After spearheading the turnaround of Microsoft from the brink of being irrelevant to making it one of the most valuable companies in the world again, Satya Nadella has been named Chairman of the Redmond, California, headquartered tech giant.
This is the first time in two decades that Microsoft’s Chairman will also be its CEO. Only founder Bill Gates has held both positions simultaneously in the company’s 46-year history.
When Nadella was named CEO of Microsoft in 2014, the software giant was struggling with internal cultural issues and was lagging the rapidly changing technology landscape. Nadella pivoted to newer technologies such as cloud computing, mixed reality and artificial intelligence.
Tech, market balance
Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst, Founder and CEO of Greyhound Research, says: “What is great about Satya is that he knows where Microsoft's core strengths lie on the technology side and where the market and the ecosystem is. This is why he has been able to align them well for the past seven years to reinvent Microsoft as a company. His success with Microsoft and teams are demonstrations of the same.”
For the Hyderabad-born Satya, India has always been close to his heart. The inspiration from playing cricket and studying in different parts of the country helped Nadella in charting out one of the biggest transformations in the history of Microsoft.
India and learning
In an interview with BusinessLine in 2017, Nadella had said: “India is a very important source of learning. I measure myself in terms of the progress we make in India by enabling small businesses to be more productive, and the public sector to be more efficient.”
Will set agenda for board
In a statement, Microsoft explained the role of Nadella as a Chairman. “In this role Nadella will lead the work to set the agenda for the board, leveraging his deep understanding of the business to elevate the right strategic opportunities and identify key risks and mitigation approaches for the board’s review.”
Nadella has been behind some of the most salient technologies for Microsoft. He pioneered the move to cloud computing, launching one of the largest cloud infrastructures in the world. Crucially, he brought Microsoft’s database, Windows server and developer tools under its Azure cloud.
S Ramadorai, former TCS Vice-Chairman, told BusinessLine: “This is great news for the global tech sector. Sustainable growth and inclusiveness must be a theme for any Chairman. As Indians, we all feel very proud of him.”
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