Arif Gursel
When you interview Arif Gursel, the enthusiastic tone in which he talks gives you an indication that this guy loves what he does. Working at Microsoft since he took an unpaid internship in the mid nineties, Gursel, a Brooklyn native has worked his way up the ranks. Developing products many of us use in our every day existence, the X Box, the Zune and his involvement in CODECS, the program that allows us to stream music to the internet, Arif Gursel deemed by friends and associates as ‘The Future’ now links Microsoft with other companies.With his roots firmly fixed in music, Microsoft have valued from Arif’s forward thinking. It is through his understanding of where technology is heading that Microsoft is becoming as equally creative as its rival Apple. Talking exclusively to femalefirst, Arif explains where his understanding for technology came from and just where it is going.
What attracted you to the professional field you find yourself in today?
The mix of two passions; my geeky side and my music side. Growing up as a kid I always wanted to be an architect, but then growing up in an industry family, music always surrounded me, not just the creation of it but the business side of it. It was one of those things that I didn’t really see myself doing, but when I went to college I changed my major from architecture to computer science, because in architecture you don’t make as much money. When I went to a career fair I noticed that all the people with the highest salaries were all in the computer field. I was you classical Brooklyn kid who saw if someone was getting money; I was going to get money too. [laughs]I started realizing that computer science when you study it in college, is really just the theory of it and it can be applicable to any world So when I started in school, my mom was working in the industry on the business side of things and she would always complaining that she wished as a manager if she had some software that would let her do X, Y and Z, it would make life so much easier. So I saw that I could link these things together quite easily and make it work.
What advice was given to you when you were making decisions on what you were going to do career wise?
Do what you love and you will never work another day in your life.
You have your own Entertainment Company as well as working at Microsoft; can you give us a little insight as to what you do on the music front too?
I am just passionate right now about being a connector. Being that I am passionate about new business and innovation, right now I am enjoying sitting back and seeing an area of opportunity or grey area and being the person that can connect the dots, you know link things together. I am like a professional middle man.
What have you worked on at Microsoft?
Anything with Remix Magazine, ASCAP writing events, One Stop Shop Producer Conference and then there are relationships I am building with DJs right now.
When you are driving music strategy, I am really looking at going into the music industry and creating partnerships. To me it is not about going out and sponsoring events and trying to build a brand, I am trying to go out and create changing partnerships, as everyone knows who Microsoft is.
I want to be able to go out and partner with influential strategic people and really push technology really hard. I am about pushing things to the 22nd century. See what we can make happen now.
Can you give us any hints as to what we can expect in the next five years when it comes to advances in technology?
With online collaboration and software services in the clouds, I think it should be a seamless environment wherever you are and no matter what device you are on you should be able to create in your environment.
I see a connected world from smart phone devices to MP3 players to lap top computers. I think this is what we should expect to see in the next five years.
Has the speed in which progress has been made particularly over the last ten years surprising to someone like yourself who makes these changes?
I think we are going to see greater growth. This is exponential growth and not a linear thing at all.
I have friends who work on government sides of projects for example in the weapons departments, they always say when you look at movies and you see that new great machine or gun, when you are seeing it in a movie it normally means that we have had it for twenty years and technology for me is the same way. The things that people see out in the market that have people going out of their minds are nothing compared to the things that I see in research right now.
So in two years when some of these things come out into the market people will be amazed at how far we have come in just two years. It is all about exponential growth and I don’t think you can ever be surprised.
With technology moving so fast is it the people failing to adapt to changes that prevent it from moving as fast as it has the potential to move?
It is hard to keep up. My job is to keep up and even I can’t keep up. Sometimes it is impossible to keep up with everything going on out there and if you were you would probably go crazy.
That makes me feel better hearing you say that.
It’s so funny as with what I do can almost be equated to what a rapper does. Lil Wayne has all these people walking around wanting to battle him and I have people walk up on me asking me ‘have I seen this’ [laughs]
Yes I am sure it is very competitive on the inside.
Well geeks are geeks and we are always challenging one another, it is one of those things. It is like one of those situations where you have to figure out if someone deserves to belong to ‘my club’ and you need to check their credentials.
It isn’t even competitive it is pretty much figuring out if someone is worthy of engaging in conversation. You have people that like to challenge you and for me it is not about knowing everything, as a lot of people know a lot about technology; but you don’t have a lot of people who have both the understanding of technology and the understanding of business, with history in music who can bring all these elements together and make money.
Melanie Cornish