Microsoft, helmed by Indian American CEO Satya Nadella, became the world's most valuable company in 2018 leaving Apple behind, passing a trillion-dollar valuation. Behind the company's transformation, both from within and without is Nadella's leadership, which has brought about changes in the company's culture and business focus. On his birthday, a look at how Microsoft changed under his leadership.
Cloud computing servicesEver since he took over in 2014 as CEO, Nadella has made it clear that he would be focusing on cloud. He has made cloud a strategic priority for the company. He has put Microsoft's commercial cloud in the spotlight. This includes Azure Cloud, business subscriptions to Office 365 productivity tools, commercial LinkedIn revenue etc. He knows the world is about cloud first and made the best of it. Microsoft is a major vendor of cloud computing services, especially for huge businesses. The company has also brought some part of its software to the Linux Operating system.
Partnering with competitorsNadella has also established partnerships with some key companies. In fact, Microsoft's image now is more that of a friend than foe. His idea is to provide technology to customers without becoming a competition to them. With Nadella as CEO, Microsoft has formed partnerships with competitors like Dropbox, Red Hat, Salesforce and Amazon.
Strategic acquisitionsSatya Nadella did not disappoint his investors with his acquisition game. Acquiring LinkedIn, SwiftKey in 2016 and GitHub in 2017, helped him connect with a large network of devoted users. These moves helped Microsoft expand its market growth and justify Nadella's 2014 memo of reinventing productivity to empower every person and organization on the planet.
Change in company cultureNadella is responsible for changing the culture at Microsoft. He has often said that he wants to empower every employee to achieve more. He has often talked about how empathy is at the heart of innovation. In 2014, Microsoft started One Week, a series of events that bring employees together across the globe and across disciplines to inspire more organic connection and collaboration.
The most valuable companyStrong earnings have pushed Microsoft to become the most valuable company in the world. It became the third US company to pass a market cap of $1 trillion in 2018. As of today its market cap stands at $1039.41 bn head of Apple and Amazon.