Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on creating a culture that fosters ideas — Transcript

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1. 0:00this company's had three seat hosts
2. 0:02they're all right here this is one two
3. 0:07three there they are Bill Gates
4. 0:08introduced a new CEO Microsoft more than
5. 0:11three years ago his name is Satya
6. 0:12Nadella he's become the company's third
7. 0:14CEO in 2014 after working at Microsoft
8. 0:18for 22 years since then he has generated
9. 0:21250 billion dollars with ABI and market
10. 0:23value from Microsoft he discusses his
11. 0:26personal and professional journey of
12. 0:27transforming the company in his new book
13. 0:29it's called hit refresh a quest to
14. 0:31rediscover of Microsoft soul and imagine
15. 0:34a better future for everyone Bill Gates
16. 0:37writes in the foreword we have fallen
17. 0:38behind Google and I have a fly in our
18. 0:41own studio our original search team has
19. 0:44moved on Satya was part of the group
20. 0:46that came in to turn things around
21. 0:48he was humble forward-looking and
22. 0:50pragmatic we welcome microphone CEO
23. 0:52Satya Nadella to the table welcome and
24. 0:54good morning thank you so much and to
25. 0:57change a culture is not easy how do you
26. 1:01do it and what are you looking to create
27. 1:05you know when a company is successful
28. 1:07one of the things that happens is the
29. 1:09concept that got you started in the
30. 1:11first place the capability that you have
31. 1:14and the culture all get into this
32. 1:16beautiful virtuous Locke and things are
33. 1:18going well then lo and behold you need
34. 1:21to come up with a new concept a new idea
35. 1:23for which you need new capability that's
36. 1:25when the culture has to be at its
37. 1:28premium in other words the culture needs
38. 1:30to enable you to come up with new ideas
39. 1:32build new capability so that's why I
40. 1:35think for companies to be successful
41. 1:36over a long period of time you need more
42. 1:39than a good idea and a good strategy you
43. 1:41need a culture that fosters that growth
44. 1:43and the capacity to refresh all the time
45. 1:45that's correct I mean that the fact that
46. 1:46everything that starts off and because
47. 1:49into a hyper growth ultimately does
48. 1:50taper off the real question is what do
49. 1:53you do when that happens how do you hit
50. 1:55refresh is sort of I think the real
51. 1:57challenge for us as individuals as
52. 1:59companies or us as societies and so you
53. 2:02said one of the things that starts with
54. 2:03you and for you it meant empathy which i
55. 2:06think is such a great concept Jeff
56. 2:08Weiner who you all are together I loved
57. 2:09it I think it's a great bromance between
58. 2:11the two of you both talk about empathy
59. 2:13a lot and I think that that's so
60. 2:15important and you cite in your book two
61. 2:17really strong examples of how your life
62. 2:19was changed by empathy and how it
63. 2:20carries with you today yeah I mean first
64. 2:23of all I think empathy is everything if
65. 2:25you think about even in the business
66. 2:26context for us our job is to meet the
67. 2:28unmet unarticulated needs of customers
68. 2:31that's where innovation comes from
69. 2:33there's no way we could innovate without
70. 2:34having the deeper sense of empathy so
71. 2:36what happened to you the FIR which I
72. 2:39write in the book is the interview my
73. 2:41foot interview at Microsoft the last the
74. 2:43very last question the last interviewer
75. 2:45asked me is what would you do if there
76. 2:47was a child who had fallen on the road I
77. 2:50saw I thought about it for a few seconds
78. 2:52I thought there was some algorithm there
79. 2:54and then I said I'll call 911 so the
80. 2:56interviewer just walks up and leaves and
81. 2:58I thought I'd blown the interview
82. 2:59because he then tells me look when a
83. 3:01child is on the ground and crying you
84. 3:03pick them up and hug them yes that is my
85. 3:06first big lesson on empathy and it
86. 3:09changed your life
87. 3:09absolutely I mean I reflected on it
88. 3:11quite a bit I mean and that's the other
89. 3:12point which is it's not some innate
90. 3:14capability I believe that your lives
91. 3:17experiences will teach you if you listen
92. 3:20and at least in my case that's what
93. 3:22rather it is that interview question the
94. 3:24birth of my son and every day at
95. 3:27Microsoft I learn about building Abdi /
96. 3:30insight to be able to see through others
97. 3:32I write that your son has severe
98. 3:34cerebral palsy that's right yeah he was
99. 3:37born here 21 years ago with you in
100. 3:40neutral as fixation which led to
101. 3:42cerebral palsy and his birth in the
102. 3:45initial phase for us at least for me was
103. 3:48more about like why did this happen to
104. 3:49me but it was only through watching my
105. 3:51wife for whom much it came much more
106. 3:54naturally to care for him that I realize
107. 3:56nothing happened to me something
108. 3:58happened to him and what my job was as a
109. 4:01father and that realization perhaps more
110. 4:04than anything else shaped my outlook in
111. 4:06the years to come you know it's
112. 4:08interesting because Microsoft you think
113. 4:09about Microsoft being a leader in
114. 4:11innovation and you write in the book
115. 4:12that in the smartphone era that
116. 4:14Microsoft had failed to lead and barely
117. 4:16managed to participate and then you say
118. 4:20see the sea and CEO is for culture how
119. 4:23does culture change innovation every
120. 4:27to me for a company that is successful
121. 4:30and to be continued to be successful in
122. 4:32something like high-tech for a long time
123. 4:34you're gonna have your hits and misses
124. 4:36if I look back you know 43 years ago
125. 4:38when the company got started - here we
126. 4:40are
127. 4:41competing with a whole set of new
128. 4:43competitors at every given point in time
129. 4:46the question is have you caught enough
130. 4:48waves even if your missed one or two
131. 4:50that's the real question and that's
132. 4:51where the culture I think helps if you
133. 4:54have a culture that allows you to learn
134. 4:55from your mistakes and still grow then
135. 4:59you are then we find right classes I
136. 5:02know it's very you talk about when you
137. 5:07wanted to get to your employees you said
138. 5:08that if the morale was low that the
139. 5:11people felt they had lost their cool
140. 5:12factor you have a Pacific call at 6:02
141. 5:15so you can talk to everybody and you
142. 5:17want them to know what this is what
143. 5:19we're gonna do to me it is not as much
144. 5:21about how we'd lost a cool factor or Rou
145. 5:24any of the myths misses we had it was
146. 5:26more about being in touch with our core
147. 5:29sense of purpose and identity if you
148. 5:31look at it right Microsoft's different
149. 5:33from a lot of other companies in the
150. 5:34Suns
151. 5:35our first product was the basic
152. 5:38interpreter for the Altair that's what
153. 5:40Paul and Bill created and that what it
154. 5:43Telegraph's for me is that we create
155. 5:45technology so that others can create
156. 5:47more technology that's who we are we're
157. 5:49a tool maker and in a world right today
158. 5:52where every walk of life and every
159. 5:54industry is being shaped by digital
160. 5:56technology our original thesis is even
161. 5:59more important and I wanted to be in
162. 6:00touch with it technology is so powerful
163. 6:02but also the success of tech companies
164. 6:04has made them very powerful and there is
165. 6:06much conversation today about putting
166. 6:09them on a very very strict scrutiny are
167. 6:12you worried about that I think that any
168. 6:14company that has done well has a
169. 6:17significant footprint especially
170. 6:20multinational II I think it's super
171. 6:22important for us to think about the
172. 6:24surplus we create around us I think when
173. 6:27I think about Microsoft one of the
174. 6:29things that gives me the greatest pride
175. 6:30whether I'm in New York area or I'm in
176. 6:33any part of the world
177. 6:34is the small businesses that are more
178. 6:35productive the large businesses that
179. 6:38have become more competitive the
180. 6:39public sector that's more efficient the
181. 6:42educational outcomes that are better
182. 6:43because of the work we do unless and
183. 6:45until we measure ourselves with the
184. 6:47outcomes outside of our own balance
185. 6:50sheet I think there's no long-term
186. 6:52success in business so it's incumbent on
187. 6:54you to take a look at what the
188. 6:55consequences are to technological
189. 6:57development absolutely and especially
190. 6:59how broad spread is the success around
191. 7:02you because of your innovation without
192. 7:05that I think the equation is not
193. 7:06balanced well third CEO Bill Gates Steve
194. 7:09Ballmer and now you congratulations
195. 7:12thank you so much bill patty Nadella
196. 7:14thank you so much and hit refresh is on
197. 7:16sale today