Memoranda for Submission to the Chief Ministers of the Two Telugu States.

Articles

Satya Nadella (born 19 Aug 1967) -A Tribute to a Role Model

 

Dt:28/6/21

 

Satya Nadella (born 19 Aug 1967)

-A Tribute to a Role Model

 

Dr T H Chowdary*

A Telugu Bharatiya made world news in June 2021. Grandson of a farmer of Bukkapuram  village in Anantapur district of AP, son of a Marxist bent of mind  IAS officer , N. Ugandhar, Sri Nadella Satyanarayana, famously known as Satya Nadella who passed out form Hyderabad Public School   in 1972 and graduated in electrical engineering  from Manipal Institute of Technology  and acquired M.Tech and MBA degrees in American Universities  was elevated as Chairman  (the third in succession to the  famous  brainy Bill Gates and energetic  Steve Balmer) of the world famous  Microsoft company; the company whose original declared  mission was  A Computer on every desk and in every home” ( unaware of this in the 1980s, I declared my mission to change the telecom regime  in India  to see, “ Haath haath mein telephone; gaon gaon mein Internet) to   empower every person  and every organization  on the planet to  achieve more”.

 

2. Sri Satya Nadella joined the Microsoft in 1992, in the USA, he worked on several projects of the company; observed that it was being challenged by its rivals; found the   reason to be individual brilliance  in the associates  but no collective co-operative effort to excel  the competitors.  His meritorious service in the company earned him the  Chief Executive Officer’s position in Feb 2014 a distinction for this Indian among over  Microsoft’s 100,000 employees drawn from several nationalities.  

 

3. Satya’s Indian upbringing  led him to think afresh.  He transformed Microsoft from a client  services company to  one of cloud  computing with an infrastructure  and services , the largest in the world.   His innate Indianness came to work in his  relations with and attitude to competitors.  When he was a boy , his Marxist father  hung a portrait   of Karl Marx  in the boy’s bed-room. He mother , Prabhavathi was a  Sanskrit scholar  and lecturer in Padamavati University in Tirupati, AP.  To undermine Karl Marx , she defiantly put up   a portrait of  Goddess, Lakshmi in Satya’s bed room. It worked silently  but surely.  Satya as CEO  of Microsoft changed the mind-set of the company from one  of  enmity to its rivals  to co-operative competition.  ( We may recall Sri L.K.Advani’s  famous words:  Non-BJP parties are  not our enemies -  they are our competitors  as in athletics and games).  The inspiring message of  Sanatan Dharma , Hindutva:

 

4. Sahanavavatu…saha veeryam karavavahaih….. Maa vidvishavahaih .. laid behind Satya -infused Microsoft  collaboration with its  competitors  like Apple, IBM and Linux  (the free software company).  In fact, he led  Microsoft into Linus Foundation. Under Nadella , Microsoft revised  its mission statement:  empower every person  and every organization  on the planet to  achieve more”.  He brought a cultural  shift in the company  by emphasizing  empathy (sahanavavatu), collaboration ( sahaveeryam);  and continued learning (tejasvinaavadheetam) and growth.

                                             

5. Satya was rewarded for the transformation he brought about in and the growth of the  Microsoft by the Board of Directors of the company in June 2021 by elevating him to Chairmanship of Microsoft.

6. Satya wrote a  brilliant book, “Hit. Refresh  in 2017 with a foreword by the  legendary Bill Gates   himself.  The book records his “quest to rediscover Microsoft’s  Soul and Imagine  a Better Future for Everyone”.

 

7. Satya went to the  USA in 1988 for further studies and  thereafter to become  its citizen.   The Indianness imported  in him by his  Sanskrit professor  mother comes out clearly in the book – every development  (like robotics  and artificial intelligence  and quantum computing) in information technology should be  used intelligently  and  ethically to add  to the sum total of happiness , well-being and prosperity  of persons, families and  nations in the whole world is his and  his corporations message conveyed in the book ,” Hit Refresh.”  This book ought to be  read by every IT professional, businessman and political leader.

 

* Tailpiece ( Kosaru ) what could be  the reasons why  Indian scientists working abroad, ( and not in India)  get Nobel Prizes; why Indian engineer/  business management  persons working in USA (and not in India)   rise to be Chairmen of world class  Fortune 500 companies  like Google (Sundar Pichai) , Microsoft (Satya Nadella), Pepsi (Indra Nooyi) etc.? Was Nehruvian  socialism with  its permit-licence-quota raj and Sonia  regime’s social justice  (casteism),  “secularism” and regional parties’  welfarism that are the reasons  for domestic  barrenness and foreign excellence?  (686 words)

 

END