Feldman's Faves: September 7, 2021

Good morning BL5 – I hope you are all enjoyed the long weekend. For tennis fans and college football fans this was an epic weekend. Does anyone want to bet against Djokovic or the Crimson Tide? I will gladly take either bet.

Shana Tova to those of you celebrating the Jewish New Year – let hope it’s a good one for everyone from everywhere.

This week I decided to focus on “two for one” deal. After listening to Masters of Scale this week, I decided to re-read Satya Nadella’s book, Hit Refresh, which is a really interesting and introspective book about Nadella, his family, his life story and how as the third CEO in Microsoft’s history he is changing the culture while at the same time growing the business in spectacular fashion. Microsoft under both Gates and Ballmer in additional to being the dominant player in the market, was famous for being cut throat (e.g., huge anti-trust issues in the 1990s and early 2000s and had a crazy ranking system for every team inside the company, which created a brutal environment that everyone hated). Nadella decided to lead in a different way and says the best advice he got was to NOT try to be the next Bill Gates For example, rather than hoarding knowledge on AI, under Nadella, Microsoft is working on an open protocol to develop this technology on the theory that Microsoft in the past has benefitted from public R&D. He also removed the horrible internal ranking system and is leading from a place of empathy. Such a thoughtful and smart guy who at the same time is really successful. It is worth reading his book or at least listening to his interview with Reid Hoffman as described below if you want to see an example of transformational leadership.

Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsofts Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone – By: Satya Nadella – I don’t need to be repetitive so I will simply provide another opinion on the book - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30835567-hit-refresh

Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman - Microsoft’s Satya Nadella: Why we need re-founders - Here is a summary from the PODCAST - To achieve massive scale, you don’t just need founders, you also need a re-founder – someone to come in at a later stage to keep the mission and culture on track. As Microsoft’s third CEO ever – after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer – Satya Nadella is doing just that. He’s fostered a culture at Microsoft that rewards new ideas and makes room for feedback. Satya discusses how he has transformed Microsoft from a cutthroat culture towards embracing social networks, collaboration, and cloud. Plus, Satya and Reid reminisce about the early conversations that led to Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn. With guest David Mandel, showrunner of Veep: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/masters-of-scale-with-reid-hoffman/id1227971746?i=1000533845297

Thank you for your ongoing engagement and participation.

And remember to stay safe, stay healthy and to docket daily.

Jon