Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft: Leadership and innovation

Building a company right from the beginning is quite an achievement, even more so when it concerns a technology company in a sector undergoing frantic development. Nevertheless, tracing the route taken by a company that everyone considered to be in the twilight of its years is even more memorable. Satya Nadella, the current CEO of Microsoft, has become like the wings of the Phoenix and in just four years has managed to make the company one of the most highly valued once again. The key to this? Innovation, cooperation, courage and leadership.

Satya Nadella, born in India in 1967, is an electrical and systems engineer who defines himself as a constant learner, so it is not surprising that he moved to the United States to continue his training after completing his university studies. For some people, overcoming their difficulties may involve ups and downs, but in his case it has been a long-distance career lasting more than two decades at the company in Redmond.

He remembers how he has developed over the years in a process that includes both professional and personal matters. No one questions his ability to empathise given the results of his leadership, but this has not always been the case. His first job interview revealed that he lacked something made him think he would not get the job he was applying for. Asked what he would do if he found a baby lying on the floor crying, he confidently replied that he would telephone the emergency number. At the end of the interview the interviewer approached him and told him that he thought he lacked empathy and if he ever found himself in that situation he should take the baby in his arms.

This episode was so important to Nadella that one of the lines he has followed since he took up the position of CEO is to make the company more human. He listened to the opinion of the workers who in their own words said they "were tired and frustrated, tired of losing and being left behind despite their great plans and ideas". His compassionate style, completely opposite to his predecessor, has managed to make logical development based on innovation and involves the heterogeneity of opinions.

Innovation as an essential feature

"Our industry does not respect tradition, only innovation." For many people what Nadella says may not be new, but it illustrates how he was able to transfer this essential feature to his actions. Even before taking up the position of CEO of Microsoft, his most significant position was as a manager in the Cloud area. A technology that has progressed to become one of the pillars of digital transformation.

One of the benefits of the cloud is the advantage it gives users with regard to mobility. As he was aware of this, Nadella implemented this feature in almost all areas of the company's products and services. From convertible hardware with suitable dimensions to enable portability, to software that can be accessed from any device and from anywhere.

Not only did he make innovation the flagship on the road to relaunching Microsoft, but he also adopted a policy of opening up to the outside world, open innovation, involving numerous cooperation agreements with other companies. This enabled growth to focus on support for new technologies rather than on opposition and the search for new alternatives. This even involved promoting its services on platforms that had previously been considered enemies.

The technology sector has turned out to be a scenario where only a few ideas reach the top. Nadella made a commitment to decentralising the portfolio of products and services without simply focussing on those that serve as an economic base. He has taken many courageous decisions that until now have been successful because as he likes to remind us "you renew yourself every day. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you do not, but to keep trying is what counts."

And thank goodness that before leaving India I was not so clear about the concept of tenacity. One of his dreams was to become a professional cricketer and if his sports career had not been frustrated, today we would not be looking at the CEO of one of the most important technology companies in the world. That is why his story is not about being in a comfort zone, but about continuous learning.

(Header image: photograph of Satya Nadella in Wikimedia Commons).