Since joining Microsoft in 1992, Satya Nadella has not only impressed his subordinates, earning him promotion after promotion until he took the helm 10 years ago, but has also won the admiration of his colleagues.
His fellow CEOs now respect him more than any other Fortune 500 boss, including Wal-Mart’s Doug McMillon, who recently released his 70th annual Financial Report. Top 500 list.
It’s not hard to see why.
Nadella increased Microsoft’s value 10x during his decade as CEO
Microsoft has been among the Fortune 500 every year since the list was expanded in 1995, which is no mean feat.
Many other traditional businesses on the list have declined in relevance and are watching their rankings slowly slide.
However, Microsoft has experienced the opposite: Since Nadella took the helm, the tech giant has steadily risen in the rankings, from 34th to 13th.
Despite continued disruption in the technology industry, Microsoft’s market capitalization has soared from well under $400 billion when Steve Ballmer stepped down to more than $3.16 trillion today. Meanwhile, the company’s revenue has nearly tripled over the past decade.
Why? Because Nadella knows that companies that don’t adapt will die.
Far from resting on its laurels, Nadella pushed Microsoft to innovate: Bold acquisitions including LinkedIn and GitHub and a shift toward cloud computing paid off. Now, Microsoft is looking to the future by investing heavily in artificial intelligence.
As the CEO said wealth From our latest cover story: “When the paradigm shifts, do you have something to contribute? Because if you don’t have anything relevant, God hasn’t given you the right to exist.
It all depends on his growth mindset
When Nadella took the helm at Microsoft, his first priority was changing (or rather appeasing) the company’s culture.
It’s a far cry from Silicon Valley’s unofficial motto of “move fast and break things,” but encouraging employees to take a break (even if just mentally) has clearly had a positive impact on Microsoft.
The executive was born in India to a Sanskrit scholar who taught him how to be mindful. Every morning, he reminds himself of things he’s grateful for and believes they help him feel his best.
Following this mindset, the cool, collected CEO got his senior leadership team on board the Zen bandwagon by asking them to read Zen books. nonviolent communication A book by Marshall Rosenberg about leading with compassion and understanding rather than competition and judgment.
According to the records in the book From incremental to exponential, Nadella made it clear that outdated, aggressive top-down behavior was no longer welcome.
Instead, he strives to create an environment where even the lowest-level employees can feel safe sharing their concerns or ideas. At the same time, employees who previously had a “jack of all trades” worldview were told to become “jack of all trades.”
“If you take two kids to school, one has more innate ability but is a jack of all trades. The other has less innate ability but is a jack of all trades.” Nadella in a 2019 podcast Said: “He who knows everything does better than the man who knows nothing. ” hello monday He explains his “growth mindset” philosophy. “It’s about each of us confronting our own fixed mindset.”
As the culture shifted, the products themselves also changed.
Now that developers are being asked to provide feedback on what they want to see from the company, Microsoft’s cloud is growing at a breakneck pace. Analysts estimate that Azure was about half the size of Amazon Web Services five years ago and is now three-quarters the size.
“Azure is committed to [developers]”They are customers and if they find it helpful and enjoyable, they will continue to use it,” Nadella told wealth.
