Microsoft is not a new tech company but has been in existence for many years; however, the success
that the company has achieved over the last few years has been nothing short of breathtaking.
And these successes have been achieved with one man at the helm. Satya Nadella. Hello and welcome
to yet another exciting episode. In this video, we will introduce you to one of the most powerful men
in tech, and how under his leadership, Microsoft has grown into a thriving 21st-century company.
Microsoft is a company known by many as a tech company
and has been a major brand for decades long before Google and Apple became major brands.
Today, amidst the competition posed by rival brands, Microsoft remains a thriving powerhouse
expanding into new industries. But this wasn’t always the case. About a decade ago,
Microsoft was considered by many to be a fading giant and one that could not keep up
with the aggressive competition. Bill Gates's company had stagnated and was in decline.
Nowhere was this more visible than in the collapse of Microsoft’s smartphone arm.
When Bill Gates launched Microsoft, it was a breath of fresh air and dominated the operating
system market for decades. So successful was Microsoft under Bill Gates that at some point,
the US government almost broke up the company like what happened to Rockefeller's Standard Oil
more than a century ago. Eventually, like with all things in life that come to an end,
Bill Gates stepped down from the helm, and the 30th employee employed by the company
at inception, Steve Balmer, took over. Now, Steve Balmer was a smart guy, but he
was not a tech guy. His lack of experience was a topic of heated discussion in media at the time.
Before his appointment, he worked in departments like Sales and Management.
Based on Steve Balmer's training and work experience,
he viewed Microsoft’s vision much differently from how the founder viewed it. In his mind,
Microsoft’s success was down to successful marketing and sales strategy. To this end,
he reorganized the company’s leadership with business people at the helm of major departments
instead of tech brains. His reasons behind this move were simple. The new CEO felt that Microsoft
had developed an internal structure of fiefdoms ruled by software guys whose vision for the future
was to repeatedly spend ridiculous amounts of money developing new technology. It didn’t matter
what their end game was or whether such a move was in the interest of Microsoft’s long-term future.
From the way Steve saw it, it was a waste of money. He felt that successful companies
were companies that had successful management structures and sales strategy. According to his
play book, management was greater and given more priority over Research and Design.
This was why one of his biggest moves as CEO of Microsoft was to lead the company into
the ever-growing smartphone market. First was the launch of Windows Mobile and then
the Windows Phone. To be fair, his move was not an unwise one in the beginning.
The smartphone market was already growing and the early successes of Apple signaled a potential that
many companies with the capacity wanted to tap from. Secondly, Steve Balmer was only following
in the footsteps of Microsoft under Bill Gates who introduced a new product and marketed it
aggressively to break competition. He believed that Microsoft had the name and the resources
to produce and market its Windows phone to buyers successfully. Unfortunately, the plan snowballed
and caused the firm billions of dollars in losses. Microsoft had entered the phone game too late.
Balmer's time as CEO was not all doom and gloom though, as the company maximized revenue during
his time due to his vast expertise in marketing its products. However, the colossal failure of
his smartphone ambition was too bitter a pill to swallow as shareholders wanted him gone.
The day his resignation was announced, Microsoft’s share price jumped by 7%.
After his resignation, there was confusion all around as no one could say for sure who would
succeed him. Palmer was an internal appointment that failed, so many expected the next CEO to
come from outside the company. To the surprise of many, the next appointment was internal.
Satya Nadella, a leader of one of the new divisions that Balmer had created as CEO.
Nadella's appointment was the beginning of a new dawn for Microsoft and the evidence suggests so.
He started working with Microsoft in 1998 and was appointed as Vice President to head the newly
created Enterprise division under Balmer. At the time, the Enterprise division was not yet regarded
as a top division in tech companies because cloud businesses were not yet profitable. When
Steve Balmer saw that the smartphone business was not doing well, he wanted to launch another arm,
so the enterprise division was his idea. Unfortunately, he did not remain at the helm
long enough to see it flourish. The decision makers at Microsoft had
seen the immense success of Amazon’s cloud division and Microsoft wanted to replicate it.
Who better to lead the company forward than the man who was leading the company’s cloud effort?
When Nadella was announced to the world, there was confusion. Many big guns in the industry did not
know who he was. His name was not even showing up in Google searches. Despite the skepticism,
Microsoft’s share price that had stagnated for years began to rise after a decade,
and so did Azure, the company’s cloud computing platform. Azure became so profitable, that
Microsoft’s revenue rose to new heights. The funny thing about Nadella’s reign in
comparison to that of Steve Balmer is that his time at the helm has seen Microsoft raise revenue
and share price at the same time. During the reign of his predecessor,
Microsoft’s share price may have remained static, but the former CEO tripled revenue. So, many have
argued that Satya Nadella's rebirth of Microsoft has nothing to do with profit but with vision.
His rebirth of Microsoft may not have been game changing but the results have been astounding.
Under his reign, the company did a 180 degree turn away from the directions of the past.
He pushed the company to accept open-source development and led the acquisition of GitHub.
Furthermore, steps were taken to clean up Microsoft’s image by opening it up to
competitive pricing. His move towards open-source development was so profound that he never for
once used the word “Windows” during his first ever speech after he got the job in 2014.
He also opened up Microsoft to the outside world by building bridges with other developers.
Taking a leaf from Steve Balmer's playbook, he made the company more sociable and open to change,
which was not the case in pre-Balmer times. Although his predecessor is credited for chasing
a collaborative vision for Microsoft, Nadella has been praised for continuing the vision.
What is even more impressive is the success of Microsoft’s cloud service
which is customer friendly and cooperates with users. Their platforms are open to independent
developers and quite flexible. All his programs have been customer focused with
customer satisfaction the number one priority. Satya Nadella indeed saved Microsoft from itself
and when his time is done and he is gone, he will be remembered for many things. Chief among them
will be the acquisition of LinkedIn for $26.2 billion in 2016, and GitHub for $7.5 billion.
There have been other smaller but strategic acquisitions centered
around developer productivity, gaming, data security and cloud services.
However, LinkedIn and GitHub acquisitions were the major ones that announced Microsoft’s plan
to remain a major player in the tech industry for years to come. For a company that was once living
in past glory, this CEO has ushered the company into a new dawn of endless possibilities.
Adopting a different strategy and breaking away from the norm is easy with smaller establishments,
but not a major conglomerate like Microsoft. Change is difficult to accept and adopt but Satya
Nadella did both quite well in record time. Today, Microsoft is better for it and its shareholders
couldn’t be happier. He has been a visionary leader that even Bill Gates will be proud of.
Let us know your thoughts about Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella in the comment section below.
Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell to turn on notifications.
Thanks for watching!