Opening new worlds for everyone

Thirty years ago, Microsoft began with a dream of a computer on every desk and in every home. Today, for the more than 1 billion people we’ve reached, life has changed profoundly. Information is available instantaneously. Personal and professional connections are made easily. Products and services are sold conveniently. Progress is achieved more readily. But for more than 5 billion people, the opportunity to learn, connect, create, and succeed remains elusive.

Several barriers stand in the way of effectively reaching these underserved communities, including environmental or infrastructural obstacles, localization issues, the need for personalized solutions, and the prohibitive cost of technology.

To better serve these people, Microsoft Unlimited Potential combines advanced technologies and strong partnerships with governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions, and technology and service partners. Ultimately our mission is to enable sustained social and economic opportunity for those at the middle and bottom of the world’s economic pyramid—the next 5 billion people.

In the short term, Unlimited Potential aims to reach the next 1 billion people by 2015 by exploring solutions in three key interrelated areas. Each is crucial to developing sustained economic opportunity:

• Transforming education
• Fostering local innovation
• Enabling jobs and opportunities

In these three areas, Microsoft Unlimited Potential can create the greatest possible impact in building a virtuous cycle of sustained social and economic development. This cycle drives communities; helps build connections to form new communities; is fueled by local and global partnerships; and, most importantly, ultimately becomes locally sustainable. Sustainability is a key indicator of effective programs and activities, and is our long-term measure of success.

We truly honor our position as an industry leader, a global citizen, and an active partner to thousands of governments, businesses, and community organizations around the world. We bring the same spirit of innovation to global citizenship that we have always applied to our business. Our success has given us the opportunity—and the responsibility—to use our resources and influence to help make the world a better place for all who inhabit it.