What do you guys think about Satya Nadella?

[LTTG]

I think he's a really nice guy, he looks optimistic, and I also think he'll lead Microsoft to the right direction.

 

[a5cent]

The announcement bio listed his hobbies as Cricket and Poetry. That speaks of someone with attention to detail, concentration, and a long view....

That he likes cricket tells me he has a lot of patience. At least that is what I feel is very necessary whenever I watch a cricket match. ;-)

But seriously, the best thing about him is that he is very communicative. Obviously you can't deal with corporate customers and consumers in the same way, but I hope he brings some of the transparency and honesty from Azure to the rest of MS. If he trashes the shut-up-and-ship policy and replaces it with a solid consumer communications strategy, he'll already have achieved a lot.

 

[Jas00555]

Hmm.... After watching all of his interviews and speeches, I think I have a final opinion on this guy. He leaves me kind of uncertain about what he'll do, but I'm confident that whatever he does, he'll be great at it.

I'm actually very excited, uncertain, but still very excited, for Microsoft. I think this guy definitely has the potential to change Microsoft's image and I think we can definitely expect great things to come out of Redmond.

This guy seems to know exactly what to do and how to do it. The stuff he does makes him seem like he's aware how image works and the consequences of Microsoft's actions (something I don't think Ballmer quite understood sometimes). Just watch his "consumer meeting", I mean, it's filled with buzzwords like "internet of things" and "mobile first, cloud first" and they had a very controlled and well done fake interview (notice the empty hallways? I don't think everyone was out to lunch). I don't think we'll have anymore PR blunders like how Bing Rewards came to iOS before WP. This guy seems like he wants to create a good image.

Now, the only thing about these buzzwords is that, yes, he's smart in that he wants to have a good image, but it also tells me that he doesn't exactly know what he's doing right now (and frankly, how could he? He's never been a CEO before and really the only two people who would know what they're doing are Gates and Ballmer). I'm not sure what his goals are aside from "mobile first, cloud first" but, come on, that's pretty vague. Still, if he was picked, I'm sure his vision is a pretty good one.

 

[a5cent]

I don't think we'll have anymore PR blunders like how Bing Rewards came to iOS before WP.

I hope you are right, but that he'll be able to prevent every PR blunder is probably unrealistic. Even if he was perfect and never made mistakes himself, he has no chance of catching every problem before it happens. A CEO of a company of MS' size just can't be involved in all the details at that level. Revising company policy could certainly prevent the problem you mentioned, but it's unlikely he could have prevented the communication disaster that was the XB1 introduction. At some point a CEO just has to trust his lieutenants, because nobody can get into all the technical and marketing details of a company with over 100'000 employees.

CEOs are certainly important, but it seems to me that importance is often overrated. Maybe that is a side affect of American celebrity culture. I don't know. CEOs often get all the credit and take all the blame, when often times happenstance or their competitions actions are more important than anything they themselves could have done. Furthermore, true innovation almost always occurs in a garage or a back office, where a single engineer has an idea which a team decides is worth developing, and is eventually nurtured into a presentable concept. A CEO's most important role is to foster an environment where that happens often. Rarely does innovation occur from the top down, the way many here seem to think it does. I can't think of a single one of MS' technologies that started life in an executive's office.

Anyway, the primary means by which a CEO leads a company of this size is by the people he/she appoints, by focusing the company on a single vision, and by setting examples and expectations. That will be no different for Mr. Nadella.

 

[Markham Ranja]

I hope you are right, but that he'll be able to prevent every PR blunder is probably unrealistic. Even if he was perfect and never made mistakes himself, he has no chance of catching every problem before it happens. A CEO of a company of MS' size just can't be involved in all the details at that level. Revising company policy could certainly prevent the problem you mentioned, but it's unlikely he could have prevented the communication disaster that was the XB1 introduction. At some point a CEO just has to trust his lieutenants, because nobody can get into all the technical and marketing details of a company with over 100'000 employees.

That is why a CEO of a company like MS gets paid in the 100s of millions. His is the responsibility, no matter what. Also, if you think the CEO was not involved in the launch of a device as important as the X-1, I'd like to have some of whatever you're smoking

 

[HeyCori]

Reading comments across the net, it's crazy all the revisionist historians out there who want to pretend that the only thing Ballmer did in his decade+ tenure is string together one failure after another. Ballmer took over (IIRC) in 2000. He tripled revenues, tripled profit, and created over a dozen multi-billion dollar lines of business. All the man did was make money, ending his tenure with record revenues last quarter. Countless CEOs wish they had that sort of legacy. Ballmer did what I expect CEOs to do - make tons of money for the company. I don't want to diminish his failures but I'm also not going to downplay his success. It's funny watching the haters and armchair analyst rush to discredit Ballmer, all-the-while Microsoft is swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck.

 

[dkediger]

That is why a CEO of a company like MS gets paid in the 100s of millions.

Actually, all reports online indicate a base salary of $1.2M with an estimated (current dollars) stock/bonus package of up to $16M for a potential total of $18M. Or so.

 

[Jas00555]

I hope you are right, but that he'll be able to prevent every PR blunder is probably unrealistic. Even if he was perfect and never made mistakes himself, he has no chance of catching every problem before it happens. A CEO of a company of MS' size just can't be involved in all the details at that level. Revising company policy could certainly prevent the problem you mentioned, but it's unlikely he could have prevented the communication disaster that was the XB1 introduction. At some point a CEO just has to trust his lieutenants, because nobody can get into all the technical and marketing details of a company with over 100'000 employees.

CEOs are certainly important, but it seems to me that importance is often overrated. Maybe that is a side affect of American celebrity culture. I don't know. CEOs often get all the credit and take all the blame, when often times happenstance or their competitions actions are more important than anything they themselves could have done. Furthermore, true innovation almost always occurs in a garage or a back office, where a single engineer has an idea which a team decides is worth developing, and is eventually nurtured into a presentable concept. A CEO's most important role is to foster an environment where that happens often. Rarely does innovation occur from the top down, the way many here seem to think it does. I can't think of a single one of MS' technologies that started life in an executive's office.

Anyway, the primary means by which a CEO leads a company of this size is by the people he/she appoints, by focusing the company on a single vision, and by setting examples and expectations. That will be no different for Mr. Nadella.

I'm not saying that he'll be perfect. Hell, every company has made PR mistakes from Apple and Apple Maps or Google with.... Well there's too many to count, but he could enact a stricter policy on releasing things to other platforms where a new product is always on Windows Phone before or at the same time as other platforms.

From what I've seen, developers really like this guy and he says that he first wants to make good connections with their partners so we could soon see a lot more 3rd party support.

 

[a5cent]

That is why a CEO of a company like MS gets paid in the 100s of millions. His is the responsibility, no matter what. Also, if you think the CEO was not involved in the launch of a device as important as the X-1, I'd like to have some of whatever you're smoking

I said CEOs can't be concerned with all the details. Why you think I said a CEO would be completely uninvolved I do not know. Those are two completely different things.

I won't comment on pay level. I disagree with you but it's besides the point.

I suspect Ballmer was very much involved in the decision that the XB team should push the home media centre aspect (an idea that goes back to Bill Gates more than it does to Ballmer). I could also imagine that he never explicitly stated that the existing model for using and selling XB games mustn't be altered. Ballmer was most certainly involved in specifying goals, cost constraints, and figuring out how to coordinate efforts between the Windows and Xbox teams. However, if you think he sat down and reviewed the script for the XB1's launch event then you're the one who should be passing me the weed ;-)

 

[xchange]

I seems really smart, sophisticated and professional. I've been rooting for this guy since the beginning, mostly because he's such a huge "cosmetic" improvement:

View attachment 55913View attachment 55914

Just look at that guy. He's like an awesome, non-arrogant, Indian version of Steve Jobs.

Is that Rob Ford on the left? :grin:

 

[tgp]

From what I've seen, developers really like this guy and he says that he first wants to make good connections with their partners so we could soon see a lot more 3rd party support.

Hey, what's wrong with Steve Ballmer in this department? What was he proclaiming when this picture was taken?

 

[jmshub]

I really don't know much about Nadella, just what everybody has been saying in the last several days. I think it's good to see an engineer helm Microsoft again. Not that Balmer's sales background was a liability, but it seems to me that good CEOs were engineers: Bill Gates and Alan Mulaley being two examples.

 

[AaHaa]

Hey, what's wrong with Steve Ballmer in this department? What was he proclaiming when this picture was taken?

I think this was the "developers-developers-developers" thingy. I made an illustration based on this which was used by WPCentral a while back, actually! Microsoft looking to find Steve Ballmer's successor by the end of 2013 | Windows Phone Central

Here's hoping I'll never have to make an illustration like that of Satya Nadella, but I like my chances.