Can a former Clinton spinmeister make Microsoft cool?

the surface, it looked like another routine personnel move a new corporate suit moving into the executive , but Microsoft's decision this week to hire former Clinton political operative Mark Penn a vice president in charge of "strategic and special projects" -- that means -- may turn out to be one of the more profound decisions the company this year.

Will get to why a moment. First, the context.

Penn's hiring doesn't come out of the . He's joining a company at a point in its evolution (Dare I say transformation?). For some now, Microsoft, a company with historical roots in the enterprise, has tried assiduously to keep with the accelerating shift in computing more mobile -- and consumer-facing -- technologies. This began a few years when Redmond finally understood that Apple had the idea and it needed to follow Steve Jobs' lead (naturally, without admitting anything of the ). Microsoft Microsoft, the transition has been anything but smooth.

When it to engineering chops, Microsoft is on a with its peers. Signing up smart talent has rarely been issue. Which inevitably raises the eternal barroom conversation-starter: Why can't this company consistently create products seduce and dazzle consumers the Apple does? Of course, the reality is more nuanced that.

No argument that Microsoft has turned its share of consumer clunkers over the years -- a list of all- forgettables highlighted by the likes of Microsoft Bob, the Kin, and the Zune. But those embarrassments are than counterbalanced by the success of the Xbox and Kinect, now billion-dollar businesses. And looking ahead, the more recent product debuts of Windows 8 and the Surface tablet accompanied by warm reviews, promising harbingers when the products finally wind in consumers' hands.

to Penn, whose move to Microsoft I find intriguing. A brief review of Penn's CV reveals a blue- roster of clients, including the of the Clintons (Bill and Hillary) and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, as as Bill Gates (which may explain the Microsoft connection.) He most recently served as CEO of the public firm Burson-Marsteller. Now he'll be working directly Steve Ballmer. This is where things get interesting.

"Mark great strategic insights and a strong focus on communications grounded data that raised the for Burson's work on behalf of our clients," former aide George W. Bush and current global vice chair of Burson-Marstellar, Karen Hughes, told POLITICO.
With Penn, Microsoft is betting he's the man who can craft the message, and that his experience in the art of predicting the public mind and shaping a compelling narrative can translate bigger sales. The first task Microsoft's newest strategist: The Bing search business, where Microsoft remains behind Google. If Penn can work any minor miracle to that gap, expect Ballmer to turn him loose. The question is whether Penn's particular brand of expertise will to be a help or hindrance when it comes selling tech products.

Penn excelled when it to political campaigns, finding political images that resonated. In late 1970s he came up with an overnight poll system that helped the Ed Koch campaign rapidly adjust its pitch voters in the race for the New York City mayor's . He deployed a similar system to help revive Menahem Begin's re-election campaign Israeli Prime Minister in 1981. And he was close Bill Clinton for much of the 1990s, gaining recognition as a pollster whose findings often turned policy.

All well and , but Penn's hiring also represents what one might arguably describe the anti-Jobsian approach to product marketing. Yes, Apple is also all message and selling a certain lifestyle. But it's also got the products and technologies that underpin the glossy campaigns. And those products were created a combination of gut instinct and aesthetic sensibility, guided by Apple's understanding of it thought consumer technology was moving. Contrast that what some are going to say is a more contrived and reactive (to poss results) approach that will ring false. Kinda like when a substitute tries to be hip by using "the lingo."

No doubt Penn boasts a gold- resume -- including high- jobs as the chief pollster and senior strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. Now he wants to apply that expertise consumer-technology issues and judging his early
statements, he has his heart into it.

"Anyone who knows me knows this has always been a passion of , and there's no better place to do that Microsoft," he told The New York Times in an e-mail. "I was ready a big new challenge, and this is it."

No argument Penn's ability to do this sort of thing better than anyone else ever employed by Microsoft. But my gut tells if this guy gets too closely identified with they shape product lines at Microsoft, the short sellers will be very happy. It's going to be a tough assignment.


Adapted from: CNET, July 21, 2012.