Sanjay Chheda, head of Microsoft Corp.'s consumer and online business in Asia, faces one of the more difficult challenges in his industry. In a world where Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. command more than 80% of Internet searches, Mr. Chheda must find a way to popularize Microsoft's Web services or be left with a shrinking piece of the online-advertising pie. In Asia, he also faces stiff competition from search engines such as China's Baidu.com Inc. and NHN Corp.'s Naver.com of South Korea, which dominate their local markets.

    Mr. Chheda's first stint with Microsoft was in the summer of 1991 as an intern working on Microsoft Word word-processing software for Windows 2.0. Microsoft Word was then the underdog to the popular WordPerfect, now owned by Corel Corp. Mr. Chheda watched how Microsoft rallied as a team to defeat Goliath, and he kept this sense of mission with him as he rose through the ranks.

    Since joining Microsoft 17 years ago, Mr. Chheda has held a variety of jobs across marketing, product planning and program management, most notably as Microsoft's chief deal-maker, responsible for acquisitions, strategic investments and new ventures, and later as head of its Windows Mobile software business. He now manages Microsoft's consumer software and online units across Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, India, China and Australia.

    He played a key role in the recent launch of Bing, a new search engine Microsoft hopes will win over fans with language tweaks targeted at users in Asia. Mr. Chheda will oversee Bing's regional rollout in the coming months, focusing on Japan, China and Australia. His teams also will work closely with units in China, Japan and India to gear the search engine to the needs of users there.

    Mr. Chheda, 42 years old, an American, was born to Indian immigrant parents near the northern New York state city of Buffalo, and went on to earn economics and computer-science degrees at the University of Pennsylvania. After a stint in a junior analyst program at Salomon Brothers, the now defunct investment bank, in New York City, he enrolled in the MBA program at Stanford University. When Mr. Chedda joined Microsoft in 1992, he was one of just 11,000 workers. The company now employs more than 95,000 people.

    Wayne Ma spoke with Mr. Chheda in Singapore. The interview has been edited.

    WSJ: In this challenging economic environment, have you had to cut costs?

    Mr. Chheda: We've had to get our costs in line with revenue; the best way to do that is to share information and explain to people why we're doing it, rather than saying, 'Here's your cost cut, live with it.' If you help them understand the objective and treat them as equals and partners in the business-planning exercise, you get the support of the team and also can harness their creativity.

    WSJ: What did you learn from your experience in investment banking [at Salomon Brothers] and is Microsoft still looking for merger and acquisition opportunities in Asia?

    Mr. Chheda: At Microsoft I worked on several acquisitions and deals, including the IPO of the travel Web site Expedia.com. From my investment banking years, I knew how to integrate new businesses to create value, and I knew how to work with bankers on transactions.

    Microsoft is certainly looking at strategic opportunities in Asia, but it might not always take the form of an acquisition. Because the environment has gotten tougher, everyone has been looking for opportunities to partner and grow market share without increasing costs. Valuations are also more reasonable, and that makes some deals more attractive. There are probably more opportunities to do deals and partnerships than ever before.

    WSJ: What do you look for when considering job candidates?

    Mr. Chheda: I've held many jobs at Microsoft, and they often involved the company taking a bet on me to do something I perhaps didn't have the full suite of experience to do. It might be a smart bet for a company to give someone with enough of a track record the chance to step into a role they might be somewhat unqualified for. Some of the best decisions I've made were taking bets on people; It's been satisfying to watch them thrive against a new set of challenges.

    WSJ: Do you think an MBA is important?

    Mr. Chheda: You can't get nuts-and-bolts skills at educational institutions. That said, getting an MBA is a great way to prepare or enhance a career in business, and I'd strongly encourage it to anyone who is considering. However, I'd tell them to first go out and get substantial work experience. You can learn so much more in your academic program if you come into it with more context.

    WSJ: How do you motivate employees when you're the underdog in the online-search market?

    Mr. Chheda: People need to believe we have a plan to get back to leadership, and it's also important that they understand our commitment and strategy. We face some stiff competition today and better competitors than ever. But Microsoft has a long history of succeeding against competition. I love to tell the story of Word for Windows 2.0, because most people don't realize that Microsoft wasn't always the winner there. At the time, we knew our product was going to be better than WordPerfect's product, and we were going to tell that story to the world. We're a company that's good at rallying and responding to the competition.

    WSJ: What have been some of your biggest challenges?

    Mr. Chheda: There were some countries where our financial performance wasn't fully what we wanted, and I had to go in and take a look at our sales structure. In one example, we were trying to launch too many aQuantive [Microsoft online advertising] products at the same time. I learned that if you have a small team trying to sell too many products at once, you're not going to succeed. Focus on doing a couple of things well and gaining acceptance for them before reaching that critical mass to add new ones.

    WSJ: How do you communicate with your employees across Asia?

    Mr. Chheda: Some face-to-face contact is essential, especially when you're ramping up and getting started in a new role. You really need to spend time with people in a somewhat unstructured way to learn who they are, how they work and what their interests are. If you invest in that personal connection in the beginning, it makes it so much easier to connect on issues over the phone or video conferencing. In Singapore, we do video calls with each employee in each country every month, reviewing their business performance. We also do a video conference with each country's leadership team.

    微軟公司（Microsoft Corp.）亞洲區消費者及在線業務部的負責人桑杰。切達（Sanjay Chheda）正面臨著科技行業中一個難度很大的挑戰。目前，谷歌（Google Inc.）和雅虎（Yahoo Inc.）霸占著互聯網搜索領域80%以上的江山，而切達必須找到一種方法，擴大微軟在互聯網服務方面的影響力，否則就只能坐視自己在網上廣告這塊大蛋糕中的份額越來越少。在亞洲，他還面臨來自本土搜索引擎的激烈競爭，如中國的百度（Baidu.com Inc.）和韓國NHN Corp.的Naver.com,其在當地市場都占據著主導地位。

    切達與微軟的第一次親密接觸始于1991年夏，他作為實習生參與開發了Windows 2.0操作系統下的Microsoft Word文字處理軟件。當時，Microsoft Word不敵熱門軟件WordPerfect,后者現屬Corel Corp.公司所有。切達目睹了微軟的團隊如何薪火相傳，精誠合作，上演一個又一個神話中"大衛王擊敗巨無霸Goliath"的故事。他在微軟的職位不斷提升，而自己一直抱有這種以小勝大的使命感。

    自從17年前加入微軟公司以來，切達在許多部門工作過，比如市場營銷、產品規劃和軟件管理等，最為人所知的是其作為微軟的首席交易促成者，負責并購交易、戰略投資和新創業務，后來還負責運營向合作公司銷售一些手機和其他電子設備的嵌入裝置。現在，他管理著微軟在東南亞、日本、韓國、印度、中國和澳大利亞市場的消費者軟件及在線業務。

    在微軟最新推出的搜索引擎"必應"（Bing）上，切達扮演著一個關鍵角色。微軟公司希望能憑借其針對亞洲用戶的語言互通方面的優勢，吸引更多的用戶。切達將在未來幾個月負責"必應"在亞洲市場的推出，并把主要精力放在日本、中國和澳大利亞市場上。他的團隊還與中國、日本和印度的微軟子公司密切合作，調整搜索引擎以更好地適應當地用戶的需求。

    42歲的切達是美國人，父母是印度移民，他出生在紐約州北部城市布法羅（Buffalo）附近。他在賓州大學（University of Pennsylvania）獲得經濟學和計算機學的雙料學位，曾在現已不復存在的紐約投行所羅門兄弟公司（Salomon Brothers）提供的一個初級分析師項目中實習過，后來去斯坦福大學（Stanford University）攻讀MBA.1992年，切達加入微軟公司，當時公司員工總數僅11,000人，現在已經超過95,000人。

    《華爾街日報》（以下簡稱WSJ）記者Wayne Ma在新加坡采訪了切達，下文是經編輯過的訪談摘要。

    WSJ:在這個充滿挑戰的經濟環境下，你是否不得不考慮削減成本？

    切達：我們得量入為出，最佳的實現途徑是充份溝通，告訴大家為什么要這么做，而不只是說"這就是你的成本消減目標，看著辦吧".要幫助員工理解公司的目標，在制定商業計劃的過程中平等對待每個人，就像合作伙伴一樣，這樣才能獲得團隊的支持，充份利用好他們的創新能力。

    WSJ:你在（所羅門兄弟公司的）投行從業經歷中學到了什么，微軟公司還在亞洲尋找購并機會嗎？

    切達：我在微軟參與過幾個并購交易，包括旅行網站Expedia.com.的首次公開募股（IPO）等。在投行工作期間，我學會了如何整合新的業務以創造價值，懂得該怎么和參與交易的投行人士共事。

    微軟當然會在亞洲尋找各種戰略機會，但不一定是以并購的方式進行。由于經濟不景氣，大家都在尋找合作的機會，在不增加額外成本的情況下擴大市場份額。此外，目前的企業估值也更為合理，使一些交易更具吸引力。和以往相比，現在也許有更多的交易及合作機會。

    WSJ:在招聘新員工時，你看重的是哪些方面？

    切達：我在微軟的很多部門工作過，在很多情況下，公司認為我雖然沒有從事該崗位的全面經驗，但依然能夠勝任。因此在我看來，公司讓一個歷史表現較好的員工有機會從事一些看似并不適合的工作，反而是一招妙棋。我做過的一些最好的決策就是用對了人，看著他們能在一系列新的挑戰中成長起來，會有一種成就感和滿足感。

    WSJ:你認為MBA學歷重要嗎？

    切達：教育機構是無法給予你實戰經驗的，但MBA是一種準備進入商業領域或提升職業生涯的良好途徑，對于正在考慮這個方向的人，我持鼓勵態度。不過，我建議先工作一段時間，汲取足夠的工作經驗。有了更多的經驗積累，你在學習MBA時就會有更大的收獲。

    WSJ:"必應"在搜索引擎領域還是一個"小弟弟",你如何激勵手下的員工？

    切達：大家需要有這樣一個信念，我們要重新登上頭把交椅，同時他們也要理解公司的目標和戰略舉措。現在，我們面臨的競爭更激烈，對手比以往任何時候都更強大；但微軟有一個戰勝競爭對手的長久歷史。我很喜歡講Windows 2.0操作系統下Word軟件獲得成功的故事，因為絕大多數人都不知道，微軟并不總是贏家。當時，我們清楚自己的產品比WordPerfect更好，就致力于把這個消息告訴全世界。微軟這個公司善于應對競爭，并在競爭中取勝。

    WSJ:你面臨過的最大挑戰是什么？

    切達：我們的財務狀況在一些國家不盡人意，因此我必須重新審視那里的銷售結構。舉個例子，我們曾經想同時在幾個國家推出很多aQuantive（微軟的在線廣告產品）,后來我意識到，如果只有一個小團隊，但想一下子銷售太多的產品，就會欲速則不達。一次做好一兩件事情，獲得大家的認可和接受，就能逐步從量變走向質變，推出更多新的產品。

    WSJ:你怎么和亞洲的員工進行溝通？

    切達：面對面的交流非常重要，尤其是剛步入一個新的工作角色時。你需要在不經意的場合多和員工交往，了解他們的為人、工作方式，以及興趣愛好等等。如果你一開始就加強這種人際溝通，今后就能在打電話或開視頻會議時更容易地討論事情。在新加坡，我們每個月都和亞洲各市場的每個員工舉行視頻會議，評估他們的業務表現。此外，我們還和每個國家的主管團隊通過視頻交換意見。