 As Satya Nadella mentions in his book, 'HIT REFRESH', most business leaders write their story after the event - after they have hung up their boots & they have a glorious tale to tell. Nadella's work is different in various ways.
Nadella is in the early part of building his innings as CEO of Microsoft, to use an analogy from his favourite sport, cricket. While his name was in the reckoning for the big role when Steve Ballmer suddenly resigned, it was still remarkable & unprecedented that an immigrant like Nadella had been asked to step into the shoes previously worn by the original whiz kid of the software industry, Bill Gates.
What made this even more challenging was the sorry fact that the word on the street was that Microsoft's best days were over. The latest debacle: Microsoft's acquisition of Nokia's cellphone business was deemed a failure and possibly accelerated the departure of Ballmer. Nadella recounts that the firm was riddled with the internecine warfare between siloed units and his first task was to regain trust in the leadership team from the troops he was leading.
The book is all about Nadella's leadership journey and admittedly it is work-in-progress, being just three years in his new role. However, in this short period, the widely held view is that Microsoft is back: refreshed & relaunched as a cool cloud computing company, with many exciting products in the pipeline. What comes through loud & clear is that Nadella believes in some fundamental tenets that are his guiding principles for life, and that he is imprinting them into the firm and creating broad acceptance by positioning them as going back to the original values of the firm & its founder.
The need for empathy as an essential quality in a leader is a strong message that underlines all of Nadella's views. Never have I seen a leader stress this point so much - as this comes through virtually in every page. For an empathetic leader, this quality weighs strongly in every interaction, be it with employees, customers, other stakeholders, and obviously at home. Interestingly, Nadella narrates that he did not quite start his career in this manner (he was quite the nerdy techie in the early part of his career) but over the years various life experiences (particularly due to personal events as his wife & he raised their family, and the strong formative influence of his mother) changed his outlook and he evolved into the person that he is now today - a sensitive leader who emphasizes that leading from the heart is as important as being cerebral.
So, what does this technology leader - whose views are sought by global leaders - think will be the future landscape? Nadella is pitching on three shifts that he and his fellow technologists are creating: Mixed Reality, Artificial Intelligence & Quantum Computing. And, while gently reminding us, the readers, that Microsoft is positioned well in all three spaces, he soft-sells the firm's agenda as well!
What emerges strongly in the book is a perceptive leader who is excited about creating a future by visualizing a world which marries the best that humans & machines can offer. To do so, he wants Microsoft to acquire a growth mind-set thereby fueling economic growth in every market that it touches, all with the sense of fair play that cricket taught a young Satya.
Will Nadella leave a lasting mark in his field while at the helm? Recognizing well that cultural transformations in a global firm take over half a decade to take roots, Nadella is willing to be patient as he carves out a distinct path towards an exciting future in the Cloud. This is one story that will have an interesting sequel, so let's stay tuned.
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