While Microsoft has just closed its fiscal year against the background of the departure of several of its leaders, the group’s CEO, Satya Nadella, seems to want to galvanize his troops to prepare them for new transformations. A company’s culture is not static, he warns them in an email.
Satya Nadella appears to be setting the stage for further upheaval at Microsoft. The Redmond group’s 2015 fiscal year ended yesterday and it is “essential to start the new year with a shared vision of what we can do and want to become”, just wrote the CEO of the company in a e-mail sent to its employees. Since the appointment of Satya Nadella in January 2014, the group created by Bill Gates has already turned around on several fronts compared to its historical positions, by putting the package on productivity tools in the Azure cloud, by delivering Office Mobile for free on competing mobile OSes (iOS and Android), by opening the code of certain software (.Net in part), but also by restructuring its teams with 18,000 layoffs. Satya Nadella obviously does not intend to stop there and Microsoft employees should expect new movements of funds. Is he preparing to engage in further restructuring?
“The culture of a company is not static”
A few days after announcing in a first email to his employees, in mid-June, the departure of several important members of his management team, the CEO again addressed his employees to tell them of other difficult choices to make. “I believe that a company’s culture is not static,” writes Satya Nadella bluntly (in an internal email published by our colleagues at GeekWire). “It evolves every day depending on the behavior of everyone in the organization. (…) We’re going to have to innovate in new areas, (…), make some tough choices in areas where things don’t work, and solve tough problems by doing it in a way that brings value to customers. »
Productivity tools for professional and private use
The Redmond group’s mission now is to empower every user and every business in the world to achieve more, says Satya Nadella, and to align the interests of end users with those of developers and teams. computers. Three axes are drawn and they interconnect: reinventing productivity and business processes, developing the cloud platform and creating more personal IT. First, Microsoft wants to reinvent digital productivity services in a transversal way on the different types of terminals by addressing its customers both in their professional context and in their private lives. Satya Nadella relies on the duality of uses.
Second, all of these “experiments” will be built on the cloud platform with the intention of providing an attractive model for developers and enterprises to attract applications to it and enable them to exploit identity management, machine learning and advanced analytics it offers. Finally, Microsoft will be the first to implement this strategy with its Windows Device platform and its own terminals. And Satya Nadella adds here that the company will pursue its gaming ambitions as part of its expanded vision around Windows. It will bring together in an integrated approach its Xbox Live online platform and its gaming activity around PCs, consoles, mobiles and new extensions such as its HoloLens virtual reality headset. According to some rumors, Microsoft is interested in processor manufacturer AMD, precisely for its gaming activities.
Donate your time to distribute Windows 10
“We must constantly learn and be insatiably curious. We must take risks and move quickly when we make mistakes, recognize failure when it happens… And we must be open to the ideas of others when the success of others does not diminish our own”. Microsoft’s culture must be rooted in a growth mindset, says Satya Nadella in his email, adding that it is a potential that everyone can develop, a potential that can be educated and that does not is not predetermined. “Everyone can change their state of mind,” he assures us, asking his employees to carry out this transformation in three areas. They must be customer obsessed. “We must be insatiable [encore une fois] in our desire to learn from outside and bring that knowledge back within Microsoft while continuing to innovate. »
Second commandment: we must be able to cover the diversity of needs and users on the planet. Satya Nadella obviously thinks Microsoft can do better in emerging markets. Finally, the CEO appeals to the unity of his teams behind the slogan “One Microsoft”. As an example of this culture already in action, he cites the work being done around Windows 10, the next version of its operating system, approached with growth in mind and customer obsession. The editor multiplies the pre-versions of the product, modified from feedback from users who are testing the next OS. The last two builds were delivered in quick succession in 48 hours this week, fixing more than 300 bugs. “We have the opportunity to connect with 1.5 billion Windows customers in 190 countries. Satya Nadella urges her teams to donate their time to help their respective communities migrate to Windows 10 starting July 29. Microsoft not only wants to engage its employees in the movement, but also its customers and partners. Further details will be communicated shortly.
