Thanks to our colleague Salih we came in contact with two incredible human beings. He followed their work for years. The fact that they agreed to devote a few hours of their busy schedules to talk with us shows exactly what kind of people they are.
Our noteworthy guests were Irfan Mirza, Director of Regulatory Compliance and Research Operations and Sabina šutković, IT Program Manager and engineer, and they both work in Microsoft HQ located in Redmond, Washington, a suburb of Seattle.
Irfan Mirza is an American citizen of Indian origin. Sabina is an American citizen of Bosnian origin.
They are work and life partners, individuals of many passions and traits, some of the greatest global ambassadors of BiH, and they were our guests last Friday.
His first encounter with Bosnia and Herzegovina occurred in 1992, during his involvement in humanitarian intervention, where he met Sabina. Passion for BiH and its history prevailed throughout the years and lead him to write two books on the history of BiH. Irfan and Sabina, together with their family, come to BiH once a year.
The talk
Irfan opened up his session with the remark on the importance of the software development industry and how it represents the greatest opportunity for the development of our country as a whole. When asked about the top priorities of the industry today, not only in Microsoft but worldwide, Irfan shared that one thing trumps all: Trust.
It is the trustworthiness of the product, service, and people that are behind it that carries the highest value in the market today.
“There are large amounts of data being transferred, amounts we have never seen before, and a lot of it is personal. How do we manage all of that information? We end up having this huge new responsibility, firstly because of our clients, and secondly – because of our customers. Customers are the ones that expect a level of integrity. We have to start building safety features in all our designs. We hold a huge responsibility to create solutions that build and keep the trust of our audiences.” – explained Irfan.
Speaking of the people behind the brand, there are three core values by which Microsoft operates when it comes to its employees explained Irfan:
1. “We want you to care, and demonstrate that you care about what you are working on. If you care about your company, you will work for it like it is your own.
2. We want you to coach others around you. If you do not coach, you are only doing one-third of your job. If you coach your colleagues, it means you want them to succeed too.
3. And thirdly, we want you to build upon the work of the company and your colleagues. If you are not able to build upon the continuous work of others, you will have no scalable project and no long term success.”
All of the key points mentioned go in line with everything Mistral encourages throughout various activities (practice groups, inhouse courses, lunch and learns, tinker box, technical vacation, buddy system, engagement enablement group, etc).
It’s exciting to see we’re aligned with the colleagues at Microsoft who were thrilled to read our two core values (pillars of our entire culture):
- People First
- Culture of Trust