It’s quite easy to imagine Microsoft as one gigantic, hulking sea liner. Majestic in its own might, capable of smashing its way through almost anything in its path, but unable to pull a quick U-turn mid journey if it heads off course.
It’s of no surprise then that in its 39 year history it’s only ever had two captains – Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, both of whom were there in the very early days of the company.
Things will change!
Of course, things change.
In August 2013, Steve Ballmer announced he was to retire, following the write down on Surface tablets and perceived failures in mobile along with a broader push to restructure Microsoft into a ‘devices and services’ company. Lots of names were thrown into the ring, the recently acquired Stephen Elop from Nokia and Ford’s Alan Mulally being the most prominent, but amongst them, one whispering voice offered a different choice – Satya Nadella, who has recently been named the gigantic corporations new CEO, but who is he, where did he come from and what can he do for Microsoft?
History of Nadella
Born in Hyderabad, India, in 1967, Satya achieved a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and communication from Manipal University in 1988 before immigrating to the United States in order to study computer science at the University of Wisconsin. From there, he went on to complete his MBA from the University Of Chicago Booth School Of Business. He worked for a stint at Sun Microsystems before getting talent spotted by Microsoft in 1992, where he’s worked diligently for the last 22 years, quietly running incredibly successful business areas for the company. Those areas most recently include the Cloud and Enterprise group, which aside from the Office group makes Microsoft the most profit, and is behind the incredibly robust cloud services that provide the ingenious software tricks Windows 8.x pulls off behind the scenes.
Satya, the Company Man
In short, he’s a company man, one famed within the company for rock solid vision and leadership, but not widely known outside the company. In fact, he’s never launched a consumer facing product, nor led one through a development cycle, leading to a certain degree of scepticism on if he’s the right choice to lead Microsoft through the likely painful journey to becoming a true ‘devices and services’ company. Indeed, he’s immediately changed that into ‘mobile and cloud’, with very little clarification as to what this means for Microsoft’s current operating style. Interestingly, he’s managed to convince Bill Gates to once again take a day-to-day role in the company “supporting Nadella in shaping technology and product direction”, later personally stating in a Reddit AMA that “I make sure we pick ambitious scenarios and that we have a strong architecture to deliver on them.”.
Superfi believe that the appointment of Satya Nadella is great news for Microsoft “Satya is passionate about software and delivering services that work. He is what Microsoft need to move forward and transform themselves into a software and service orientated company.”
With the backing of the world’s richest human, the Microsoft board and everyone in the company, Satya Nadella seems poised to bring Microsoft forward in exciting, largely unknown ways. He’s got a lot of work to do though, and it won’t be easy, but it’s hard to argue with the selection process that led to his appointment.