“I want to be Denmark,” Steve Ballmer famously said, two years after his company acquired the Danish company Navision.

It was a curious stance to embrace, way back in 2004 at Microsoft’s worldwide partner conference, held that year in Toronto. But there was wisdom in Ballmer’s Danish declaration.

Specifically, the Microsoft Corporation CEO was expressing his high-flown opinion that, if Microsoft Business Solutions was as successful with Navision in other countries as it had been in this Viking motherland, this business unit would increase its revenue by a factor of 10. (more…)