Book Review: ‘Hit Refresh’ by Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella

It is a time-honed tradition among tech CEO’s and executives to pen down a biography. The intent is generally multifold – to use it as a vehicle to clarify their viewpoints, and also to solidify their personal legacies. Nadella’s book follows the pattern of his mentor Bill Gates’ bestseller “Business @ the Speed of Thought” that tried to make sense of the seismic changes during the earlier dot.com era. This book takes us through Microsoft’s transformation through the digital-cloud era.

Hit Refresh, as the title suggests, is Nadella’s attempt to take us through his company’s ongoing transformation to ‘refresh’ the strategy, and his quest to “Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul.” A soul that essentially encompasses everything from the culture to competitive landscape and industry partnerships. Of course, corporate watchers and researchers are bound to wonder if a company really has a “soul.”

As a blogger who continually pursues South Asian ‘success stories,’ I have been following Nadella’s journey and his ascend to the top of American multinational is an inspiration to a generation of Indian Americans. In the book, Nadella takes us through the journey in his own words: from his childhood in India to the CEO of a Tech giant, that makes for an interesting read.

The book concludes with Nadella’s vision for the coming wave of digitization and explores its potential impact on society. Techies and students of business strategy are sure to find nuggets of insights in the book.

Bottomline: Nadella gives writer Greg Shaw full credit as a co-author – and the tone and themes in the chapters certainly reflect that of Microsoft’s leader.