It's time for new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to return to his desk. He may have an engineering degree and an MBA with 22 years of experience at Microsoft, but by his own admission, he has a lot to learn in areas outside his former domain of cloud and enterprise products. He needs mentoring in the Windows Phone and Xbox consumer products segment. He may also need to brush up on his knowledge of online consumer services and the Bing search engine (which he once oversaw).

Let us recall that on February 4, 2014, the company’s executive vice president, Satya Nadella, was appointed to the position of CEO. Bill Gates has stepped down as chairman to take on the role of technology advisor to the new CEO.

As the only candidate who passed the strict screening, Nadella has presumably already successfully passed some tests for closed doors. However, he has not yet responded to any of the public asked question on the future of the company. He will soon be in the crosshairs of Wall Street, analysts and business publications. It is unlikely, however, that he will answer questions from us - those who buy and use Microsoft products.

Despite this, we will still ask seven questions that interest many consumers.

1. Can Windows 8 be repaired?

Short answer: of course. Another short answer: of course not. And all because there is still a huge gap between the interface for tablets with its live tiles and the desktop desktop familiar to PCs. For many users this is not a problem and they do not suffer from having to switch between two worlds by pressing a Windows button. But Nadella has every chance to change this situation(although the upcoming update, which boots the system to the desktop by default, will be a significant help for users of non-touch computers.

Naturally, in the current appearance Windows Nadella is not to blame. It would also be naive to expect immediate improvements. But let's hope that he will have time to communicate with real users to find out their opinions and desires, and what to answer their next question:

2. Why should I continue to buy Windows?

For office work, Microsoft's reliance on Windows as a productivity center makes sense, but the system's authority diminishes faster as more users access the Internet. Many people are starting to use Chromebooks from Google, which, if they lack anything, are just games. Windows Phone smartphones and Surface tablets are not without shortcomings that need to be addressed, especially the lack of apps.

Microsoft needs to resolve the issue of the intersection of the spheres of influence of Windows Phone and Windows. No one wants to work on a smartphone with a Windows desktop, and business clients don't want to work with the Metro interface where they don't need it. How to reconcile these two environments?

3. Mobile First: What exactly does it mean?

Nadella's new mantra is "priority on mobile devices and cloud technologies." What will this mean in the long term?

It's hard to believe that the modern office world of monitors, computers and keyboards is going to change anytime soon. But outside the office there is noticeably more diversity. Intel offers headphones you can talk to. Nuance and Omate are developing the same watch. Will we use a screen? How will we interact with our data? Will Microsoft be moving into the automotive industry?

The answer might be something like “we are preparing for a future in which all of these scenarios can occur.” This raises the question of whether this future will use software Microsoft. Intel has introduced a new minimum power threshold in the Quark architecture and Edison processor designed for such products. To this day, Microsoft still has Windows Embedded for point-of-sale kiosks and other products that consumers rarely think about. But how will Microsoft respond to ongoing miniaturization?

4. Office is outdated. How will Microsoft revive it?

The latest major innovation in regular Office was a change in pricing in the form of Office 365. But in addition to the adjustments made to the user interface, including the ribbon interface of Office 2007 and 2010, each new version brought minor improvements.

Microsoft's strategy lately was the use of documents with real data taken from Bing and the Internet. This is a significant change, admittedly. But for many people working with documents, these changes do not provide anything. How will Microsoft communicate the importance of these improvements to users?

5. If you store data in Microsoft services, when will it be possible to get unified access to it from all devices?

Part of this question touches on previous ones, namely the merger of Windows and Windows Phone and how services connect to the ecosystem. It will be interesting to know when Office will be available on iPad tablets. Limiting the prevalence of apps and services on specific platforms may make sense from a business perspective, but to the consumer it triggers the same reaction as DRM on movies or games: It's mine! I want to do whatever I want with them!

Microsoft designed the Xbox One to be a PC-like console that runs familiar apps like Internet Explorer. But users still need to look for apps that are compatible across all Microsoft platforms. It's difficult to say when this problem will be resolved.

6. Will Bing ever reach the size of Google?

According to ComScore, the share search engine Bing in December was about 18.2%, Google 67%. That's enough to make Bing a full-fledged player in the search engine market, but not enough for Microsoft's ambitions. Bing Reward—essentially a bribe to search with Bing—doesn't look like a long-term solution.

It will be interesting to know if Nadella is worried about this issue. The search engine's share is part of Wall Street's love, but that role is diminishing over time. If the Cortana search engine, which is still in the status of rumors, can provide necessary information without manual searching, will it help or hinder Microsoft's online efforts?

7. What role will Bill Gates play? And for how long?

One of the most interesting questions. Gates will reportedly spend a third of his time (what exactly does that mean?) helping Nadella as a technology consultant (and what does that mean?). Gates is expected to provide political cover (who would go against a CEO with Gates on his side?), but it remains unclear what, if any, responsibilities Nadella will hand over to him. Eventually, Microsoft will become Nadella's entire company - but when?

In the nineties, Bill Gates was the most famous person in the world of computer technology and software. Over time, his popularity waned, as did the Microsoft company he co-founded with his friend Paul Allen. Despite this, Microsoft is still the most famous and successful company, not only in its industry, but throughout the business world. And it’s quite hard to believe that just over forty years ago it was a small enterprise of two students passionate about programming.

What is Microsoft?

Every time most users start their computer, a picture with a four-color flag appears on their screen. This is the Microsoft logo and also a symbol that this device is running its operating system. More experienced users know that Microsoft Corporation is a world leader in the production of programs and applications. And not only for computers, but also for consoles, tablets and various mobile phones.

History in the 70s

As you know, Jobs and Wozniak were at the origins of Apple. In the same way, two friends who are interested in programming, Gates and Allen, are the founders of the Microsoft Corporation.

It is worth saying that the mid-seventies was the time when the active development of computer technology began. The most amazing thing is that this area was actually created and then developed by ordinary student enthusiasts. Such were Bill Gates and his fellow student Allen. Together, the guys tried to spend all their time on computers, writing various programs.

In 1975, Altair released a new device - Altair-8800. The guys were so interested in him that they created an interpreter for him, the then popular “Basic”. The program written by a couple of students amazed the owners of the company, and they entered into an agreement with the talented guys to use their software.

However, in the USA, in order to provide any services for the purchase and sale of goods or services, and especially software, you need to have a registered company. So Paul Allen and his friend Bill quickly filled out the paperwork and named their venture Microsoft Corporation.

Soon the company began to gain momentum. Although in the first year of operation the profit was just over sixteen thousand dollars, after a couple of years the company became so famous that it even opened its representative office in Japan.

Microsoft in the 80s

The eighties brought tremendous changes to the company. In addition to the experiments with the logo, another thing happened important event. Microsoft founder Allen decided to leave the company due to personal problems.

Meanwhile, the company itself had a serious client - IBM. It was for them that the MS DOS disk operating system was created based on an already existing one that Microsoft bought from another company. This OS was used by IBM and other companies until 1993.

Not stopping there, the company was developing a qualitatively new operating system, which was presented to the world already in 1985 and was called Windows. Thanks to this Microsoft product, its creators gained incredible popularity and wealth.

The decade ended with another breakthrough in the field computer programs. In 1989, the user introduced Microsoft Office - an analogue of a typewriter. However, unlike the latter, in the new editor it was convenient to adjust the text, change the font, its color and indents. Since then, programmers have created many similar programs, but they all originate from here.

Microsoft in the 90s

The company entered the nineties inspired by a series of successes in the eighties. At this time, Bill Gates, the only creator of Microsoft remaining in the company, began to pursue a rather tough, but at the same time successful policy. Due to this, by 1993, Windows OS had become the most popular and used in the world.

To meet the growing needs of users, Microsoft has developed improved versions of the OS over the years: Windows 95 and Windows 98. It is noteworthy that in the version of ninety-five, a browser for working with the Internet - Internet Explorer - already appeared.

Microsoft in the 2000s

The company marked the new millennium with the release of new versions of its legendary OS - Windows 2000 and Windows Millenium. Unfortunately, they were not very successful. To rehabilitate itself, Windows XP, beloved by many users, was released in 2001, which helped Microsoft remain the leader in the software market.

With the increasing popularity of tablets, Windows 7 was released in 2009. It was not so demanding on device resources and could be freely used on tablets and laptops. She was able to help the company turn things around after the disastrous Windows Vista.

Microsoft today

Despite numerous lawsuits and fines, the company confidently remains one of the most profitable in the world. And although Microsoft earned significantly less in 2015 than in the previous year, its management is not giving up.

A new one was released in 2012 Windows version 8, which quickly gained popularity. And in 2015, Windows 10 launched.

Microsoft logo and its history

At the dawn of Microsoft, when its young creators were just thinking about registering an enterprise, they planned to take a completely different name. “Allen and Gates” is what Paul and Bill wanted to call their company. But soon the guys found such a pretentious name more suitable for an organization that provides legal services than for a company that develops and sells computer programs. Then Paul Allen suggested calling their company an abbreviation for the two words microprocessors and software. This is how the name Micro-Soft appeared.

However, in this form it did not last very long and in the fall of 1976 the company of Gates and Allen was renamed Microsoft Corporation.

The logo appeared around the same period. True, at that time it bore little resemblance to the multi-colored flag known throughout the world. At first, the Microsoft logo was the company name written in two lines in a disco style.

In 1980, it was decided to change the logo. The inscription began to be written in one line and in style was very reminiscent of the logo of the cult group Metallica.

Just a year later, after signing a lucrative contract with IBM, it was decided to make a more solid logo. As a result, the company name began to be written in milky color on a green background.

In 1987, the company changed its logo again. Now it has become a recognizable black inscription with a waving flag. It existed in this form for twenty-five years, after which it was changed to a modern one. Now the inscription “Microsoft” is done for the first time in history gray, and the waving flag was replaced by a multi-colored square.

The fate of Microsoft founder Bill Gates

The legendary creator of Microsoft and its long-term leader, Gates was born in 1955 into a fairly wealthy family of a corporate lawyer.

While studying at one of the schools in Seattle, the boy almost immediately showed an ability for mathematics, and a little later - for programming. Gates' biography contains known fact: when a guy and his friends were banned from using the school computer, they simply hacked the system and gained access to it. Gates was later punished for this. But soon Bill got a job at the company whose computer he hacked.

After school, he was able to enter the prestigious Harvard. However, after studying there for only two years, he flew out. But the guy did not lose heart, because that same year he and his friend Paul founded their own company, Micro-Soft.

In total, Gates spent thirty years of his life working in this company, until in 2008 he was forced to resign as head of the company, but retained his position as chairman of the board of directors, as well as a stake in Microsoft.

In 2010, he finally left work at his company and, together with his wife Melinda, focused on charity. So, over all these years, the Gateses have donated almost thirty billion dollars. At the same time, Gates's fortune is estimated at seventy-six billion.

The Life of Paul Allen

Another Microsoft creator, Allen, is slightly less rich. He has about thirteen billion in his account. And this man was born in 1953 into a less wealthy family than Gates.

The guy's father was a librarian, and his mother was a teacher. Despite their modest income, the Allens tried to give their son a good education.

However, when the money ran out, Paul left his studies and got a job as a programmer. IN free time he and his friend Bill tried to write their own programs. We haven’t decided to start our own company yet.

Thanks to the indefatigable imagination of its creators, Microsoft's business was going uphill. Over time, Paul focused more on writing programs, and Bill dealt with organizational issues.

In 1983, Paul Allen was diagnosed with cancer. In order to undergo full treatment, he left the company, leaving with him a place on the board of directors and a stake in shares. And when the illness subsided, he decided not to return there, since dividends from Microsoft shares allowed him to lead a comfortable life.

Instead, he took up charity work. First of all, helping patients with cancer and AIDS.

In 2011, Paul Allen wrote a book of memoirs about Microsoft.

They continue to be friends with Bill Gates to this day.

For many years, Microsoft and its operating systems have become faithful companions of every owner personal computer. And although two people were at the origins of the company, most people remember only one of them. Therefore, to the question: “What is the name of the creator of Microsoft?” - everyone will answer: “Gates.” And rarely does anyone add: “Allen.” But despite this historical injustice, the fathers of Windows are now both wealthy people who are successfully involved in charity work. And most importantly, over all these years they were able to maintain friendship.

MOSCOW, February 4 – RIA Novosti, Alina Gainullina. Head of Business Unit and Cloud Services Satya Nadella Appointed as New CEO Microsoft, reports Digit.ru with a link to the company’s website.

Steve Ballmer, the current CEO of Microsoft, announced plans to step down within 12 months in August 2013. A special commission, which includes Bill Gates, was searching for his successor. In addition to Nadella, the list of Ballmer's likely successors included Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

Based on the information on the page of the official Microsoft website with biographies of top managers, the board of directors nevertheless chose a candidate from among the company’s current top management. The new CEO of Microsoft—the third in the company's history—is Nadella, who has been with Microsoft since 1992. According to Microsoft, he led the company's transition to cloud infrastructure and services, which were able to take a significant share of the market.

Satya Nadella was born in the Indian city of Hyderabad. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University in India and his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Before Microsoft, Nadella worked for Sun Microsystems.

Microsoft, founded in 1975, has had two CEOs - Bill Gates held this post until 2000, and was replaced by Steve Ballmer in January 2000.

On Tuesday it also became known that co-founder Microsoft Bill Gates left his post as head of the company's board of directors and was replaced in this position by independent director John Thompson.

Why Steve Ballmer resigned

He announced in August that he planned to retire within 12 months after the company finds his replacement. However, some publications (for example, Computerworld) claim that he was planning to leave not of his own free will, but under pressure put on him. We have collected 5 prerequisites that could provoke this departure.

How the market reacted to the departure of Microsoft CEO

Zeus Kerravala from ZK research: "Change is absolutely necessary. Since Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000, he has missed several important market transformations - mobile devices, tablets, cloud. Ballmer's strength was the traditional PC. He was a great leader for that era, however, times are changing and a new leader is needed." Comments from other industry experts -

The main events of 2013 in the IT field are:

MOSCOW, February 4 – RIA Novosti, Alina Gainullina. The head of the business unit and cloud services, Satya Nadella, has been appointed the new CEO of Microsoft, Digit.ru reports with reference to the company’s website.

Steve Ballmer, the current CEO of Microsoft, announced plans to step down within 12 months in August 2013. A special commission, which includes Bill Gates, was searching for his successor. In addition to Nadella, the list of Ballmer's likely successors included Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg and former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop.

Based on the information on the page of the official Microsoft website with biographies of top managers, the board of directors nevertheless chose a candidate from among the company’s current top management. The new CEO of Microsoft—the third in the company's history—is Nadella, who has been with Microsoft since 1992. According to Microsoft, he led the company's transition to cloud infrastructure and services, which were able to take a significant share of the market.

Satya Nadella was born in the Indian city of Hyderabad. He received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University in India and his master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Before Microsoft, Nadella worked for Sun Microsystems.

Microsoft, founded in 1975, has had two CEOs - Bill Gates held this post until 2000, and was replaced by Steve Ballmer in January 2000.

On Tuesday, it also became known that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates left his post as head of the company's board of directors - he was replaced in this position by independent director John Thompson.

Why Steve Ballmer resigned

He announced in August that he planned to retire within 12 months after the company finds his replacement. However, some publications (for example, Computerworld) claim that he was planning to leave not of his own free will, but under pressure put on him. We have collected 5 prerequisites that could provoke this departure.

How the market reacted to the departure of Microsoft CEO

Zeus Kerravala from ZK research: "Change is absolutely necessary. Since Ballmer took over as CEO in 2000, he has missed several important market transformations - mobile devices, tablets, cloud. Ballmer's strength was the traditional PC. He was a great leader for that era, however, times are changing and a new leader is needed." Comments from other industry experts -

The main events of 2013 in the IT field are:

On a February evening in 2014, Satya Nadella received a call from John Thompson, a member of the Microsoft board of directors. He said the board was proposing Nadella, 46, to become the third CEO in the company's history, after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. “When John called me that evening, he first asked if I was sitting. I didn't sit. In fact, I was quietly playing with a cricket ball - my habit when I talk on speakerphone at work,” Nadella says in his autobiographical book Hit Refresh, which was released on September 26.

Nadella accepted the offer - and in three and a half years he radically changed the company's corporate culture and strategy. At a meeting with journalists in London, the head of Microsoft explained which three technologies are revolutionizing society and the economy and how he personal experience helped establish a culture of empathy at a highly competitive technology company.

Three technology pillars

Mixed reality artificial intelligence(AI) and quantum computing are three key technologies in Microsoft's current strategy. According to Nadella, the company came to these areas in search of new horizons - beyond computers, servers and the cloud. “These technologies are the engines of revolution in the world, they change society, the economy and personal perception,” he notes.

Of course, according to Nadella, one should take technological predictions with a grain of salt. “In the long term, we tend to undervalue technologies, and in the short term, we overestimate,” he said when asked by Sitessia about the prospects for each technology in Microsoft's strategy.

Speaking of mixed reality, Nadella recalls his first experience with the Hololens device. The device virtually “transported” him to Mars using a broadcast from the Curiosity rover. “Mixed reality is the embodiment of the absolute computer. You don't have to look and search where your computer is. It's just there in front of you, a combination of analog and digital objects. It changes the concept of presence and space,” he says.

The advantage of artificial intelligence is its ability to help a person and make him stronger, Nadella believes. “AI-based applications enable visually impaired people to navigate the world, and children with dyslexia to learn to read. With AI, you can instantly translate your business presentation into 60 languages. And research led by Microsoft Research Laboratory in Cambridge allows radiologists to more effectively treat tumors without affecting healthy organs", he says.

Answering the question whether fears regarding AI are justified, Nadella noted that control and responsibility for the actions of AI systems lies with their developers. Companies must anticipate what their systems will do, test them, and teach them how to behave. And as for the jobs that people may lose due to AI, they will be replaced by new “professions of the future,” Nadella believes. According to him, the authorities in London, for example, are working with LinkedIn data to determine the digital skills program for the in-demand specialists of the future.

Finally, the development of quantum computers will allow humanity to solve problems that were previously impossible - for example, the creation of superconductors, new systems for preventing cyber threats, or effective catalysts for carbon dioxide absorption reactions, Nadella says. A few days earlier, he presented at the Ignite conference a new programming language for creating quantum applications.

Mixed reality, artificial intelligence and quantum computers can and should enhance each other, Nadella believes. “To some extent you can already see this. For example, Hololens is a mixed reality device. He helps him mix the real and the virtual by reconstructing objects in reality and linking them to digital content. This occurs in the Holographic Processing Unit (HPU), which provides computer vision due to AI. The need for a quantum computer is the need for more powerful computing required for AI. Therefore, quantum computers will help AI become “smarter,” and mixed reality will provide deeper immersion,” the head of Microsoft told the site.

In addition to the three technology pillars, Microsoft views blockchain as an important strategic direction. According to Nadella, the company wants to provide blockchain as a service and, through it, help partners reduce transaction costs.

A culture of empathy

What was the primary reason for choosing strategic directions - the needs of Microsoft or competitive environment? Satya Nadella believes that a company must first define its purpose and culture, and only then compete.

“The main thing in our business is to stimulate innovation. What is innovation? These are new, not yet expressed concepts. You can't just listen to customers and give them what they want. In fact, they want you to go beyond their desires. This requires empathy and compassion. Life experiences and the ability to translate them into business strategies is the path I take for myself and the company to see what is best for society,” he says.

When talking about what led him to understand the importance of empathy, Nadella recalls stories from the past. His father, an economist, always encouraged his son's intellectual ambitions, while his mother, a Sanskrit scholar, taught him to live in the present, perceive the world more deeply and be happy. “Once my father hung a portrait of Karl Marx in my room - in response, my mother hung a picture of the goddess Lakshmi next to it. Their opposing views were clear. What did I do? I hung a poster of my cricket hero, M L Jaisimha, next to me. What did this teach me? Because you need to understand differences and accept them,” says Nadella.

By the way, the issue of empathy almost cost Nadella his job at Microsoft. When he joined the company in 1992, during an interview he was asked the question: “Imagine that you see a child lying on the street and he is crying. What will you do? The first reaction of the future CEO of Microsoft was to call the rescue service. The interviewer thanked him for his answer and, already escorting Nadella out of the interview, said: “Friend, you need to learn empathy. If a child is lying on the street and crying, pick him up and hug him.”

Four years later, Nadella was forced to redefine empathy through a truly traumatic experience. His first son Zane was born ahead of schedule, with congenital cerebral palsy.

“I wasn't ready for this. We thought a lot more about how to arrange the nursery and how to ensure that my wife Ana could return to work. However, she helped me understand that the misfortune did not happen to me, but to my son, and we, as parents, must look at it through his eyes. It was an emotional discovery. Through my experience, I began to better understand the needs of people with different abilities, I realized that circumstances can always change and that we need to understand and accept them,” says Nadella.

Since taking over as head of Microsoft, Nadella has put empathy at the forefront of his new corporate culture. The most difficult thing for him was to make sure that it was not perceived as dogma or corporate propaganda. And here, according to him, another aspect of his leadership style became key - a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset.

“When a company starts to grow, your idea becomes a hit. But at some point it will exhaust itself. All that remains is the culture of the organization, the mindset for growth and development. It is impossible to know everything, but it is possible to constantly learn everything. This has helped us move from Microsoft's one mission - "a computer on every desk and in every home" - to a new vision of solutions that enable people to do more. Vulnerability and constant doubt make you better as a person and as a company,” says Nadella.

It's too early to give an absolute rating for a company like Microsoft in an ever-changing competitive landscape whether this approach has worked. However, if you believe the numbers, Satya Nadella managed not only to bring Microsoft out of stagnation, but also lead to growth. Since February 2014, when Nadella became the new CEO, the company's shares have more than doubled. Net profit for the last fiscal year, which ended June 30, 2017, increased by 26%.