Hit Refresh by Satya Nadella

Hit Refresh is a book by a 28 year veteran of Microsoft who became its CEO in the year 2014.This book came out in 2017 highlighting the challenges faced by Microsoft and how did Microsoft rediscovered its soul and at the same time competing with Google, Amazon , Facebook and Apple . This book highlights the journey of Satya immigrating to America from India and how the influence of his environment and parents lay the foundation of his growth mindset which ultimately led him to become the CEO of the earth’s most valuable tech company.

Microsoft had almost lost the battlefield when its windows phone couldn’t compete with google and apple’s product on one hand to amazon building a new market of cloud services and established its monopoly. The story of rebound is what makes this book worth reading and gives insight into how Microsoft re engineered its culture , strategy and products without loosing its core values and business.

Satya gives immense stress on empathy and how the products of Microsoft made digital revolution possible in many developing and poor countries from Asia to Africa . Satya gives a sneak peek into the tech future of mixed reality AI and quantum computing and how he wishes to democratize these technologies for the development of health , education and agriculture sector . Satya also debates the relationship of machine and humans and how both can co-exist and compliment the growth prospective of our planet’s future.

My personal takeaway from the book was what Steve Ballmer taught Satya the 3 C’s of a CEO which he has to meet :

• do we have an exciting CONCEPT
• do we have CAPABILITIES necessary to succeed
• do we have CULTURE to welcome these ideas

Overall this book is worth reading to not only all the tech enthusiasts but everyone who wishes to know the mind of a CEO , how they make decisions , stay humble , learn for other’s experience and most important of all nurture the leadership around them .