Nadella keeps KCR and Naidu guessing

• Shares his vision for Microsoft with staff
• Tells them to contribute in reinventing productivity

Software giant Microsoft's chief executive Satya Nadella on Monday visited the company's office and addressed employees. He asked them to chip in to help the software giant emerge as a company that empowers individuals and organisations.

It was the maiden visit for Nadella, after he became the CEO of Microsoft, subsequent to Steve Ballmer stepping down. His visit which spanned for around 24 hours was kept under wraps by both Microsoft India and government authorities.

Nadella visited the India Development Centre, Hyderabad, the biggest campus outside its headquarters at Redmond in the US, and shared his vision for the company during his address, a Microsoft official said.

"Nadella wanted us to lend a hand to Microsoft to build tools that were more predictive, personal and helpful, which in turn would help both individuals and organisations transform to intelligent business processes from automated business processes," said a senior software professional who attended a meeting, on condition of anonymity.

"He also spoke on Microsoft's plans to invest heavily in the workforce in areas of data and applied science, software engineering, training, learning and experimentation, apart from plans to incubate new projects and ideas," he said.

"The biggest difference I found between Steve and Nadella is that the new chief appeared remarkably open and receptive to new ideas during his interaction with the staff across the country," he said.

Nadella also addressed Microsoft employees spread across nine cities in India through webcasting.

In an address that lasted almost an hour, Nadella highlighted Microsoft's strategic journey towards a mobile-first and cloud-first world, where technology was growing with the digitisation of almost everything in personal lives and work. He urged the staff of Microsoft India to contribute in reinventing productivity aimed at empowering individuals and organisations to achieve more in the process.

The tech giant chief Nadella reportedly met Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday though no official communication was given to the media on the meeting by either side.

It has also been reported that Nadella spoke to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu over phone. AP CM had called on Microsoft to launch its operations in Visakhapatnam where he intends to start a 20,000-sq ft incubation centre and to participate in a meeting of top executives representing various IT companies.

Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments are said to be keen on taking the help of Nadella for promotion of IT.

Nadella is an alumnus of Hyderabad Public School. He joined Microsoft in 1992.

Nadella’s father BN Yugandhar, a retired IAS officer, lives in the city. BN Yugandhar had been the secretary to former PM PV Narasimha Rao from May 1995 to April 1997. Before that he was the secretary of ministry of rural areas and employment. He has also remained as the director of Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, planning and department of industries and commerce.

Coming back to the city, on selecting 46-year-old Nadella as Microsoft’s CEO, the US based company recognised Hyderabad for the second time. It was the setting up of Microsoft’s first development centre outside the United States here in 1998 that began the transformation of the city of pearls into ‘Cyberabad’.

‘EQ always trumps IQ’

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella addressed students along with HRD minister Smriti Irani at an event in New Delhi that was streamed across 20 states, 300 cities and 750 locations.

Satya Nadella quoted Mahatma Gandhi to tell students, "Live everyday as if it is your last day but learn as if you are going to live forever."

He added, "In the long run, EQ (emotional quotient) trumps IQ (intelligence quotient). Without being a source of energy for others very little can be accomplished."

The 47-year-old CEO told the young audience that the opportunity before them as they prep to change the world "is unparalleled."

"All of you represent a multi-disciplinary approach to innovation - and that would change the future," he said.

Smriti Irani, noting that Nadella was a hard act to follow, said that she would add GQ or governance quotient to EQ and IQ. The government, she said, was making available "open resources to all students from economically challenged backgrounds."

It was the youth, she said, that had given the new government a big mandate.

"There are some who mock us at times for being overly dependent on social media, on information technology dreams, but we have seen the benefits of that. The Army in Jammu and Kashmir through social media managed to provide support to 12,000 people. That is how technology can help us," she said.