Mac vs. PC ads that Apple is running. Rob Enderle a tech analyst talks about this in the post, saying:

“Nobody messes with anyone in the tech industry the way Apple has messed with Microsoft … It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a major national campaign that disparages a competitor, and the competitor just sits back and takes it. If somebody tried to do that to Oracle, you wouldn’t be able to find the body.”

While I love to bash Microsoft, the funny thing is there are good answers to my question of what they are proud of. For example:

• Chris Saad credited Microsoft as being the best big internet vendor in terms of Data Portability on Read Write Talk
• Even if it doesn’t work as well, they do have amazing market share.
• It’s a small point, but Windows Live Writer is a great platform for authoring blog posts. Honestly, the only thing I miss since switching to a Mac.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see Microsoft build better products. However, I also think they aren’t taking credit for the things they do well. Hopefully CP+B can help them with this.