
Satya Nadella – Microsoft's CEO - fredwu
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/ceo/index.html
======
shanselman
It's worth noting that under Satya (in my org, Cloud and Enterprise) we open
sourced ASP.NET, use 50+ OSS libraries in Visual Studio, have all the Azure
cloud SDKs on GitHub, and on and on. We made Portable Libraries happen and now
share code between iOS, Android, and Windows. This is not your grandfather's
MSFT, and now the dude who helped us (Azure) change things in a fundamentally
non-MSFT and totally awesome way is in charge. I'm stoked - big things coming,
I think.

Disclaimer: I work in Azure.

~~~
Touche
I suggest open sourcing Windows. Put it on GitHub with a permissive license
and accept pull requests. The internet will blow up, you'll instantly win back
all of the developer mindshare that has been lost over the years.

~~~
InclinedPlane
You obviously have no concept of what the windows source looks like. Putting
it on github would be a massive technical challenge alone.

~~~
adamcanady
Can you explain?

~~~
InclinedPlane
Let's just say that comparing Windows to the linux kernel would be a mistake.
Hosting the windows source would be a challenge for any source control system
out there. Git / github is not exactly optimized for projects of that size.

~~~
code_duck
Sure, Windows is more than a kernel. I imagine the NT kernel vs the Linux
kernel would be roughly comparable. But to compare 'Linux' the OS to Windows
would mean Windows vs. GNU/Linux/X.org/Gnome/KDE... or say, the source for
every package in the base Debian distribution.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Exactly. Now imagine that every part of it was just as bloated and convoluted
as you'd imagine.

~~~
oblio
I doubt that Windows is monolithic/bloated. Convoluted sure, backwards
compatibility is a bitch, but Windows is probably broken into neat little
modules by now.

------
adamt
I'd never thought I'd say this after the years of aggressive (and at times
anti-competitive) dominance but I think the world needs a strong Microsoft
again.

Although Microsoft remains very strong in the corporate world, its presence in
the Internet and mobile worlds are now pretty limited and leaving the two
power-houses of Google and Apple to shape the industry.

Satya has done a good job with Azure, and it will be interesting to see
whether he can make Microsoft more relevant to the Internet back into someone
that can influence the industry.

~~~
taylodl
Why? What good would a strong Microsoft provide us? What void would that fill?
We've been there, done that and frankly, I don't care to go back. They abused
their power when they had it and I have no intent of giving it back to them to
give them another crack at it.

No, I much prefer today's world of Google, Apple, Samsung and FOSS in all its
myriad forms battling it out. There's more developer frameworks than ever
available to us. More languages. More everything.

No. I don't want to go back.

~~~
YZF
Really?

The world of Google and Apple (Samsung and FOSS aren't even a player) is a
world of closed computing platforms where people can't control their own
devices and can't and don't code for them. More languages? I don't think so.
How many languages can you use to write apps for your iPhone or Android
device? Objective C and Java respectively and that's about it. With Google not
only do you not control your apps/device even your data isn't under your
control any more.

Yes, Microsoft's business practices weren't so great, but I don't agree the
new world is much better. As a developer it actually feels worse. The only
exception is Linux and server side development which is in a sense a niche
(plus that existed before Google and Apple rose to their dominance and could
have co-existed with Microsoft perfectly happily).

~~~
taylodl
There's lots of languages you can use to create iOS applications:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3949995/what-
programming-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3949995/what-programming-
languages-can-one-use-to-develop-iphone-ipod-touch-and-ipad-i)

Android allows you to freely deploy your applications to their devices, while
iOS requires a little more work. In neither case do you _have_ to go through
their respective stores (I'm thinking enterprise/personal apps here). For
commercial sales it's increasingly a moot point: consumers are purchasing apps
through app stores regardless of platform.

As a developer, I've never felt more free, less beholden to a corporate entity
and their hidden agenda, and have an awesome stable of tools and technologies
from which I can use to build solutions. It's almost gotten to the point where
I have _too much choice!_

And that's awesome!

~~~
Crito
> _" There's lots of languages you can use to create iOS applications:
> [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3949995/what-
> programming-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3949995/what-
> programming-..). "_

Compared to truly open devices, and moderately open systems (even Windows or
OSX), that is an absolute joke.

~~~
angryasian
I could be wrong but isn't it by default osx doesn't allow you to install apps
that aren't from the app store as well.

~~~
stock_toaster
you are indeed wrong. By default apps need only to be signed. This is also
easy to bypass (right click and select open while holding...option i think?
not at workstation right now..) as well as easy to change globally
(preferences).

~~~
angryasian
I am not wrong. They put up a barrier to installing apps, so by default they
do not allow it.

------
skywhopper
I hope the new CEO has the courage and the power to set out a vision and stick
to it for more than just a few years in a row.

Microsoft under Ballmer has been a study in short attention span. Changing
themes, names, and directions every three to five years. When I was a Windows
sysadmin back in the day, it was incredibly frustrating to build anything on
the Microsoft platform because by the time you wrapped your brain around the
new way of doing things, the next server OS release would change everything.
From what I've seen since I moved on to a different career, that pattern
hasn't changed.

Apple's success has come from a laser focus and constant improvement for the
past 17 years. Microsoft used to be similarly focused. Remember the old adage
that Microsoft would get it right by Version Three, and wipe out the
competition? Well, they haven't stuck to any particular plan for long enough
to come up with a version three of anything in 15 years.

Hell, Microsoft pioneered tablet computers, but after some promising early
models and some decent push into the innovation required, they kind of just
let that project wither on the vine until Apple came up with a workable model.
Then MS desperately tried to pivot and turn everything, even the server OS,
into a tablet-and-desktop-friendly mess.

Remember Zune? Remember Live? Remember the Kin??

~~~
javajosh
_> Remember Zune? Remember Live? Remember the Kin??_

We should be very careful about criticizing others for their failed products.
The side-effect of experimentation and innovation is that some of the
experiments will result in failure to find market fit. Market fit failure
isn't a good thing for a company, but it's much worse to not experiment at
all.

~~~
hga
I'm most familiar with the example of the Kin, and it was not an example of "
_experimentation and innovation_ ", but a case study in how Microsoft has
largely lost its ability to execute on a proven concept.

For that matter, the Zune was a (late) iPod clone; sure, it had some
experimental features (that didn't pan out, but, hey, they tried), but it was
hardly seriously innovative.

It also was yet another example in how you'd best not trust Microsoft, as part
of it they threw their PlaysForSure ecosystem under the bus.

Hmmm, getting whole sectors of the world to trust Microsoft in the future is
going to be a tall order for the next CEO, assuming he doesn't just punt on
many of them, which might be the wisest thing to do.

~~~
dublinben
Both the Zune Pass and Zune Share were much more innovative than anything
beyond the first iPod.

~~~
r00fus
Execution matters. Zune Pass died a few months ago. I can still use account
credit I put on my AppleID from 10 years ago (in fact I still have a few bucks
on one of my early accounts).

A small startup that gets squished by larger competition has an excuse as to
why it shut down services and let down it's customers. Microsoft has no such
excuse. They failed to compete, then the failed their customers. Innovation is
wasted if it's improperly handled.

~~~
Elepsis
Zune Pass transparently got rebranded to Xbox Music and still works just fine.

------
chollida1
The bigger news here might be that Bill Gates has stepped down from his role
as Chairman of the board!

Although this has been rumored to happen for some time, its still a big
"changing of the guard" step for Microsoft.

Good luck to Bill in his new roll on the Board as "Founder and Technology
Advisor".

~~~
fro
A step down from chairman, but a step up in involvement. Gates says he will be
"substantially increasing the time that I spend at the company."

~~~
skywhopper
I hope that this is just doublespeak to reassure people who think Gates is
important to Microsoft's future success. Personally, I think both Microsoft
and the world would be better off if Gates stepped away completely and
focussed all of his efforts on the Gates Foundation's work.

~~~
michaelwww
I think you're missing the point that Gates will be spending more time at
Microsoft to lend gravitas to Nadella amongst the other Microsoft managers he
beat out for the job. I imagine once they get the message and give the guy a
chance to get his sea legs, Gates will back away.

~~~
forgotAgain
I agree with your assessment but I think its a negative. Nadella needs to be
able to command respect on his own. If you're right in your thinking then it
indicates that the board really doesn't have confidence in him.

~~~
michaelwww
It was mentioned several times he has a calm and thoughtful approach, which is
180 from Balmer. It will be interesting to see if they can all make the
adjustment.

------
leobelle
It looks like Microsoft is starting to head in a better direction given their
backtracking on "metro" style for desktop applications. I hope they develop
more software for non-Windows devices. I really wouldn't mind using Microsoft
software on non-Windows. I only use Windows for testing and gaming.

I wish Nadella and Microsoft luck, and hope they make a real turn around.

As a side note it is also exciting to see some more diversity in the top ranks
of one of our biggest technology companies. If I were a young aspiring
engineer from India, or anywhere in the world really, I'd feel pretty good
about the future right now.

Also amazing is that they're publishing and embedding Google YouTube videos on
that page.

~~~
skrebbel
> _As a side note it is also exciting to see some more diversity in the top
> ranks of one of our biggest technology companies._

Because true diversity is people who look different!

~~~
leobelle
I'm not sure what you mean by your reply.

~~~
ebbv
It means he's one of those white racists who doesn't think he's racist.

~~~
mason240
I read it as the above person being a SJW who has a problem with Nadella being
"white on the inside."

~~~
sremani
He is son of an IAS officer, he is part of Indian Elite. But coming to US in
80s and making to University of Chicago means he is a real deal.

------
Udo
There's something deeply symbolic about watching those enthusiastic people
doing their Sorkin walks for the camera through the vast and completely empty
halls of the Microsoft offices (or is it a museum, I can't tell).

By the numbers, Microsoft is still incredibly relevant. At the same time, I
can't even remember when I last used _any_ MS product. It's not a boycott,
there are simply no points where their stuff intersects with my life. I can
imagine I'm not the only one, and that's not a comfortable position to be in
for them. However, it's also difficult to see how they could ever break out of
that. From where I'm standing they look like a partly consumer-focused IBM:
rich, powerful, calcified, eternal, but computing has largely moved on and
left them behind.

As a former MS user, I wish them all the success in the world turning this
around.

~~~
wil421
You must not work in the corporate world. Microsoft has a massive foothold in
enterprise: email, instant messaging (lync), excel, word, visio, project, even
sharepoint and those are just the pieces you can see not to mention whats
going in the backend.

Being one of the only Mac users in my office I constantly have to find work
arounds for everything. Sadly they will be relevant for a long time we have
almost 30,000 people using windows and they wont be learning anything new for
a long time if ever.

I do hope the changing of the guard will help microsoft to build better
products that integrate with OS's beside windows.

~~~
geophile
The decline of Microsoft will be a generational thing. At some point, those
offices are going to be inhabited by kids who grew up with google docs,
dropbox, a variety of IM options, and who have never seen a native email
client.

When these kids grow up and enter the workforce, they will want to use the
tools they know, and will not understand the point of in-house Windows
sysadmins, or the software licensing fees.

My 21-year old daughter grew up using Microsoft products, and has abandoned
them completely. Everything she does is in the cloud, (mostly google, yahoo
for email). She enters the workforce in one year.

Whatever the new CEO does, he basically cannot win back a generation that has
learned to do office tasks on non-Microsoft products. It's sort of like what
happened with GM. They produced absolutely shitty cars in the 80s, and many
people who had early experiences with those cars started buying Japanese cars
and stayed there. (No, I don't have statistics to cite, that's just my
impression and personal experience.)

I give Microsoft ten years until their first quarterly loss.

~~~
bluedino
>> When these kids grow up and enter the workforce, they will want to use the
tools they know, and will not understand the point of in-house Windows
sysadmins, or the software licensing fees.

When your company reaches a certain size, auditors and such will put an end to
that.

"This gets backed up where?"

"Where's your antivirus?"

"Why aren't you using _STANDARD_PRODUCTS_?"

etc

~~~
vetinari
Your auditors are asking about specific software???

Ours never did. Processes, yes, specific brands? No way.

~~~
mitchty
Yep we only install virus scanners at email gateways to make the exchange
servers not die. The virus scanners are for windows, never had any auditor for
sox or pci ask about software, sounds like a shit auditor.

~~~
freehunter
Our PCI auditors like to see anti-virus on every machine, Windows, Linux, Mac,
or Unix. That might not be a requirement, but every year they ask to see our
AV solution for everything.

~~~
mitchty
From our PCI implementation documentation I don't see any requirement of AV on
every operating system.

Asking doesn't necessarily facilitate the need to do that thing necessarily.

------
solaris152000
The email on his first day is an interesting read:
[http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04ma...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04mail2.aspx)

~~~
venomsnake
It is interesting how devoid of content it is. I think that much better way to
motivate the troops is to give tangible goals and be brief.

Anyway good luck be with him - from what I read in his bio he was heading the
only part of MS recently that managed to not alienate its customer and
developer base.

~~~
caw
Having been at a company that recently underwent a CEO change, the first email
is always fluffy. It's a greeting, gives their "big picture" strategy to give
some idea of what's new with the new CEO, because that's every employee's
concern right now.

In the next few weeks, the new CEO will be solidifying everything with Q&As,
visiting the various campuses, and announce any new org changes. Org changes
will be the big thing that impacts what individual contributors actually do in
their jobs. Major changes to the 2014 strategy or goals would be announced
soon, but seeing as how it's mid Q1 it's probably going to be changes for Q2
or 2H.

------
michaelhoffman
John W. Thompson was once general manager of the division of IBM that produced
OS/2[1], which was soundly defeated by Microsoft. I wonder how he feels about
being chairman of Microsoft now given that previous experience.

[1] Around this time, he reported to an executive named John M. Thompson,
hence the use of middle initials.

~~~
rbanffy
Another way you can read it is with a comparison with Stephen Elop and Rick
Belluzzo. Could he have intentionally mis-managed OS/2 leaving the space open
for Windows 3, being then rewarded by a position at Microsoft's board?

I know nothing about his career or his decisions WRT the OS/2 product, but,
after having a closer look at the other two, a pattern of executive placement
as an offensive weapon starts to form.

edit: minor clarifications

~~~
michaelhoffman
He's only been on the Microsoft board since 2012, which is nearly 20 years
after the release of OS/2 Warp. That is pretty a far-fetched scenario in this
case.

~~~
rbanffy
I agree. I don't know where he was in the meantime and what his relationship
with Microsoft was during that time. If OS/2 was sabotaged from within, it
was, quite possibly, the first time Microsoft did it.

It's far-fetched anyway. Belluzzo is much less far-fetched and Elop is pretty
obvious.

------
Aqwis
The most interesting thing on this page is that the videos are hosted on
YouTube.

~~~
dudus
this might be a good sign.

~~~
izolate
I don't want to jump to conclusions, but after watching the video I have a
really good feeling about Satya. He doesn't strike me as a neurotic Microsoft
evangelist salesman like Steve Ballmer.

I would love to see Nadella's Microsoft get more involved in open source
projects, and win back some developer love that has become lost in darker
years.

------
mergy
Here's the concern: 1\. Everyone thinks Microsoft needs a rethink. 2\. Ballmer
and others inside Microsoft think they did that and just need to execute on it
(devices first, etc.) 3\. This guy helped develop the rethink that is in-
process.

Any external candidates would have had to buy-in to the restructure already
started but not fully executed under Ballmer. Since he was theoretically part
of the changes started with Ballmer, he will continue the same agenda.

~~~
Consultant32452
IMHO the re-think wasn't too far off. Microsoft's tablet OS is pretty nice. It
was just late to the game and needs a stronger app ecosystem but they're
working on that. The UI for Win8 desktop was DOA. They really over-shot there
but have taken what I feel are appropriate steps to mitigate some of the
damage and I think we'll see a nicer, better solution come Win9.

~~~
mergy
I hope so. We need more competition out there and Microsoft should be in the
mix. It will be interesting to see changes if Ballmer and Gates remain on the
Board in some capacity.

------
dodyg
Microsoft is back being led by a tech guy. This is awesome.

------
csmithuk
I'll be more interested when he unleashes his "arse kicking" on the company
and starts pushing roadmaps out. That's a make or break moment for a lot of us
involved in Microsoft's ecosystem.

~~~
leobelle
You know for the first time in a very long time I actually want to make
Windows software. It's not really Microsoft's fault though. I really like
twitch.tv, and streaming games from Windows is really easy thanks to OBS. I
want to build stuff that makes user and streamer interaction easier via OBS on
Windows. I wouldn't put it in the Windows store though. Heh.

~~~
Ambrosia
OBS is currently being rewritten to be cross platform and because the old
codebase was pretty bad, so I guess you could contribute

[https://github.com/jp9000/obs-studio](https://github.com/jp9000/obs-studio)

------
porker
I love the quote "Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects
innovation". The most profound words I've read all day.

What would our industry be like if it respects tradition? Less reinventing the
wheel every decade?

~~~
vacri
Given that the internet as the public knows it is only 20 years old, there's
really not that much tradition. A kid in 1990 wouldn't say "I wanna be a web
developer", because that job simply did not exist - it would still be several
years before Mosaic came along (it's just had it's 21st birthday)

~~~
porker
For the internet perhaps not. For our industry - we can trace it back to the
1950s or 1960s (I know there were earlier uses of computers, but I've never
sen them as similar enough to our pattern).

------
jamhan
I wish Microsoft would stop using language like "he saw how clearly Microsoft
empowers people to do magical things". It makes it sound like Microsoft people
are still off in la-la land, continuing to create interfaces like Metro for
the desktop. Get Microsoft back to being a great software engineering,
customer-focused and reliable company that enables people to be more effective
in their jobs and help make those people's customers happier.

~~~
hamburglar
I totally agree with this. Microsoft would be really smart to cure themselves
of all the delusional "we've got the greatest and most innovative people"
crap. Sure, sure, pat yourselves on the back for your accomplishments and be
proud when you do things well, but don't act like it's because you've somehow
managed to hire the Chosen Devs. That kind of thinking just leads to never
being self-critical.

------
ballard
So I've done consulting with a 20MM+ USD startup that has engaged MSFT over a
long period for acquisition potential. It was the case that Balmer had to
personally approve every M&A activity over 10MM USD. Hopefully Satya will put
in place an A-team of shrewd investors to delegate much of this activity
because it seems nonscalable for a CEO to get involved in nearly every
transaction. Satya has a lot of work to do to keep what works, modernize and
throw out the bad (repeatedly trying to apply the same UX from one platform
everywhere).

PS: Azure is great technically and is lightyears ahead most other parts of
MSFT but it has not found enough customers to warrant applause. AWS eats their
lunch.

------
natch
I still feel like I don't know who this guy is. I'm sure he's awesome but a
lot is left out. The MS official bio stuff says he has a family, has worked
for MS for a long time, has some degrees, and loves cricket. But what has he
been doing at MS for 22 years? What roles has he had?

------
fleshweasel
Microsoft needs a CEO who's willing to focus, and that means killing the
stupid ideas and making hard decisions on what they're trying to be and what
they aren't trying to be. Windows 7 and Xbox 360 were both relatively
successful products. It seems to me that Windows 8, Xbox One and other recent
products have suffered from a lack of focus.

They're trying to segment such that their phones run one OS and their tablets
and laptops run another. This is a really bad premise for a lot of reasons.
The right processor architectures for laptops are not the same as the right
processor architectures for tablets and phones. Windows 8's interface that
tries to cater simultaneously to touch and mouse input is a confusing mess for
users. They've decided to kill foundational elements of the UI for reasons
that are simply boneheaded. It's obvious that an OS focused on touch input and
mobile processor architectures and an OS focused on mouse/keyboard input and
desktop architectures is a much better strategy.

As far as I can tell, Ballmer was a nut whose principal qualification was
being Gates's college roommate. Hopefully we'll see Microsoft become more
competitive in the consumer space with this change.

------
ceautery
Watching the video of Satya, I found that I was most happy about all the
plants in their building. Also it's interesting to listen to Satya's native
accent come and go depending on what he's talking about.

------
teyc
This is an interesting pick. He may be diplomatic but he is quite clear about
the current organisation problems, that Microsoft's need to amplify their
work. Microsoft has been a traditional technology company but increasingly,
they are getting trounced on the consumer side because they never had to build
up a competency due to their incumbency.

Microsoft is very good at long term support platforms. They have clearly
articulated how long they will support each of their iteration of OS, and
software packages. These work extremely well in the enterprise space. Moving a
lot of their disparate services into long term support - e.g. skydrive makes
good sense.

If they can now do the same for their software platforms and provide long term
support for how to write long lived applications that will run well on the ARM
and x86 platforms, we should start seeing some consolidation in the APIs
again.

------
yrochat
> He joined Microsoft 22 years ago because he saw how clearly Microsoft
> empowers people to do magical things and ultimately make the world a better
> place.

Bad start.

~~~
johsoe
Why? Don't think of Microsoft as it is now, think of it as it was 22 years
ago.

~~~
wtbob
Twenty-two years ago, Windows 95 was three years in the future. As I recall,
Microsoft's only truly great product was Word (Excel was getting there, I
think), although I guess Flight Simulator wasn't too bad. Microsoft was trying
to pretend that Windows 3.1 was a competitor to the Mac. Lisp machines were
still trying to make a go of it.

~~~
r00fus
In 1991, Microsoft was already ascendant. You may be too young to remember,
but MS-DOS was everywhere. Given the failures of Commodore and Atari, the rise
and fall of the 80's unix wars, and with Jobs no longer at Apple, Microsoft
essentially took visionary leadership of the computing scene by default.

Instead of using proper unix machines, my early computing years were spent on
DOS and Win 3.1.

~~~
wtbob
I was around back then, and was using Macs and Unix, looking down on folks for
using Windows & DOS. To this day, I can't begin to fathom the sort of mindset
it takes to settle for worst.

I certainly would not have agreed that Microsoft ca. 1992 was at all
visionary. I felt embarrassed for them and their users back then, much as I
would for an adult who shows up at the office proud of the childish
fingerpainting he spent the last month making. Grasping, copying, but not
visionary.

------
tn13
I had the pleasure of meeting Sathya a year back. He was giving a presentation
to a crowd where he said "anyone uses Windows Phone?" No one raised their
hands. He said "damn, even I use an iPhone".

------
vividmind
I noticed the following sentence in Balmer's email to employees
([http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04ma...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/news/press/2014/feb14/02-04mail1.aspx)):

I love the breadth and the diversity of all of the customers we empower, from
students in the classroom to consumers to small businesses to governments to
the largest enterprises.

It's interesting to see the governments standing between small businesses and
large enterprises in the minds of such men.

~~~
dragonwriter
Even for governments that are bigger than large private industries in scale,
they often make IT purchasing decisions at a lower level of the organization
which makes the effective scale as a purchasing entity smaller; so, there may
well be a sensible business reason for this ordering.

------
scotth
I'm curious about his accent. It sounds like it would've taken a lot of work
to develop. Is sounding American-ish a requirement of rising to the upper
echelons of a company like Microsoft?

~~~
Varcht
Is it racist to not understand half of what is said through a thick accent? if
it is I'm a big jerk.

edit: why the down votes? Honest question, parent seems to be implying that
its a bad thing that he adjusted to his environment, an environment where
clear communication is paramount,.

~~~
sp332
_a thick accent_

Do you mean Nadella's in particular? I didn't think it was that bad. Anyway
it's only racist if you think less of a person just because you can't
understand them. Remember there are lots of people who can't understand you,
either.

~~~
Varcht
No, Nadella is easy for me to understand. I was responding to the parent
implying that he was somehow pressured to conform.

------
rjbwork
I'm really hoping this gives Scott Guthrie and Scott Hanselman a path up the
MS corporate ladder. They're contributions to the .NET dev community cannot be
understated.

~~~
spiderPig
I heard Scott is already pretty high up in the ladder and reports to Satya
today. I hope he takes over Satya's position and heads the Cloud and developer
efforts though.

~~~
rjbwork
Yes, this is exactly what I was alluding to. Scott Guthrie is the reason
ASP.NET has so many Microsoft made open source components, so having him in a
position of greater power can only be good for MS, the dev community, and OSS
in general, I think.

------
kyro
Can someone in the know shed some light on how a CEO of a corporation this big
gets selected, from searching for and vetting candidates to the competition
involved amongst nominees vying for the position? I imagine it's less about an
admissions-type board reviewing applicants' credentials and accomplishments
and more about years and years of strategic positioning, favors, and
relationship building with people that matter. Or a bit of both.

~~~
lutusp
> Can someone in the know shed some light on how a CEO of a corporation this
> big gets selected ...

It's easy to summarize: the stockholders trust the corporation's board, and
the board trusts its selected candidate. There are very few written
requirements, most of the process is based on the judgment and experience of
the board members -- which is why they're sitting on the board.

> ... years and years of strategic positioning, favors, and relationship
> building with people that matter.

That's accurate. But the bottom line is that if the candidate doesn't work
out, the board's credibility evaporates -- that part of the process is also
ruthless and unwritten.

------
Touche
I'm very skeptical of them going with someone who's been with the company that
long. I think they needed an outsider. I was glad when the Sundar Pichai rumor
started.

Also think it's a bad thing that Gates is going to take a more active role as
the technology world today is very different from when he dominated. Gates is
famously (if the stories are true) the one who didn't like the Courier tablet,
for example.

------
w-m
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JwNZBJ_wI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JwNZBJ_wI)

Interesting that they chose a walk and talk kind of thing, in a completely
vacant office. What where they hurrying towards that they couldn't take the
time to sit down?

~~~
m_mueller
It made me think of the logistics behind the video. "Hey everyone, the hallway
is closed off for the next two hours because we want to show our new leader in
an environment completely devoid of people."

Am I too cynical?

~~~
pistle
Camera and sound deserve some respect for walking backwards that whole time.
Sure, they're pros, but that was a long and winding walk.

------
fromdoon
Just asking, how can a new CEO change Microsoft's directions.

Or

What suggestions would you give Satya, if you were to meet him today?

~~~
Udo
I'd say, from my armchair: take a long hard look at what's really happening
out there, step out of your bubble. Stop this ridiculous attitude towards
competitors and open source, at least long enough to see what they have to
offer. Get your people some Macs, get your server people exposed to some
Linux, get them some iPhones and iPads and Android devices, and make them see
why you've been losing ground. Those competitors aren't perfect, they all have
distinct and horrible weaknesses that you can exploit by making something
better. Step out of your bubble and make something.

~~~
timrichard
I think they did get some iPads at one point :-)
[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/07/ipad_theft_microsoft...](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/07/ipad_theft_microsoft_campus/)

------
nilkn
This is a bit of a tangent, but is not having an MBA a significant impediment
to advancement in Microsoft to the executive level? I've never worked there,
but the impression I have is that a programmer there could never hope to rise
to this sort of level in the company.

------
MartinCron
A part of me was hoping for an outside technologist, as I'm almost
instinctively suspicious of anyone who could grow and thrive in the
dysfunctional stack rank regime, but this is so much better than the CEO of a
soft drink company, for example.

~~~
canistr
Stack ranking is largely attributed to Lisa Brummel, Executive VP at MSFT. And
it's been stated in many articles that stack ranking caters to the top 10% and
nobody else.

~~~
MartinCron
I wasn't thinking it was his idea, but he obviously did very well in the stack
ranking ecosystem, which implies (among other things) looking at your own
success in terms of a peer's failure.

~~~
canistr
For a system with a set turnover ratio, you could make a claim that everyone
in the company views their own success as a result of someone else's failure.
Be it a VP, GPM, Team Lead, etc. Because it happens at every level within the
organization.

------
keithpeter
_" Microsoft’s new CEO finds relaxation by reading poetry, in all forms and by
poets who are both Indian and American."_

Wonder if he has read Vikram Seth's _Golden Gate_. Looks to be an
_interesting_ person despite the corpspeak.

------
z5h
"Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation." ...
"Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first
world."

Catching up to the current state of things does not sound like innovation.

~~~
yaeger
Also, "mobile" and "cloud first" is a sure fire way to continue with Windows
decline with every new version they put out. If they really continue down that
road, you can bet your behind that Win7 will put XP to shame regarding
longevity. There is no need to "wait for Win9" if _that_ is their way forward.
Nothing needs to be "cloud first". Especially no Desktop OS. But MS currently
still has problems acknowledging this fact. Unless the new CEO changes that,
Win7 will stay put. Period. And a guy coming from Enterprise should know that.
But since he also comes from "the cloud", it is about a 50:50 chance he'll
actually do the right thing.

------
Corrado
Did anyone else notice the way that they are dressed? There is not a single
tie anywhere in any of the pictures. Even the people in the background are
dressed casually. I can't ever remember a CEO of a major corporation not being
fully outfitted in formal office attire, Steve Jobs not withstanding.

I take this to mean that Microsoft is aiming to be hip and cool. That's not a
bad thing, if they really mean it and can pull it off. I hate the coat & tie
thing when it dictates what I can do and my level of political influence.
Those things should be decided by my ability to think and reason, not where I
shop for clothes.

------
sergiotapia
Will he be able to unify the entire Microsoft experience into something
amazing? I'm excited!

New blood will surely bring in fresh ideas and approaches - I hope Microsoft
manages to raise the bar even higher and make me an MS evangelist again.

------
nreece
Came across a recent interview of his, by Om Malik, discussing the future of
technology:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ8Hiss2EkE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ8Hiss2EkE)

------
SonicSoul
His statements sounded rather generic.

Satya on first things to focus on:

* _ruthlessly remove obstacles to innovation_

* _focus innovation on things that Microsoft can uniquely do_

* _find more meaning at work_

opportunities for Microsoft:

* _opportunities are unbounded; we want need to be able to pick a unique contribution that we want to bring.. (focus on productivity)_

why will Microsoft be successful?

* _we have the talent, the resources and perseverance like no one else has = > combine it with self empowered world = best platform to change the world._

hopefully soon there will be a more tangible strategy for Microsoft, but i'm
not holding my breath.

~~~
Haul4ss
Well, it was his first day on the job. I didn't expect him to roll out a
50-page strategy document.

He was cheerleading here. Boosting the morale of Microsoft employees by
talking about how awesome they are and how their lives will improve under his
tutelage.

------
bitcuration
Microsoft has a long history of being focus on the marketing of developers,
even as the main strategy to prevail and control the corporate IT market.
Having a CEO who shares a similar culture background as more than half the
population of who currently employed in IT industry, brings to Microsoft a
distinctive advantage when it comes to both selling to this market or
attracting talent. Very clever move. Kudos to Bill G.

On the other hand, contrary to Ballmer, the new CEO will be under strong
influence of Gates and the investors.

------
sirkneeland
I'm still glad it's not Elop.

------
camus2
Well Congrats to their new CEO, there is a lot of work to do to put MSFT on
the right path for the future. The industry has changed, consumers have
changed, MSFT needs to evolve too.

------
pngmankwong
Very interested to see what the new CEO will bring and hopefully a much needed
injection on the innovation front. His background in R&D and running the cloud
divisions at Microsoft makes him a different proposition to Ballmer. I like
the idea that Bill Gates can maybe combine with him as Founder and Tech
advisor and balance old and new with some vision. Microsoft has lost it's way
in recent years and although not a wholesale change maybe they can give it
some new direction

------
ozim
Words of new CEO of Microsoft "I marvel every day at how people can excel..."
taken out of context are hilarious when I think about all stupid stuff people
do with Excel.

------
acqq
Satya Nadella: His first interview as CEO of Microsoft

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JwNZBJ_wI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8JwNZBJ_wI)

~~~
agilebyte
Where are all the people? Looks like an estate agent showing us around.

~~~
tanzam75
> _Where are all the people? Looks like an estate agent showing us around._

In the first scene, we see fog outside the windows.

According to the Weather Underground, it was foggy in Seattle on February 1
and 2, with rain on the 1st. There was no fog or rain on February 3 or 4.

Conclusion: the video was recorded on either Saturday or Sunday. Hence the
empty building.

------
haakon
In Bill Gates' video, at 0:28, does he laugh just a little bit as he says "we
took advantage of the internet" when listing their historical innovations?

~~~
spiderPig
Haha, I noticed that too! Kind of a subtle smirk.

------
sgt101
Amusingly there is only one comment out of 328 with the word "engineer" in it
(ok two now). I think that says much about the future of microsoft.

------
bpyne
It'll be interesting to see the direction Mr. Nadella takes the company in.
Hopefully he expands the Research division and tears down barriers to
incorporating more research gems into the product lines. I'd also like to see
more UI/UX innovation. One further thing I'd like to see: Visual Studio as a
platform-independent product line with F# as a major player in that platform.

------
amaks
I'm curious what's going to happen to Stephen Elop now. I was under impression
he was aiming for the CEO position at Microsoft himself.

------
axilmar
Dear Mr Nadella,

if you want Microsoft to innovate, simply throw out everything you have done
so far and bring us a real object-oriented operating system that can work
seamlessly on one machine, many machines on a lan or many machines on a wan.

Productivity could be vastly enhanced from what it is today by a true object-
oriented design.

Computers are not file cabinets. Computers contain objects. The file metaphor
no longer serves us.

------
runjake
I'm hoping Satya can break through Microsoft's notorious cycle of be strongly
competitive, but then neglecting a product when it has achieved dominance.
Also, continue and expand the embracing of open technologies. Do all that and
avoid monpoly tactics and you should be good to go.

Microsoft has always been its best as the underdog and that's where they're at
now.

------
raheemm
If he focuses the entirety of MS on cloud and mobile, while offering some
level of innovation, he will have done a good job. I think the real challenge
is how do you make a company whose flagships are non-mobile and non-cloud
products like Office and Windows go mobile and cloud? Those are massive
institutional forces of inertia.

------
wslh
Interesting that they use Modernizr and normalize.css for the web page instead
of their own css/js code.

------
gesman
Good luck, commander!

Scrap Ballmer's toys and go after the big enterprise boys.

That's where the money is :)

~~~
rbanffy
Indeed. Enterprise is where Microsoft has the most traction, and benefits most
inertia and lock-in. It faces competition from SaaS companies, but that's an
unavoidable transition Microsoft will have to make.

~~~
rossjudson
Office 365 seems to be doing very well. In that case, it's the SaaS companies
that should be deeply afraid of Microsoft. As a total offering (consisting of
cloud components _and_ PC-based components) it's pretty hard to beat.

Running O365 on Azure has probably substantially improved the platform.

I can't see why Microsoft would take the slightest interest in the mobile
software world of 100,000 different $1 crapware products. There's no money in
it.

Rovio is one of the most successful mobile developers there is, with annual
income of $150 million, across pretty much every mobile platform. They're
great at it.

$150 million isn't even _visible_ next to Microsoft's $60 _billion_ yearly
income.

------
chenster
The key here is innovation. Innovate or die. Simple as that regardless is OSS
or proprietary. Is Satya up to the challenge to turn the sinking ship around?
We will see in the next a few years.

------
chrisjames
"Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects innovation . . ."

This strikes me as an odd thing to say, especially so given the nature of the
communication. Am I alone in this thought?

------
bokmann
Cool, with Bill also more in the action we can probably hope some interesting
times ahead. Another "white" topic though: does anyone notice those white
spots in the MS logo?

------
gopi
The first thing that hit me was this dude has the look of Steve Jobs

------
RyanMcGreal
Sidenote: the videos are embedded from YouTube. I'm impressed and even a bit
encouraged that Microsoft set aside NIH long enough to use a competitor's
product.

------
surana90
Do people here understand what Test Cricket is? #justchecking

~~~
reddit_clone
Even people in India barely remember it any more. Now a days its all about
20/20 and instant gratification.

------
LeicaLatte
I want MS to buy Unity. Love unity for how well it uses C# and javascript and
is definitely right up their alley.

------
atmosx
I see that Microsoft is a _hot_ arguments with many holding strong opinions on
both sides :-) good.

------
staunch
Microsoft should spend the next 10 years running conduit and fiber to most
homes in North America and building out the highest capacity network. No one
else quite wants it badly enough, not even Google, and the incumbents are no
threat at all. They have the money. They'll never win at software again in a
big way. Micronet is the answer.

~~~
ConceptJunkie
Yeah, I'm sure the FTC would love that. I'm not saying it's a bad idea in
theory, but MS is still a monopoly in many ways... they don't need to invite
further scrutiny in that regard.

On the other hand, the last time they got busted in the U.S., they got off
with a slap on the wrist. The E.U. seems to take that stuff a little more
seriously.

------
DonGateley
What, do they all have the same coach telling them how to use their hands to
talk with?

------
pdfcollect
Just curious: Does anyone know his GPA @ Wisconsin–Madison?

~~~
tuxguy
He went to Wisconsin Milwakee not Madison.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella#cite_note-16](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satya_Nadella#cite_note-16)

But he is still wicked smart, i think :)

------
isaacjohnwesley
Satya Nadella 'made in INDIA'. Proud moments.

------
DonGateley
And here I was hoping for Steven Sinofsky. :-)

------
markshepard
hmm. a steve jobs like photo and vibe there..

~~~
Hacquoil
I also found it interesting that they felt the need to include a photo of
Satya looking chilled out in a hoodie. Just feels really forced - it seems
completely out of character based on all of his other imagery / appearances
elsewhere.

There is nothing wrong with the guy wearing suits to work if he wants, but it
seems that they're trying unnecessarily hard to make him fit some sort of cool
geek stereotype.

------
curiousfiddler
If Microsoft open sources Windows...

------
frik
Video fail: apparently Bill Gates video was filmed with a chroma-keying (blue-
screen) and because of original reflections on his glasses you can now see
"through his head".

Look at his glasses:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5BhQVuRcTk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5BhQVuRcTk)

~~~
guardian5x
Comment fail, this is just one of the screens there reflecting on his glasses.

~~~
frik
wrong, re-watch the video in HD full screen.

~~~
BlackDeath3
I agree with the above. After watching the video in HD and fullscreen, it
looks like the reflection of a screen more than anything else (to me). Hardly
surprising, given that the hallway is covered in television monitors.

------
vithlani
The only good thing about this is showing the world that the curries are
finally stepping up. It will not make one iota of difference to anything
Microsoft does, its culture, policies, etc.

------
truefav
Hello Satya..can you outsource jobs to India ?

------
truefav
Steve Ballmer - goodbye ...sing developer..developer..developer at home now.

------
JSno
MS is going down. No doubt. Look at Motorola and Adobe.

~~~
CurtHagenlocher
Racist comments about CEOs of Indian origin have no place on Hacker News.

~~~
middleclick
I don't think the OP implied it had anything to do with race. I maybe wrong.

~~~
rbanffy
Sanjay Jha was Motorola's CEO until the Motorola Mobility division was
acquired by Google. Shantanu Narayen is Adobe's CEO.

I see a clear pattern here.

I'm open to other possible interpretations.

~~~
ConceptJunkie
A sample size of 2 doesn't make for a compelling pattern.

