How Satya Nadella got Microsoft’s mojo back
Under his command, Microsoft has become friendlier, more willing to team up
When Satya Nadella took charge of Microsoft four years ago, the company was hardly on its knees. But the software giant, responsible for Windows, Office and Internet Explorer, had undoubtedly lost its way.
Nadella’s predecessor Steve Ballmer, in one of his last acts as chief executive, pushed through the €5.4 billion (Dh23 billion) acquisition of Nokia’s mobile phone business, in a desperate attempt to take on its old rival Apple. The deal was announced after Ballmer had already revealed plans to retire. It looked very much like a parting shot, a combination of two businesses past their prime and who had lost their way in the iPhone era.
“Because of the success we had, we felt that we were the know-it-alls, [that] we were just great,” Nadella says. “Except none of that was true.”
Under Nadella’s command, Microsoft has changed too. The company, once defined by its ruthlessly competitive nature, has become friendlier, more willing to team up with those who were once deemed enemies. Employees carry copies of Satya Nadella, 50, is in many ways the opposite of Steve Ballmer. He is wiry, studious and measured. He is a passionate cricket enthusiast, thanks to a childhood spent in his hometown of Hyderabad (one of Ballmer’s first acts after leaving Microsoft was buying the Los Angeles Clippers basketball team).
The Growth Mindset, a book by the psychologist Carol Dweck about constant improvement. In Nadella’s first move as Microsoft chief, he unveiled a version of its Office software developed for Apple’s iPad. Windows 10, ■ the first version of the software released under his watch, was given away for free. And just a few months after inheriting the Nokia business, he began to dismantle it, accepting that there were some battles Microsoft could not win.
Instead of trying to compete on all fronts, Nadella has narrowed Microsoft’s aims. The company’s powerhouse divisions have turned out to be its productivity software such as Word, Excel and Outlook, and cloud computing, the division Nadella ran before becoming chief executive. Instead of demanding victory, Nadella now talks about helping others. “What we have learnt is to just be consistent in building trust and just making sure that you’re not just measuring your success by your own success,” he says.
That said, Nadella’s four years in charge cannot be described as anything but a success. Under his watch, its share price has increased by 170 per cent, finally overtaking the levels from the peak of the dotcom boom.
Nadella is broadly optimistic that AI will solve more problems than it causes, but says it is imperative that the technology is applied ethically. “What I think needs to be done in 2018 is more dialogue around the ethics, the principles that we can use for the engineers and companies that are building AI.”