Slashdot Mirror
Satya Nadella Named Microsoft CEO
Nerval's Lobster writes "As widely expected after last week's rumors, Satya Nadella has been named the new CEO of Microsoft. Nadella is Microsoft's third CEO, after co-founder Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. He's been with the company for more than twenty years, eventually becoming executive vice president of its Cloud and Enterprise division; Nadella and his team were responsible for the creation of 'Cloud OS,' the platform that powers Microsoft's large-scale cloud services such as SkyDrive, Azure, and Office 365. Under his guidance, Microsoft's revenue from cloud services has grown by several billion dollars over the past few years. In his email to employees, Nadella said that he was 'humbled' by his appointment, and that he had asked Bill Gates to act as a close adviser in the months and years ahead." He devoted much of the rest of the email "to explaining his philosophy of technology, and how that will ultimately influence his leadership. 'The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things,' he added. 'We are the only ones who can harness the power of software and deliver it through devices and services that truly empower every individual and every organization.' A lot of tech companies would disagree the assertion that Microsoft is the 'only' company capable of merging hardware and software into forms that businesses and consumers find appealing, but Nadella must do his best to reassert his company's position as a technology leader. Nadella indicated near the end of his email that he would follow through on the 'One Microsoft' strategy formulated under Ballmer, which includes a massive reorganization currently underway." Reader rjmarvin notes that "Nadella will take over as CEO immediately, allowing Steve Ballmer to retire early," and reader SmartAboutThings says that "John Thompson, a lead independent director for the Board of Directors, will take over the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors that Gates held."
Well, after being responsible for Office 365, what could possibly go wrong?
that Steve Ballmer retiring now is not 'early'. About a decade late.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
In other words, Microsoft is going to proceed with a vision which may or may not be of interest to consumers, and once again tell us what we want instead of listening to us.
So now the same idiot who was in charge of XBox being an always on-line nuisance is going to ram this philosophy through the rest of the product lines.
They might find this to their detriment.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No doubt, but he didn't know how to innovate or even keep up with new technologies and markets. Microsoft has been floundering for the past decade, riding the momentum they built up in the 80's and 90's but never successfully adding to it. Their strategy lately is almost monkey throwing darts. Let's try this! No, this! No, that!
At the same time they poisoned their own corporate environment and created a ton of churn in their lower ranks, bleeding young new talent to rivals and startups.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
The reason that he's leaving is that the shareholders surmise that MS made money despite Ballmer not because of him. MS has two main sources of revenue and profit: Windows and Office. These were the same when he took over. Even then Windows is starting to decline. Windows Vista was hated and so is Win 8. They still made money because OEMs really have no choice.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Well, let's at least not destroy this guy immediately. Maybe he has something good to bring to Microsoft as the CEO.
It's a way of being polite and classy, and saying "I know there are a lot of really qualified people around me, and your selection of me has forced me to honestly reflect on my weaknesses." It's more a communication to his peers who were just passed over for the job than to the underlings who were never in the running.
Now, did you really need that explained to you, or were you just running your mouth?
I've been on Slashdot long enough to know that unless Linus accepted the CEO spot, whoever got it was going to get a lot of hate here.
The only thing I can say is that Microsoft is in dire need of engineering, and they promoted an engineer to the top spot. I think that's refreshing. What happens from here on out depends on what the roadmap looks like, but if the Surface Pro 2 is any indication, they are actually going down a good path on the hardware end of things. Time will tell on the software end.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
Because storing your private/confidential information in a cloud is a stupid idea, because you don't really have control over your data.
I think your tinfoil hat is on too tight. There are plenty of cases where the data isn't all that confidential. It's not really all that hard to store confidential things locally or offline while using cloud storage for less sensitive items. We use Google Drive in our company to store work instructions and forms. If someone at NSA want's to look at those then they can go right ahead. It's nothing that requires deep levels of secrecy but it does require efficient controlled distribution and multiple person access.
To be humbled, to be made to feel small or modest. Pretty standard bit of English. Seems a natural reaction to being put into a massively auspicious position. You're not a robot powered by a 1900s dictionary and a copy of Stunk and White-Out are you?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
Chairman is a mostly ceremonial role so the only reason I can see for him stepping down is that he can see the cliff coming and wants to get off before the company goes over. Either that or he thinks his image has been so poisoned by Ballmer that he suspects he needs to go to make the company's image bounce back.
Very strange.
You are 100% bang on when you say " Let's try this! No, this! No, that! " -- Microsoft is running around like a chicken with its head cut off.
It is because MS doen't have a freaking clue about *good* User Interface or User Experience. To understand UI you need to understand TWO things:
1. S/N and
2. Flow.
Here is the perfect example of Microsoft being total fucktards: google: visual studio 2012 menu all caps
https://www.google.com/search?...
We use uppercase and lowercase in books to make it EASIER to read. Reading off a screen is already harder on the eyes why the hell would you make it even more so?!?! Oh, and let's get rid of those underlines so people can actually *see* and *learn* the hotkeys / keyboard accelerators. Let's dumb the UI down to full retard mode because how dare anyone suggest you can design a UI for novices and the power user!
Microsoft will never understand that you need to take advantage of the strengths AND be aware of the weaknesses of the hardware to massage the Software + Hardware + User Experience. Microsoft has all the arrogance of Apple without understanding why Apple makes some of its changes. (Apple is by no means a saint, but they tend to have a more consistent User Experience.)
> they poisoned their own corporate environment
Yup! Stack Ranking has to be the dumbest move ever. As a company you want to motivate your employees; it is also import to not demotivate them.
Again, MS is clueless.
I've met Satya. It was several years ago, as part of a larger groups of VCs who regularly met Microsoft execs. He comes across as technically knowledgeable, smart, decent "presence" and leadership. He didn't strike me as visionary, but that's hard to judge when you're in a group that's being given the corporate line.
Knowing a little about the Microsoft culture, and having seen it over the past 20+ years, I personally think that an outsider would have a horrible time. First, in a company that is strictly a technocracy (and that comes from Bill himself), a non-technical outsider would be derided and would have a very tough time. A Gerstner->IBM type of hire probably wouldn't work. A technical outsider would still have to deal with the pretty inbred internal culture.
We've seen disastrous "shake the company up with outsiders" hires at HP, Yahoo (not Marissa, the, um, previous errors), Motorola, Nokia and others. Satya is probably, IMHO, a good hire, he knows the culture, and he has to simultaneously manage transitions in various product lines, and keep the money engine going. Remember, while many people talk as if Microsoft is dead and irrelevant, just look around you at almost any conference, or on a flight, and see how many people are using Windows and/or Office. And Microsoft is still worth around a third of a TRILLION dollars. A decent chunk of the US population invests in Microsoft, directly or through funds. A CEO can't take big risks with that market cap.
I wish him the best. He's got a lot to do.
So he's the new chair man ?
Nullius in verba
Because he would sink the ship, as he did with Nokia.
We need Elop, not Nadella!
No worries - Elop will still be well rewarded for his efforts. Expect a new VP in MSFT soon.
(I only wish this were a conspiracy theory...)
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
He grew up in a privileged environment but didn't make it into IIT. What does that say about him and his technology skills?
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Agreed. For one, I hoped that Microsoft was took over by a woman, which could mean that finally someone who cares about the look-and-feel is in control of the company. By the way, he's Indian, so it looks like it's a normal name there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
And people complain management is never outsourced
Does anyone else miss the old BillG-as-a-borg icon? Using the former corporate logo is so... corporate.
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.