266 – Mastering Microsoft Partnerships: Agility, AI, and the Path to Growth with Lori Borg — Ultimate Partner®

Recorded Live at Ultimate Partner LIVE in Redmond, WA

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Is your business ready for 2026?

Welcome back to the Ultimate Partner® Podcast.

Join us for an insightful conversation with Lori Borg, Vice President of Microsoft America’s Go-to-Market, as she shares her incredible journey from Microsoft partner to a key executive at Microsoft. Dive deep into the critical importance of organizational and technical agility in today’s rapidly changing tech landscape, especially within the Microsoft ecosystem. Lori emphasizes the need for technical intensity, urging partners to not only adopt the latest Microsoft technologies, including agentic AI, but also to apply them internally to drive innovation and efficiency. Discover the magic that happens when you strategically build with, sell with, and market with Microsoft, and gain valuable insights on how to foster a culture of growth and adaptability within your own organization to become the ultimate Microsoft partner.

We’re curating the very best of these moments—fireside chats, expert panels, and executive insights—so you can stay ahead of the curve and fully aligned to where Microsoft and the industry are heading.

And this is just the beginning.
More sessions. More voices. More of what you need to know.

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Thanks for being on this journey with us.
— Vince

Key Takeaways

Agility—both organizational and technical—is essential for Microsoft partners to adapt to rapid changes in the tech landscape.
Partners should actively adopt and apply technical intensity, leveraging new technologies like agentic AI internally to drive innovation and efficiency.
True success for Microsoft partners lies in strategically integrating efforts to build with, sell with, and market with Microsoft.
A strong culture of agility, fostered from the top down, is crucial for organizations to remain competitive and adaptable.
When introducing new initiatives, it’s vital to not only generate energy but also provide clear clarity on practical implementation steps.
Microsoft is committed to simplifying partner engagement and enhancing clarity in its processes, keeping partners at the core of its strategy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDYnyj3IAXg

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https://youtu.be/s33fltuizEo

Key Tags:

Microsoft, Lori Borg, Microsoft Partner, Go-to-Market, Technical Agility, Organizational Agility, AI, Agentic AI, Ecosystem, Partnerships, Growth Mindset, Digital Transformation, Business Strategy, Innovation, Technology, Microsoft Americas, Channel Partners, Sales, Marketing, Engineering, Customer Success, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Cloud, Satya Nadella, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Change Management, Business Growth, Co-selling, Solution Areas, Digital Marketing, Cloud Computing, Microsoft Programs, Partner Hub, Future of Work, Tech Trends.

Transcription:

Lori Borg

[00:00:00] Lori Borg: I think we talk so much about ai. We talk so much about how it’s changing everything and the opportunity in front of us, but we really need to hold the mirror up. Yeah, I do as well. And go, what am I doing to make sure I’m using it for myself? Yes. And I’m encouraging and supporting my teams to be using it as well.

[00:00:21] Intro: We believe this time is like no other. We believe we refer to these as the tectonic shifts, all the hyperscalers in the world. If you add them all together. Managed services will be one and a half times larger because it is the customer buying behavior that has created the need for all of us to rethink our models.

Until we have data quality, the effectiveness of AI cannot be realized and effectiveness of the partnerships cannot be realized. Can you figure out, first, what your purpose is and how Microsoft can support your purpose and how you can support Microsoft purpose? Now we have a partnership. It’s the ultimate partnership.

[00:00:59] Vince Menzione: Welcome to The Ult