 "Hyderabad boy Satya Nadella set to become Microsoft CEO")
If he is the chosen one, as Bloomberg was the first to report, Satya Nadella, a 22-year Microsoft veteran with leading roles in the Office and Bing search engine teams, will become the most powerful Indian-origin tech executive in the world.
Bloomberg also reported that the board was considering replacing Chairman Bill Gates with Microsoft’s lead Independent Director John Thompson.
People who know him well both professionally and personally say apart from his technological wizadry, what has struck them about Nadella is that he is a great team person. “Satya is extraordinarily humble and a great human being; so almost anybody who knows him has nice things to say about him. That is in contrast to many leaders today who have ‘sharp elbows’,” says Ravi Venkatesan, former chairman of Microsoft India.
The 46-year-old Nadella has not forgotten his roots and is connected deeply to Hyderabad where his parents (his father is a retired IAS officer) live. He and his wife did their schooling at the Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet and visit the city every year. In an earlier interview to an Indian publication, Nadella had talked about the leadership lessons he first learnt while playing for his school cricket team. Once when the team captain saw Nadella bowling quite ordinarily, he himself stepped in to give the team a much-needed breakthrough, and again threw the ball back to Nadella to bowl the next over.
“I will never forget that. What made him do that? Is this what they call leadership? These are the kind of questions I have since reflected on as I approach many of the things I do today leading teams,” Nadella had said.
Nadella, who has an engineering degree in electronics and communication from Manipal Institute of Technology, moved to the US where he earned a master of science degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin. He is also an MBA from the University of Chicago. He worked at Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992. During these nearly 22 years, Nadella has held several positions, including senior VP of R&D for the online services division and VP of the Microsoft business division.
“He is one of the sharpest guys you will meet; he is very technical and very empathetic. He understands an exterior opinion which works in his favour as he is ready to learn from others,” says one of Nadella’s friends, requesting anonymity.
It is probably Nadella's performance at the company that led to him being appointed as the head of one of the most key segments of the company — cloud and enterprise. According to several sources, Nadella was responsible for bringing the company's database, Windows server and developer tools, to its Azure cloud.
Under his leadership, Microsoft's cloud services' revenue rose to $20.3 billion in June 2013 from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.
“He is an extremely well-rounded person; he has worked in the application business; he has worked in the Bing search business, led the server and tool business, and now he is in charge of all online and cloud engineering. More importantly, he is a strong technical person which is a good thing to lead a company like Microsoft,” says Venkatesan whose first engagement with Nadella happened when the latter was heading the Microsoft business division.
“Microsoft's offerings have touched an entire generation of Indians, and it would be a moment of great pride for us to see an Indian take over such a prestigious post,” says Ravi Gururaj, chairman of Indian IT industry body Nasscom's product council.
“I am sure it is his performance and delivery at the company that has brought him this far, and we wish him well.”
Microsoft is currently at a crucial point, as the company is moving away from its roots as a software-focused firm and moving towards hardware and internet-based services.
Experts say Nadella would certainly represent a conservative choice for Microsoft. He is a sharp, persuasive individual and can inject fresh life into Microsoft. But others say Nadella will not be the radical agent of change or the inspirational visionary that some investors and outsiders have been hoping for.