Microsoft has a fast-track programme for the bosses of tomorrow. James Ashton met up with some of them.
   
Striding down the corridor that links Buildings Four and Five, Gaby Ball was heading for the lift, not the stairs.

She had arrived at the Microsoft campus in Reading, UK, just before 7am for a bout of cycling and a core strength workout she predicted would soon begin to take its toll.

Ball was in training for the UK Challenge, a charity endurance event that melds kayaking with running, swimming and a healthy dose of team bonding. Last time she took part, her crew raised £115000 for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. That was two years ago, when Ball was an intern at the software giant. Now she is back - and keener than ever. ''I love to run," she said. As she jabbed the lift button, it was clear it would take more than sore tendons and heels to stop her from going up in the world.

Ball is a Mach - one of the 12 graduate recruits being fast-tracked through Microsoft. Globally, 142 have been taken on. They are pleasant and polite - but don't be fooled. They are also fiercely ambitious, just how Microsoft wants them to be. Then again, coming top of 3000 UK applicants is ample motivation itself.

The Mach - it stands for Microsoft Academy for College Hires - are fast gaining a reputation as being crucial to the company's future. They are encouraged to bond, meeting three times during two years of training - at MGX, Microsoft's annual global conference in the US, a four-day winter school and at graduation.

If Microsoft has its way, several youngsters from the scheme will climb to the top of the tree. ''If you ask me to fast-forward 10 years, would a percentage of the UK leadership team come from the Mach programme?" said Gordon Frazer, Microsoft UK's managing director. ''Absolutely."

Ball, who sells data visualisation software designed to make sense of reams of spreadsheet information, thinks nothing of e-mailing her boss to see if he is free for coffee. In fact, networking around the campus is encouraged. As a result, most of the work seems to get done in Microsoft's coffee bars and glass atriums.

''The company has such an open structure that not to do this would be to waste an opportunity," said Ball.

Last year, Microsoft cut back the programme because of the recession, but this year the company expects the number to rise again. There are some residential induction courses, held in Seattle and Portugal, but most of it is on-the-job training. With so much investment, the Machs are well aware of what is expected of them.

''I put pressure on myself - I sometimes feel I want to be brilliant right now," said Ball, 23, whose intern year was in the middle of a degree in business management and geography at Leeds University. She led a team that developed a software ''dashboard" that made sense of complex customer data.

''My manager says I can't expect that right away - you can't expect it to happen overnight," she added. ''You have to give yourself a break."

The Machs are also encouraged to take their chances as soon as they enter the building. That goes for networking as well as extra projects - or ''hobby jobs" - and charity work such as the UK Challenge event. In fact, anything that marks them out from routine nine-to-fivers will do the trick. A successful year as one of 80 interns, starting on a salary of £14500 a year and based in Reading, increases their chances of returning a year later as a Mach, on £26000 a year.

For a big company with its fair share of go-getters, why is Microsoft always hunting for more? Fear of falling behind keeps the search for talent on the agenda.
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