Four Microsoft alumni team up to develop better leaders
Four Microsoft alumni believe that together, they can shape better leadership throughout the world.
That’s a pretty bold statement, unless you are Justina Chen, Deb Cragen-Larsen, Michele Goedde and Robbie Bach. They, together with some non-Microsoft friends, make up Chen & Cragen, a dedicated agency to help leaders in all disciplines become extraordinary.
They each deliver their expertise that they honed during and after their tenures at Microsoft. Deb is a strong business woman with experience running the front end and back end of businesses and sharp negotiator. Justina is a communications expert legendary for shaping thought leadership through storytelling. Michele is a top-notch leadership coach who bolsters individuals and strengthens teams, and Robbie is a master business strategist.
The rest of the Chen & Cragen team includes a media expert, creative director and photographer, and image stylist.
Their agency acts like a consultancy. They match the level of service to what the client wants and needs for a flat rate.
They can work with individuals and with groups through their many workshops to develop masterful storytelling skills, inspirational stump speeches, compelling thought leadership, transformative business strategy, authentic stage presence and unified leadership teams.
“We are mission driven to bring forth better leadership,” Justina said.
But better leadership in their eyes doesn’t mean just helping someone solve a business problem that is staring them in the face. It means getting involved and having a voice about issues that matter in the community and in the world.
“I don’t think you can separate business leaders from civic leaders from nonprofit leaders, particularly the way the world works today,” Robbie said. “If I’m talking to a CEO, I’m also evaluating whether they’re doing what’s right in the community.”
To that end, Michele said that with every person she works with, she’s helping address the questions they have, but also “finding their leadership capability and power and igniting the responsibility they have.”
Justina added that they are investing in the people they work with and the leader that they could be 10 years from now and how they’re going to change the world.
How these four decided to change the world together dates back to as early as 1998 but was propelled into high-gear from a recent tragedy in Virginia.
“I feel like we’ve been in and out of each other’s lives and it finally all came together,” Deb said.
Deb and Michele met in 1998 when they were working together in college recruiting at Microsoft. Robbie and Justina worked together in 2009 and 2010 when she was his communications manager. Michele came to work for Justina during that time. Michele had coached Justina, then she, Robbie, and Michele developed a curriculum for leadership. And then, Michele introduced Deb and Justina.
They had been talking about forming a more formal working relationship, but in August of last year three people died and 35 people were injured when white supremacists and anti-racists clashed in Charlottesville, Virginia, and a man slammed his Dodge Charger into the crowd of protesters. That was the tipping point.
“We were watching the parade of hate and it was just the antithesis of everything we stand for,” Justina said. “Deb and I called each other up. We were speechless. Then we were angry. We knew we had to move up the start of the agency by a full year because we realized that the world needs better leaders now.”
Microsoft alumni were raised in a business culture to be strong leaders, Robbie said. Noting that their agency would like to work with alumni network members who want to become better leaders. But he said, more valuable is the ability to make connections through the alumni network.
“The Network is a very powerful group,” he said. “Microsoft alumni are working with the talent of the next generation. Microsoft alums are really good about saying, ‘I met this person. I think they’d be a good leader. Would you have lunch with them?’ That’s the way you start reaching connections and people we wouldn’t know about, people who could use our help.”