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that

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wanted today that side

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if you'd asked

0:48

me when the day before our the hour before

0:51

how does that hey there's a chance but i don't know

0:53

who was interviewing who wanted

0:55

the job there was lot of said say

0:58

intrigue around it

1:03

that is satya nadella and he's talking

1:05

about the moment in 2014 when

1:08

seems he might become the

1:10

next ceo of microsoft

1:13

sorry, yet been with a company for more than 20

1:15

years, but even down the last minute,

1:17

this promotion was far from certain i

1:21

i remember we're on board member

1:23

asked me do really want to be a see you i i said,

1:26

only if want me to be to senior and

1:28

then that's what

1:33

i said but sort of how i feel and i talking

1:36

to steve about it steve

1:37

ballmer, microsoft

1:39

starting

1:46

was in fact, very different from either

1:48

of microsoft's, previous ceos, especially

1:51

the one he be replacing

1:59

the bomber projected absolute confidence

2:03

and assurance

2:16

see saw the job is

2:18

leaving strongly from atop

2:23

hot aside as ,

2:25

a more open conduit for ideas

2:29

ideas wanted to be the kind of kind that

2:32

would make room would feedback and

2:35

foster culture the rewards new

2:37

ideas but ideas different as steve

2:39

was from satya see was also

2:41

the one who advised them the himself

2:45

the best advice i even got from steve at

2:47

one point would just be yourself while you're never

2:49

going to be me so therefore don't try to

2:51

fill my shoes

2:53

you probably know such you got the job

2:56

and he talks d bombers advice to heart

2:59

my first that i'm not a founder

3:01

the bill and paul founded the company and

3:03

bill and steve built the company's steve

3:05

had found a status as far as i'm concerned

3:08

and so i felt like oh i just can't

3:10

be like okay you're the third guy was just shows

3:13

up and does what bill and steve did

3:15

it needs of food reset

3:20

the reed said meant i

3:22

needed to make both that

3:24

sense of purpose mission and

3:27

called shop first class

3:30

and my home

3:31

i would actually argue that such as run

3:34

microsoft as a type of founder you

3:36

can call it being a we founder or

3:38

even a late stage cofounder

3:41

the late

3:43

stage cofounder doesn't need to have been

3:45

there in the garage from day one

3:49

they , have to be the ceo although the c

3:51

o often has the most leverage to effect

3:53

change what they need is

3:55

the ability to tease out and articulate what

3:58

had previously just unemployed

4:01

there when through microsoft we would talk about

4:03

culture but it has never a serious thing

4:06

so i felt like my what's the meme

4:08

even to pick so that we can

4:10

even have a rich conversation

4:12

on it

4:14

how do you not only started that rich conversation

4:16

about culture and mission he made it central

4:18

to his leadership and that helped

4:20

microsoft kickstart microsoft kickstart phase of growth

4:23

that continues to this day that's

4:25

why i believe companies don't just need

4:27

sounders they also need refunds

4:31

as businesses scale rethought or keep

4:33

mission and culture on track and responses

4:36

to a changing world

4:39

you gotta have incredible talent at every

4:41

position

4:43

our fires

4:53

no idea

5:15

we'll start the show in a moment after

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in the show and in the meantime jot

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down ph creative that's a p

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h creative to check out the impressive

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work of brian and his team

7:06

i read off min cofounder

7:08

of linked in partner greylock and your

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house and i believe companies

7:12

don't just need founders they also

7:14

need resounding businesses

7:17

scale rethought or keep mission and

7:19

culture on track and responsive to

7:21

a changing world imagine

7:24

you're out your computer working late at night on

7:26

the presentation

7:30

getting an article on emperor penguins

7:33

to , the perfect quote but perseverance

7:35

when suddenly it happens happens

7:38

scream becomes scream to

7:41

scroll bar won't scroll a

7:44

page is frozen

7:48

what do you do

7:49

thanks to the efforts of thousands of programmers since

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the dawn of the internet you probably already

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know the solution you just click

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the circular icon in a corner

8:01

the article reappears you select your

8:03

slice of penguin seemed wisdom and

8:06

, on on page refreshed

8:09

contains the same information as before

8:11

but now it's functional it's

8:14

functional way to start again without starting over

8:17

a brilliantly

8:19

simple metaphor for leadership organizations

8:22

to can be sluggish and unresponsive

8:26

and co you hit

8:32

and things like mission and culture

8:34

and by the way i wasn't calling my

8:36

own metaphor brilliant

8:38

i've actually borrowed it for guests i

8:40

wanted to talk to satya nadella about this

8:42

idea of resetting culture because of how

8:45

successfully and thoroughly to center

8:47

from one of the most scaled organizations in

8:49

the world as ceo of microsoft

8:52

only the third and its history he has shifted

8:54

the company's focus away from a cutthroat

8:56

culture and anti competitive practices

8:58

towards embracing social networks collaboration

9:01

and cloud his book called

9:04

appropriately hit refresh crystallize

9:08

ideas but had but had stagnant

9:10

culture for the good of employees and

9:12

the world they serve and since he

9:14

wrote that book in two thousand and seventeen microsoft

9:16

success has only elevated in

9:19

june the company had two trillion dollars

9:21

in value you don't have

9:23

to be a ceo to trigger a refreshed

9:26

in your business and you don't have

9:28

to be new to the company

9:30

i always say i am an insider with an

9:32

objective outsider perspective

9:35

soco was born in hyderabad india

9:38

and came to the u s to study computer science

9:40

earning a master's degree from the university

9:42

of wisconsin milwaukee and nineteen ninety

9:45

he started his career at sun microsystems

9:47

but it wasn't long before microsoft came calling

9:50

i was it fun and i was

9:53

planning on going to business school that

9:55

was the trajectory i was on

9:57

and then i got and offered and

9:59

i was the redskins that look

10:01

you ultimately want to leave his school and

10:03

come back here so why did you come here directly

10:06

society of went to microsoft and he loved

10:09

it

10:10

the thing that struck me i remember each

10:12

week i would see a new

10:14

category created right one day

10:17

to be accessed the next day to be publisher

10:19

the next vader be a new release

10:21

of visual basic i mean it was

10:23

just so exciting to

10:26

see that creativity of the

10:28

developers whether they were internal or

10:30

external

10:32

microsoft wasn't a brand new company

10:34

bill gates and paul allen had found it it's some

10:37

seventeen years earlier with a mission

10:39

to but a computer on every desk and

10:41

in every home

10:42

the was so many software product launches one

10:45

after the other it still felt like

10:47

a start up

10:48

the of growth is often it's own enthusiasm

10:51

driver for employees because

10:53

at that stage speed can be a t

10:55

part of the mission and microsoft

10:58

was growing exponentially the

11:00

carter wasn't in the buzzy part of

11:02

the business at least back then

11:04

the joined one was at that point

11:06

the fringe of the company she was the

11:08

silver for most of the nineties

11:11

i would say read we were still in

11:13

the basement of building out

11:15

that enterprise credibility i remember distinctly

11:18

going to new york city visiting all

11:20

the bags and in particular goldman sachs and

11:22

they've made me wait in the radio room

11:24

i say hey who is this guy from microsoft

11:27

wanting to talk to us about covers

11:30

they've thought of us as some sort of toy pc

11:33

maker as such as that

11:35

in a goldman sachs waiting room he thought about the

11:37

reasons why microsoft was so successful

11:39

in a pro supermarket while still struggling

11:41

know certain legitimacy with enterprise clients

11:44

the take long term commitment

11:48

in particular for enterprise

11:51

sensibility for what was

11:53

predominantly a good zuma company

11:56

because it goes back to frost

11:58

it's not just technology i

12:00

see that hubris sometimes we saw

12:02

the folks here i have technology i'm so

12:04

smart so therefore the world should

12:06

com and pray at my alter that's not

12:08

the way commercial customers

12:11

want you to even sure

12:13

that hubris such observe would increase

12:15

with time even between departments

12:18

as he moved up the ranks at microsoft it

12:20

was now the mid two thousands and microsoft

12:22

is offering under its second ever ceo

12:24

steve balmer

12:26

one day steve to be in phase you know

12:28

what i've got it's assignment for you i think you

12:30

should go run big you

12:32

know been it's microsoft search engine

12:35

then the one that wasn't the other

12:37

one at that time he does not even

12:39

called being it is called live search

12:41

or what have you and we had had a lot

12:43

of attrition obviously google was the behemoth

12:46

even back in that time i had to make

12:48

a decision so i rented a

12:50

parking lot i drove past the building

12:53

and it has eight o'clock or so

12:55

in the night at that point you

12:57

know the reputation of the team the attrition

13:00

all of that was what

13:01

but i saw people working

13:03

late in the night and isn't what the

13:05

heck are these

13:06

do a year spiderweb are barking

13:09

walking around and i just so

13:11

all of these folks who are super committed

13:13

and i said dot i got to join and his party

13:16

in that moment soccer saw the big teams

13:19

enthusiasm and sense of mission it

13:22

reset his expectations for the division

13:24

and what was possible

13:26

the great example of the power individuals

13:28

have within a company says hes

13:31

refresh even

13:33

if they aren't and leadership roles i

13:36

doubling down on their commitment to the mission each

13:38

member of the being team had an impact

13:40

on each other member collectively

13:43

they stood at greater sense of possibility

13:46

and their new team leader

13:47

this is how good culture spreads with

13:50

each person having the ability to affected

13:53

as that's how good culture spreads that's

13:55

how poor culture spreads to

13:58

no forget this when i li the

14:00

being being built

14:02

at that point he was the chief software architecture

14:05

in he called he called maybe two thousand

14:07

nine bill gates had

14:09

called the meeting to prepare the team for an upcoming

14:11

acquisition our server

14:14

division was about to acquire

14:17

a piece of technology basically

14:19

for panel data warehouse inside

14:22

of being we were building up essentially

14:24

the infrastructure for our data probably workload

14:27

which is essentially is essentially in

14:29

other words microsoft was about to buy something

14:31

that being was already doing i

14:34

remember going to the meeting along with

14:36

a couple of other leading engineers

14:38

from being and sitting across

14:41

the table from this other group that was

14:43

solving what was the enterprise

14:45

data warehouse problem as understood

14:48

and then here we had essentially

14:52

the same thing but the hunting a very different

14:54

way

14:55

such as about to get technical here he

14:58

realized in that moment how microsoft

15:00

could use been to accelerate their cloud

15:02

service platform assure to rival

15:04

amazon's version a ws

15:07

that is a moment guy think it struck

15:10

me that what amazon

15:12

was doing on the other side of other lake

15:14

the ideal of as of as

15:16

infrastructure in the last the city

15:19

but more than just the business model

15:21

ship the unit of scale

15:24

being completely different

15:26

is what dawned on me in fact that

15:28

is one of the things i look back and say why

15:30

didn't die at that point

15:33

say to steam or bill

15:35

you know what it's time to

15:37

for read the being infrastructure

15:41

being order accelerate as but

15:43

yet i didn't act right i

15:45

mean that is a real issue which is what happens

15:47

in a large enterprise even for a senior executives

15:51

who sees it but doesn't act

15:54

i'm such a fact

15:56

he saw the been could be used to support as your

15:59

no new acquisition the did he sought

16:01

so why not speak up

16:03

that as a theory

16:05

to some degree it requires both

16:07

sides yeah i should have been bowled a

16:09

in that role the he i see

16:11

this i want to advocate for

16:13

it and then on the other side the

16:15

people who are leading our servers

16:18

side we need to have had a growth mindset

16:20

because at that point they've kind of viewed us

16:23

as being as hey you're the last making

16:25

division of microsoft so i don't

16:27

have time for you that is where

16:29

culture in some sense gets in the way

16:31

of wisdom prevailing

16:34

the even in that moment of failure such a learn

16:37

something important for

16:39

culture did get in the way of wisdom

16:41

the leaders in the room might not have shut

16:43

down such as comment

16:45

they also incentivize him

16:47

to make it

16:48

the growth mindset thrive on the diversity

16:51

of ideas good and less

16:53

good meanwhile a culture

16:55

that says we don't have time for any bad idea

16:57

so let's just keep moving is missing

16:59

out on transformational ones as well

17:02

changing this part of culture usually

17:04

falls the leadership

17:06

the doesn't have to

17:08

if you're in a position like sorta where you can

17:10

see something that everyone else has missing you

17:12

can speak up

17:13

it can be a bit of a high stakes play

17:16

even if it's not rewarded in the moment and

17:18

sacked even if it's punished in the moment

17:21

you show yourself as someone who puts positive

17:24

energy toward the company's mission

17:26

that's an impulse good managers reward

17:29

saturday took this lesson with him as he climb

17:32

the ladder at microsoft

17:33

all the way to the day he was named see

17:36

you may remember the advice d bomber gave him

17:39

from the top of the show

17:41

the best advice i even got from steve at

17:43

one point would just be yourself while you're never

17:45

gonna be me so therefore don't try to

17:47

fill my shoes

17:49

thought you knew he wanted to leave the company as

17:51

himself and he knew what he wanted

17:53

to prioritize

17:55

i felt like oh i just can't be like okay you're

17:57

the third guy was just shows up and does

18:00

bill and steve did it means

18:02

of full reset and

18:04

i felt that the reset meant

18:06

i needed to make both

18:08

that sense of purpose mission

18:11

and called shop first

18:13

class and my home

18:16

we'll be back in a moment after a word from our

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it's like to work there they expect

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i know this because he and his team a

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ph creative interviewed and surveyed

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thousands of the tech companies current employees

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as smart as people i've ever met in a room waiting

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to hear what we found on the

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biggest insight was hey guess

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at all i could see blood

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almost in unison they said so

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, do you expect us to do with that lesser

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well lesser and and use it call

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it the hell week principal don't disguise

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the tough parts of your workplace use them

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front and center to build a unique authentic

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proposition but would be it's creative

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throw them out before they could prove his theory

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once again we'll find out later in the show

20:04

were also going to tell you how to get in touch with brian

20:07

to discuss your company's employer branding

20:14

we're back with microsoft ceo satya

20:17

nadella we've been talking about the ways a

20:19

leader or in fact anyone in

20:21

an organization can hit the refresh button

20:23

and reinvigorate stagnating mission

20:25

and culture to share this

20:27

episode with a friend some them to

20:29

masters of scale dot com slash

20:31

nadella

20:32

an a d e l l a

20:35

does your my full unedited conversation

20:37

with such a become a member by going to

20:40

masters scale dot com slash membership

20:43

hitting refresh is something happens in all

20:45

kinds of industries not just and tech

20:48

so before we get back to sakara let's

20:50

take a brief detour from microsoft headquarters

20:53

to hollywood and the moment another

20:55

leadership change was about to unfold

21:01

when i first got the call that armando

21:03

was going to be leaving was

21:06

, bit of a shock just as a fan of

21:08

the show show

21:10

was very much like oh my god will

21:12

miss armando leaving will

21:15

that was t v writer

21:18

and director david mendell

21:19

he's known for his work on emmy award winning shows

21:22

like seinfeld curb your enthusiasm

21:25

and more recently as executive producer

21:27

of the fast talking foul mouth political

21:29

satire deep

21:33

but david didn't create veep that

21:36

distinction belong to the shows original shows runner

21:38

armando iannucci david

21:41

got the call to take over show runner in season

21:43

five mm and he wanted to

21:45

put the cast and crew had ease mm

21:49

i started sitting down having breakfast

21:51

with the cast individually

21:53

as quickly as i could he ,

21:55

admit this tony

21:57

was really worried

21:59

that would be actor

21:59

tony hale who played gary loyal

22:02

a the shows lead character selina meyer

22:04

honey was definitely the

22:06

one that was just like who is

22:09

this guy and why is he here

22:12

david needed to earn tony's trust along

22:14

with the rest the team

22:16

the also needed to make that team his own

22:18

occasionally prove challenging

22:21

the made me higher three editors

22:27

and i was very confused

22:30

creditors for context is

22:33

one more than david was used to took

22:35

time to figure out why

22:40

armando shot a lot and often

22:42

found the episodes in

22:44

the editing room

22:48

into the reason he had three editors

22:51

was he would bounce from edit room to edit

22:53

room as , were

22:55

working they were just constantly trying

22:57

different things things definitely

23:00

do the show just show i

23:03

like to know what the first scene of the seasons going

23:05

the be and the last scene

23:08

of the seasons gonna be i lay

23:10

it all out on

23:12

a giant board in giant conference room ten

23:14

columns in shows i'm

23:16

not finding anything the editor

23:18

prophecies that have been

23:21

set up for armando didn't make sense for

23:23

david

23:24

when he tried to change them he was often met with

23:26

a curious answer you ,

23:28

get hit with this is see

23:30

that was always the answer it's v like

23:33

kind of of this is how we've always done it

23:35

and we did it that way for year

23:37

to drove us a little crazy too

23:39

easily be it's v and

23:41

then it's after the one year

23:44

it was just like yeah just don't care

23:46

anymore veep

23:48

syndrome might feel familiar to anyone

23:50

whose organization has gone through a leadership

23:52

change it can be difficult

23:54

to shake loose old habits and established

23:57

processes

23:58

but it's also completely

23:59

the sorry

24:01

if i tried to do and right

24:03

exactly armando show

24:08

you would have gotten a weird knock

24:10

off

24:18

i can wait leap but

24:20

i can't do an impression of our mind

24:22

ups it just comes off like some weird

24:25

the leg like a weird mimeograph

24:29

lightly smudgy and purple and not quite

24:31

as good

24:35

they even had another challenge

24:37

to the environment around the show

24:39

was system sometimes

24:42

a change in leadership isn't the only reason

24:44

only reason needs to be reset

24:47

the trump yes whether

24:50

you like him are not everything did change

24:53

veep world selina meyer had gone

24:55

from v p to president to former

24:57

president

24:58

in real life america gotten a new president

25:01

to

25:01

donald trump

25:03

so much a beep early on before i

25:05

ever got to the shukri by armando was

25:07

this is what politicians really sound

25:10

like behind closed doors like

25:12

when you don't see them will that wall

25:14

that closed door went away he

25:16

just said what was on his mind whenever

25:18

he wanted to sweden and episodes

25:21

in our first season with the

25:23

president accidently tweeted something

25:26

amiss a clip of everybody going oh my god

25:28

the president tweeted and they ran

25:30

i mean that just feels like i'm talking about

25:32

us telegraph machine that's how

25:34

ancient it feels like it feels like a story from

25:36

pioneer days soaps the

25:39

nature of veep change david

25:42

in his creative team including the cast and

25:44

crew lean hard in this new direction

25:46

what was once was show of a dazzling vulgarity

25:49

of our dazzling respectable politicians

25:52

became politicians story about the terrifying and game

25:54

of seeking power without consequences

25:57

it's we know really wants to get

25:59

the why house back what is

26:01

she prepared to do and

26:04

the answer has to be anything

26:07

the show it changed radically

26:10

but that was what the show had to be

26:16

she'll finally

26:18

ended having one while the claim and

26:20

multiple emmys under

26:22

, iannucci and mendell who

26:25

was a feeling that beep had risen

26:27

to beat the moments

26:30

i think people in my position

26:32

or any position where you're coming in after

26:34

someone it's very what's

26:36

, word on with easy i guess to think

26:38

that i should just do what the other guy did

26:41

but if you do that that fail

26:45

this advice this spot on whether you're

26:47

running a beloved comedy series or global

26:49

business relying on what's been

26:51

done in the past won't cut it

26:53

you need to be able to reassess reset

26:56

and refresh thank you david

26:58

for sharing the story okay detours

27:01

over back to satya when

27:03

we left him satya nadella had just become

27:05

the third ceo in microsoft history

27:08

oh it's first rounders the company been scaling

27:11

with implicit rules and guidelines around

27:13

mission the refound

27:15

her such a wanted to make these guidelines more

27:17

explicit and adapt them to a new

27:19

age

27:20

well the other part of it though which is

27:22

a really key thing when ties back to the grow

27:24

psychology ties back to the learning is

27:27

you're not just anointed as co-founder

27:29

you have to earn it to some degree and it's not

27:31

earned by getting the job it's

27:33

earned by that first year or two

27:35

of how your leading and what were the

27:37

things that you were doing the kind of say

27:40

hey this hey this mission we

27:42

are the people who could do this awesome mission and

27:44

here's how we're doing it now what were the key

27:46

moves that you made that other

27:49

students of hitting

27:51

refresh would say oh

27:53

that's really important i should know that now in

27:55

some sense i always think about this as

27:58

if i was less than outside i

28:01

would i had to have a very different

28:03

playbook i mean in some sense whenever

28:05

i criticize whatever

28:08

we do that we may have been doing i wasn't criticizing

28:10

somebody else i was criticizing myself because i

28:13

am a can you make the insider

28:15

nobody could upset sofya somehow you

28:17

dropped from the sky have been god i was part

28:20

of the microsoft culture i thrived in

28:22

another reminder that hitting refresh

28:25

on company culture doesn't have to come from

28:27

outside it can come

28:29

from a consummate insulator as long

28:31

as that insider the thinking

28:34

holistically about the organization have

28:36

the humility to consider what he is and

28:39

isn't working even if they've been

28:41

part of a problem an

28:43

is now in a position to effect change

28:47

there's so many ways for this to play out for

28:49

sorta have been showing up with values and priorities

28:51

there were explicitly to find

28:53

it was starting again without starting over

28:56

start the most tactile

28:59

which is bringing ,

29:01

sense of empathy more into

29:03

leadership talk , bit about

29:05

why that became an important value for you

29:08

and then also part of where your

29:11

thought about look empathy does it mean

29:14

not making sharp business decisions is

29:16

actually part of being a really good and

29:18

sharp leader

29:20

the notion of empathy is at

29:22

the core off

29:24

a learning beer in the business of

29:26

meeting unmet unarticulated

29:28

needs of customers right that's where is the source

29:30

of all innovation all design thinking

29:33

and then you say oh how does that happen

29:36

that happens because you have empathy

29:38

for the context of situation that

29:40

unmet unarticulated need you're listening

29:42

beyond the words you're seeing things

29:44

beyond what he's just playing out playing front

29:46

of your eyes your learned through

29:48

your life's experiences not only i go to work and say

29:50

oh i'm going to turn on my empathy button now

29:52

and i'm not going to be very empathetic you have

29:55

to tap into the very innate human part

29:57

of us into any fourteen microsoft

30:00

author of the time would use a little hard edge

30:02

quantitative metric driven

30:04

engineering i felt like the stuff all

30:06

sounds really soft spot

30:09

in retrospect oh my god

30:11

was the organization hungry for

30:14

the words used to describe

30:16

the refreshed might have seemed soft

30:18

but the reverse itself manifested

30:20

in concrete and specific ways

30:23

one of the one that i actually that was a microcosm

30:25

of the cultural change was getting rid of

30:27

stack rankings by to say look not

30:30

only is or what we should do this also what we shouldn't

30:32

do it became is some point

30:34

a bad carrick teacher off

30:37

everything that was wrong in the company

30:40

those who have never had to navigate it stack

30:42

ranking is basically enforce grading

30:45

on a curve

30:46

if you are a team of five people you have

30:48

to rank one has exemplary one

30:50

is good one is average one is below

30:52

average and one let's calm kevin

30:55

the or

30:56

even if all five including

30:58

kevin turned in exemplary work last

31:01

quarter

31:02

the reason by the system is to

31:04

oversimplify little motivation

31:07

did you notice a top spot you want each

31:09

team member fired up to get it what

31:11

can happen in practice however is

31:13

a cabin treaters very own teammates as

31:15

the competition if you can beat

31:18

them he wins and they lose

31:20

regardless of the initial reasons behind

31:23

it stack ranking had become notorious

31:25

culture killer at microsoft and it was

31:27

reviled within the company though

31:30

such a got rid of it the

31:32

principal issue off

31:34

any system like stack rank as

31:36

is it doesn't leave room for judgment

31:39

watches who said

31:42

that a team cannot have all

31:44

above average performers we

31:46

all know that performance

31:48

is in some sense relatives

31:50

the world measures us that way what

31:53

are the same time you can have periods

31:56

of people performing in one

31:58

team extraordinarily well

31:59

they should be rewarded for it

32:01

in fact the stack rank i think artificially

32:04

took away the power of

32:06

an individual manager in

32:09

being able to distribute rewards

32:12

how do you may be thinking fine but

32:14

if i'm not a leader what can i do change

32:16

something like stack ranking it's totally

32:18

out of my hands

32:20

well that's not the whole story remember

32:22

such as experience at the meeting where he wanted

32:24

to speak up and didn't

32:26

again a place where speaking up is

32:28

it's own small strategic refreshed

32:32

you don't have to put your career or your relationship

32:34

with your boss at risk to make this happen

32:37

even in the most rigidly trusted companies

32:39

they're usually some avenues to give feedback

32:42

such as project postmortems or

32:44

three sixty reviews

32:45

that doesn't mean you'll see instant change

32:48

every time you raise your hand what if

32:50

you have the means to speak out and

32:52

speak up

32:53

do

32:54

the employee disgruntlement around stack

32:56

ranking was what let sought to know he should kill

32:58

it

32:59

their feedback was a crucial step

33:01

in the refreshed

33:03

another way sought help reset microsoft

33:05

was in his approach to acquiring new companies

33:08

including linked them

33:11

another thing i've seen in your leadership

33:13

and personally seen for

33:15

hate for my own experience is

33:18

, very intelligent approach to

33:20

emanate and acquisitions acquisitions

33:23

obvious of the linked inside which you

33:25

look at a started with some very early conversations

33:27

of just get to know you and saying hey

33:29

let's establish a relationship i think this is part

33:31

of your partnership background is a look

33:33

let's just talk and help each other and then see where

33:35

the conversation goes but it isn't just linked

33:38

then of course does everything from

33:40

minecraft to get hub and

33:42

all of those okay let's take our first

33:44

principles rethink and

33:47

a cultural evolution how's

33:49

that shaped your approaches to emanate

33:52

in terms of what kinds of companies but also

33:54

how to do it how to evaluate it how

33:56

to make it successful yeah i read

33:58

in i'm fairly major way i distinctly

34:00

obviously remember my first set of conversations

34:03

with you i mean the you a clear even

34:06

after , fourth broaching

34:08

the subject and uk hey look we are enjoying

34:11

building linkedin and we have no interest

34:13

have no conversation

34:15

about acquisition but as you

34:17

said you mostly wanted to start to talk

34:19

about hey what do you care about what are you doing

34:21

it microsoft here's what we're doing a linkedin

34:24

the there's really stop for us to talk

34:26

about that is meaningful to our

34:28

members so i looked at

34:30

emanate as at

34:32

the meta level it needs to do two things

34:35

one

34:36

is it needs to be

34:38

something that we can

34:40

clearly couldn't go to

34:42

say it fits our mission it's

34:44

it's our identity or we can be

34:46

a better owner which is sort of a very narrow

34:49

way to talk about it but can

34:51

we i say oh as

34:53

part of microsoft will

34:56

a linkedin a good how but minecraft

34:58

fit thrive

35:01

and flourish

35:03

then the second aspect which

35:06

he's also equally important to

35:08

me is how will microsoft

35:10

change because of

35:12

a linkedin a minecraft and they get home

35:15

this is more symbiotic approach to m and a

35:18

contrast sharply with what the microsoft

35:20

a bold might have done there's

35:22

no such thing as a static company

35:24

that can somehow survived the changing

35:26

circumstances so to me

35:28

that's what it represented one team it was

35:30

clear is what

35:31

it was microsoft weekend

35:33

we didn't get networks

35:36

we didn't get communities we

35:39

, not understand what

35:41

why rallied he meant at scale

35:44

scale the business model implications of it

35:46

and we were we can all that admit

35:48

so therefore it is very important for us even

35:51

though minecraft yes was a game i

35:53

saw it as a metal

35:55

worse i didn't see it or

35:57

here's just amount of the game

35:59

the

35:59

exactly the type of perspective that

36:02

we sounders brain

36:03

at first thunder can get a company to a

36:05

powerful place in society the

36:08

reef harder has to and gets

36:10

to ask how do we earn

36:12

keeping it

36:14

this is a good place to ask you to highlight

36:16

something i've heard you say a lot internal leaves

36:18

i think is a very good part of

36:20

leadership and as a reflection of

36:22

part of what growth psychology and

36:24

growth mindset really means which

36:27

is how do we earn the right

36:29

to be the provider hear how do we earned

36:32

the right to play this role in society

36:34

when i think about the license to operate

36:37

for a company where does that come

36:39

from i am very

36:42

deeply influenced by this statement

36:44

by calling married his book called

36:46

prosperity which prosperity think he's a good description

36:48

of what is the social contract of contract corporation which

36:51

is defined profitable solutions

36:53

to the challenges of people

36:55

and planet and the to keywords being

36:58

that profitable solutions

37:00

but the other one being the challenges of people

37:02

and planet so wherever i think about microsoft

37:05

think feel like hey we get to operate as

37:07

operate multinational company multinational all the countries

37:09

we operated by ensuring

37:12

that there is real symmetry between

37:14

us doing well and the world around

37:16

us doing well

37:18

couldn't agree more

37:20

pursuing symmetry between the health of your

37:22

business and the health of the world around you is

37:24

how you are in the right to be a provider

37:26

scale a measure of

37:28

how well you are living your values as

37:30

a company you're bad

37:33

if you happen to be succeeding in an economic downturn

37:36

you definition of success should include

37:38

the success of the community around you and

37:41

by the way to seal isn't the only

37:43

one who determines this

37:44

any employee can and should regularly

37:47

asked to our daily operations make

37:49

the world around us better or we acting

37:51

in a way that serves the mission making

37:54

a regular practice of asking that question

37:57

is acting like a rebounder

37:59

part of

37:59

watch as refund or mission has been to prioritize

38:02

collaboration over exclusivity

38:04

and moves that might have shocked with microsoft

38:07

of the late nineteen nineties like

38:09

partnering to build a i applications

38:11

with a non profit company

38:14

one of the things that i think it's something you

38:16

would do that neither bill nor steve

38:18

would have done is the partnership with

38:20

open ai and the focus on that

38:22

being the play and obviously we both

38:24

have one hundred outta ten respect for

38:26

both buildings thieves but this is not a criticism

38:29

of of it is simply a different ways

38:31

of playing the game say a little bit

38:33

about how you thought

38:35

about like this is why it's important for microsoft

38:38

is why it's important for the right outcomes

38:40

in the world and here is the kinds of things

38:42

were doing by partnering with an external

38:45

technological organization that has actually

38:47

in fact that fiver one fiver three about

38:49

howard navigating these joint missions

38:51

together one of the things

38:53

that influenced me a little bit was

38:56

never hundreds directly from bell but

38:58

when you set up microsoft research

39:00

one of the social contracts of

39:02

microsoft research was after

39:05

all microsoft wouldn't have existed

39:07

if it was not for the broad

39:10

contributions of the

39:12

research community at large

39:14

which led to be internet

39:16

and lead to all of their technologies

39:18

that made it possible for microsoft exist microsoft you

39:20

always had of the percentage of them are me

39:23

we've got into fundamental research with in

39:25

some sense no strings attached so that we can

39:27

contribute back so that has always

39:29

stuck with me if ai is going

39:31

to be one of the most defining technologies

39:33

what is an organization

39:35

that is going to do work and then how

39:38

are we then going to be able to partner with

39:40

that organization that even further

39:42

democratizes organization think of it as

39:44

a continuation a how do we

39:46

stand for being that

39:48

platform company that developed

39:51

tools developed with broad

39:53

mission to democratize the

39:55

most defining technologies in fact in say

39:58

if it was

39:59

oh wow

40:00

the two companies in the world or three

40:02

companies in the world abby i that's not

40:04

a world of any of us want to limit in

40:06

fact that so what are it's that morning exist

40:09

north country will allow that is

40:12

is a silly weight even conceptualize

40:14

it so therefore this thing about sometimes when people

40:16

say oh you know what we are the ai company ai say

40:19

both to that be good the world doesn't need

40:21

you to have to have the world needs

40:23

a i just we're bringing a

40:25

i'd the world but not only us are normally

40:27

us exactly incredibly

40:30

a company that was once hold before congress

40:32

to defend a monopoly on how people get online

40:35

is now partner with open a i and

40:37

working towards global access and

40:39

this shift away from a need to dominate

40:41

has actually made microsoft

40:43

more successful than ever going

40:46

back to sort of your fundamental thesis at

40:48

some point if you're successful you will outlast

40:51

your founders as a company and

40:53

if you are going out last a father that

40:55

hand offs are gonna be super critical

40:59

except for businesses are meant to outlast

41:01

or founders

41:02

which is why we founders need to be

41:04

part of the design

41:06

the whatever you can look for those rebounders

41:08

and take on that founder mindset wherever

41:11

and the company you are

41:13

i read often thanks for listening

41:16

the now a final words and our sponsor

41:18

ph creative

41:23

there's a pregnant pause me said hey like we

41:26

can't possibly

41:27

say this

41:28

because people leave

41:31

we're back one more time with bryan adams a ph

41:33

creators isn't telling us about a tense

41:35

meeting with one of the premier tech companies

41:37

in the world they just learned their own

41:39

employees thought the company concerts lacked

41:42

work license so what brine

41:44

propose next left of clients stand

41:47

what if we were very of

41:49

thrones about the challenges and

41:51

advanced is that people would face inside

41:54

of your organization because everybody has them

41:56

and we use that to

41:58

increase

41:59

the value of be able to thrive inside

42:02

your organization whilst

42:04

making most of the audience run for the hills

42:07

executives worried that highlighting the company's

42:09

intense culture wouldn't just repel future

42:11

applicants it would drive current employees

42:14

away but the employees ph

42:16

creative team had interviewed were actually

42:18

thriving under pressure so they ask them

42:20

why do you stay

42:22

why would you sacrifice and commit to very

42:24

little work life balance and ,

42:26

answer is you discover

42:29

just what you're capable of you

42:31

work with the smartest people you ever thought

42:33

he would meet meet see the work

42:36

that you've done in in the hands of millions of

42:38

people everyday i mean the

42:40

bar is so high and you

42:43

get to be the one that gets over

42:45

that far

42:46

these answers from employees help the company define

42:48

a clear implore you value proposition

42:51

built upon acknowledgement an appreciation

42:53

of what it really takes to thrive the

42:55

brand became like a magnet repelling

42:57

candid it's not about to work there and

43:00

attracting those that work for all the right

43:02

reasons

43:03

this is ninety nine percent about alignments

43:06

aligning how to optimize somebody

43:09

to be the best measure themselves with

43:11

an organization the is looking

43:14

for that type of caliber

43:16

and capability to drive the organization

43:18

for

43:20

ryan and his team a ph creative help

43:22

this major employer to craft their employer brand

43:25

to outsmart competitors and attracting the

43:27

best candidates as well as leveraging

43:29

the clear source of pride and passion internally

43:31

to we're big fans