Fresh Perpectives (and Fresh Lunch) with Christopher

Today, I had lunch with Christopher Ireland, CEO of Cheskin, a consulting and strategic market research firm. She is warm, brilliant, and sharp as a tack. But what's interesting is even though I only met her today, I knew that would be the case because of her blogging.

I've always been impressed with the blogging Cheskin does. They've managed to take "blogging for business" in a new direction, with a very professional, yet very personal feel. For example, take a look at this Job Opening.

And I really, really, really like their new moblog, with images that demonstrate marketing concepts. How cool is that?

Christopher and I got to reminiscing about the "good old days" of marketing at Microsoft. She started working with Microsoft as her client in 1990, the same year I started here. We talked about some of the guys I worked with in the early days of the consumer group at Microsoft, starting with the Entry Business Unit. It's been fascinating to be involved with so many aspects of our consumer business over the years.

We talked about how much has changed, but also about how much of the entrepreneurial spirit remains, and I see it alive and well in the Xbox (and other consumer products) businesses. I've been really lucky to be a part of it for the past 14 years (as of April 30!).