Satya Nadella spilled the beans on how he reacted when he was made the CEO of Microsoft in 2014. Nadella recounted the experience at the Axel Springer award ceremony held in Berlin. The 57-year-old Indian-origin tech executive remarked that he never thought he ever got up in the morning contemplating that someday Microsoft wouldn’t have either Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer. When Ballmer announced his departure, Nadella stated that ‘it was a real shock’ to him. He recalled how the board members asked him if he wanted to be the CEO. The desi techie who spent the entirety of his career at Microsoft under Gates and Ballmer’s leadership replied, ‘Only if you want’. Nadella shared this with Steve about how the board was like: If he wants to be the CEO, then he really ‘needs to want’ to be the CEO. He quips that he had never thought about it. Steve’s response to Satya was interesting, the maverick recalls. He said that it was too late to change, so just be yourself and see what happens.
#MCTrends | Satya Nadella, the 56-year-old CEO of Microsoft, discussed the emotions he experienced when he learned that he was going to become the new CEO of Microsoft in 2014.
Know how he reacted to getting the top job👇https://t.co/mnYoggbtOB#SatyaNadella #Microsoft
— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) November 1, 2023
“He rewrote the code for a new era” – Satya Nadella honored with Axel Springer Award https://t.co/0mzDU9Crgv pic.twitter.com/gMCdJM1dNO
— Axel Springer SE (@axelspringer_EN) October 17, 2023
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: “Empathy is a very important business skill” | Axel Springer Award$MSFT @satyanadella pic.twitter.com/cWqN5pK9QE
— TΞCH (@techstock_) October 23, 2023
Satya Nadella took the reins of Microsoft in 2014, becoming the third CEO of the company since Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. In less than a year, Nadella revised the company’s mission statement to “empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”. The mission statement by Steve Ballmer in 2013 was to ‘create a family of devices and services for individuals and businesses that empower people around the globe at home, at work and on the go.’ While the mission statement by co-founder Bill Gates was ‘A Computer on Every Desk and in Every Home.’
We have proof that new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella loves startups building in the cloud. He says so on his laptop. pic.twitter.com/dkkYhhpuqa
— Microsoft for Startups (@msft4startups) February 5, 2014
The company had a monumental shift in its corporate culture in the era of Satya Nadella, empathizing with continual learning growth. In the age of ambitious acquisitions and AI, Nadella hasn’t been a diminutive CEO. Under his leadership, Microsoft acquired Minecraft maker Swedish gaming company Majong in 2014, making it his very first acquisition. In 2016, the company bought LinkedIn, and in 2018, it acquired GitHub. In January, the company announced its multi-year, multi-billion-dollar investment in ChatGPT. The tech giant is all set to acquire Activision Blizzard soon.
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