Nadella turns Microsoft into No.2 after Amazon in cloud computing

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has reshaped the company since taking over two years ago. Windows is still important, but it's no longer the only platform that matters. Nadella has embraced cloud computing, turning Microsoft into the clear No 2 in the category after Amazon.

There was a lot of talk last week at Build about chatbots and artificial agents and "conversation as a platform." Why do you think now is the right time to make that push and make that play?

At the core what we're doing is reasoning over large amounts of data continuously. First, we have that data, data about you, your preferences, organisation and the world. To do that on a continuous basis, you need lots and lots of computing power. That's what we get through the cloud. Then you also need it in the devices. And the combination of that device proliferation and ubiquity as well as the compute power in the cloud are making it possible for us now to deliver that kind of experiences that we're talking about.

Can you give sort of concrete example why I should be excited about this?

Take Cortana, the fact that you have a personal digital assistant that knows you, knows your preferences, has the ability, in a privacy-protecting way, to go and look at your information and your organisation's information and help you with your tasks. First of all, it's not just in one operating system. So I'm running late to a meeting. The personal assistant realises that, automatically on my behalf reschedules or notifies the person because it knows my calendar. The ability for Cortana to proactively look at events that are happening in the real world, like whenever I look at it, every morning I look to see that Cortana is highlighting any particular meetings that are coming up, or any news articles that are relevant to the meetings that I even have, and it flags them to me.

What do you think needs to be done to continue to encourage entrepreneurialism in India and other developing nations?

The access to computing and the friction associated with it has come down. We opened two data centers in India recently to tap into this and to enable the local entrepreneurial energy in India to be able to create companies. Not just large companies, but public sector, small business.

How do you see Microsoft's mission in serving shareholders versus or in addition to some other stakeholders, like employees, society, and so on?

I absolutely think that Microsoft's mission of empowering every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more cannot be met if we do not view our fundamental responsibility as being multiconstituent. Investors are important, but at the same time if we fundamentally do not contribute to the world economic growth because of digital technology, then long term we won't have a business. That means when we think about white-space solutions in Kenya, it's important for us if we ever are going to be long-term relevant in Kenya with technology that successful businesses are going to be using. As a multinational that means I think a lot about what's the employment we are creating, the opportunity we are creating in every country we participate in, versus just the rents we are collecting. Because I think that any company that thinks that their success is just measured by revenue and profit, then it may last for a while, but it's not long-term stable.

What has been the biggest change to your life and your lifestyle since you became the CEO of Microsoft?

There's no such thing as balance. It's how do I harmonise my work and my life. One of the things I've been thinking quite a bit, in fact I talked about it even internally, is a long time ago I used to work with this guy called Doug Burgum. And he had said this to me, and it's increasingly becoming much more part of my consciousness: We all spend far too much time at work for it not to be something more than work, for it not to have deeper meaning, whether it be Microsoft or any one of us in any role. Because if we look at it, I would have spent more time at Microsoft than living together with my kids, because they'll all grow and they'll go into colleges and have their own lives. And I think about time spent, then my work had better be something nourishing to my soul and my personal philosophy, and so on. And in terms of tips, I would say I am trying to get much more disciplined.

When I'm with my family, doing something say even this weekend, tomorrow when I'm there with my daughter, I'm present. What does that presence mean? A lot of us have the residual effect of the last email, the last thing. You've got to get very, very good, I think, in modern life to not have that residual effect spoil your presence. I see people over a dinner table all on their cellphone, that's when I say, wow, that's tragic. There's information anxiety, all of us have it, it's just natural. So therefore how do we help them be more present?