Rebooting Microsoft

Will CEO Satya Nadella's Game Plan Work?

- Prosenjit Datta

Tall, wiry with a runner’s physique, a clean-shaven pate and a ready smile, Satya Nadella leans forward and listens intently to the question before thinking for a bit and framing the answer. We have just asked him a leadership question.

“When I evaluate leaders, I talk about three attributes. And it is the same set of attributes I have got to hold myself accountable for,” he says.

“One, every leader has to bring clarity in what is an uncertain and ambiguous context. You cannot wait for all the information to come in before you take a decision. The second piece is – are you able to galvanise and create energy? And then of course, finally, you have got to drive success. You cannot say, hey, I got everything right except I was not able to drive success.”

Nadella scores high in all three areas. As the Chief Executive Officer, he has brought a certain clarity to Microsoft’s strategy, unleashed enormous energy in the Microsoft troops and finally, achieved success – if you look at the steep rise in Microsoft’s market valuation since he joined.

When Nadella took charge in early 2014, Microsoft seemed to have lost the strategy plot completely. It was still enormously profitable and successful, but was faltering on all new initiatives.