On the Call: Microsoft’s new finance chief addresses cost control strategy

On the Call: Microsoft’s new CFO Peter Klein

SEATTLE — In November, Microsoft Corp. announced that Chris Liddell, the chief financial officer credited with helping the sprawling software maker tighten its belt, would leave the company.

Thursday marked his replacement Peter Klein’s first time walking analysts through company earnings. He wasn’t ready to talk in detail about the next fiscal year, which begins in July, but he did his best to reassure Wall Street that his approach to cutting costs would be disciplined and in line with Liddell’s.

QUESTION: There still seems to be some debate on the Street as to how tight a rein you’ll keep on costs. Could you talk about Microsoft’s growth rate for the upcoming year?

RESPONSE: “Something I’ve been focused on even before taking this role (was) working with Chris and the leadership team on that — and (we) feel great that we’ve got a thoughtful plan that we’ve come up with, and we’re doing what we said and executing against that. A big part of that is prioritization and making sure the resources are allocated to the high-return areas. And that will be the approach that we take when we build our fiscal year ‘11 plan, absolutely. So that approach stays the same.”