A story by former Microsoft worker Dare Obasanjo tells us about life at Microsoft after Satya Nadella became the boss in 2014. Nadella started as a simple engineer in 1992 and worked his way up for 22 years. When he became CEO, many people thought Microsoft was finished - at least that's what Y Combinator's Paul Graham was saying.
In 2007, Graham said that Google's online tools (mainly Gmail) and Apple had made Windows look old-fashioned, only useful for "grandmas."
"Microsoft's biggest problem," Graham wrote, "is that they don't see how bad they are." They were too satisfied with themselves - and Graham was right. Obasanjo remembers: "Even though we kept failing, many people... acted like we were amazing just because we had Windows & Office, two very successful computer programs."
Here's something interesting: Sometimes it's harder to move forward after success than after failure. It's difficult to try new things and risk making mistakes when you've already created something as great as Windows! Nadella fought against this by putting up messages about "growth mindset" in every meeting room ("learn from feedback!").
He started the "biggest private hackathon in the world" to help people think like entrepreneurs again. This worked well. Microsoft created cloud software like Azure, and now its value is similar to Apple's. Smart investments in GitHub, LinkedIn, and especially OpenAI made Microsoft important again.
Philippe Collard
Turnaround CEO Philippe Collard (who has helped three companies improve in 10 years!) adds to this idea. He says a leader's main job is to help people "see things as they really are" with both humility and hope, especially after big success. Obasanjo's main lesson from his time at Microsoft applies to both life and work: being willing to "learn new things" will help you more than thinking you know everything.
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