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Hit Refresh  By  cover art

Hit Refresh

By: Satya Nadella,Greg Shaw,Bill Gates - foreword
Narrated by: Shridhar Solanki,Satya Nadella
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Publisher's summary

Foreword by Bill Gates

Microsoft's CEO tells the inside story of the company's continuing transformation, tracing his own personal journey from a childhood in India to leading some of the most significant technological changes in the digital era. As much a humanist as an engineer and executive, Nadella concludes with his vision for the coming wave of intelligent technologies and a distinct call to action for leaders everywhere.

Hit Refresh is about individual change, about the transformation happening inside of Microsoft and the technology that will soon impact all of our lives - the arrival of the most exciting and disruptive wave of technology humankind has experienced: artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and quantum computing.

It's about how people, organizations, and societies can and must transform "hit refresh" in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, and continued relevance and renewal. At its core, it's about us humans and how our one unique quality - empathy - will become ever more valuable in a world where technological advancement will disrupt the status quo as never before.

Satya Nadella explores a fascinating childhood before immigrating to the US and how he learned to lead along the way. He then shares his meditations as sitting CEO - one who is mostly unknown following the brainy Bill Gates and energetic Steve Ballmer. He tells the inside story of how a company rediscovered its soul - transforming everything from culture to their fiercely competitive landscape and industry partnerships. Nadella concludes with his vision for the coming wave of technology and by exploring the potential impact to society and delivering a call to action for world leaders.

"Ideas excite me," Nadella explains. "Empathy grounds and centers me." Hit Refresh is a reflection, meditations, and series of recommendations presented as algorithms from a principled, deliberative leader searching for improvement - for himself, for a storied company, and for society.

©2017 Satya Nadella; foreword copyright 2017 Bill Gates (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

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Great read for those into tech

If you’re into tech, this is a great read. The book is divided into three parts, each three chapters long. The first part is about Satya’s personal life, his childhood, and how he became the CEO of Microsoft. You can skip the first three chapters if you don’t care for that background (although it is quite fascinating). The next three chapters are about Satya’s vision for Microsoft and how he wants to transform the company culture from politics and power struggles to innovation fueled by empathy. Satya talks about how being a leader is about curating a culture designed to lift up the entire team. I highly recommend this section to managers and aspiring leaders. The last three chapters were perhaps my favorite. Satya gives a succinct and clear vision for the future — from data privacy to getting our outdated legal system caught up with the dynamic nature of technology to the economics of automation.

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Made me rethink Microsoft (briefly)

Admittedly, I’m an Apple guy at heart.

I was pro Microsoft 10+ years ago until one too many issues fighting with software on my home laptop led me to Cupertino.

That said, this book was recommended internally, and I was curious to hear if there would be any difference in such a massive company with just a different person at the helm, especially one that despite being with the company for over 20 years had only just recently assumed the CEO mantle.

I was impressed. There was far more dialogue about empathy and culture than I expected, which was a big surprise coming off the “win at all costs” sales culture that was driven by outgoing CEO Steve Ballmer.

Many of the same leadership lessons you’ll find in any other management book are here, but there are a few gems that gave a sense of how Nadella has a very different operating philosophy.

1) Embracing Linux. This is heresy to hardcore Microserfs, but was a clear move to get MS where the customers actually are.

2) The C in CEO is for Culture. Nadella mentions culture throughout the book, and keeps coming back to his role in creating and sustaining it throughout.

3) MS’s role on the global stage. The call to use tech as a lever to attack poverty and lack of opportunity was a bit surprising to read. Perhaps I’m not close enough to what MS has previously done here (not st all to be confused with the work done by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), but again, good to hear that’s on his mind.

There’s also talk amid some future state of tech, like AI and VR, which I found less interesting. But I walked away with a different perspective on the company than I’ve had for the last decade.

Then I upgraded to Windows 10 at the office and many of those positive feelings went out the window. Oh well. I guess that’s a testament that when you’re the head of such a large organization, it will take quite a while to have the spirit of your philosophy come down from on high and hit the streets. Here’s hoping Windows 11 is a better step in the right direction, far more aligned to what sounds like a very different operating model than we’ve seen in the past coming out of Redmond.

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Fantastic Book

What a fantastic book about the Satya’s journey through life and the “refresh” moment of Microsoft. #ProudMicrosoftEmployee. Will be listening to this many times!

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Deep and Meaningful.

Deep, meaningful and very thoughtful. A must read for any corporate leader or follower looking for a bigger sense of purpose of what we should be doing with what we have.

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Simply Refreshing

Having just come off the high that is Microsoft Ignite I was curious in reading Mr. Nadella's book. Using Microsoft technology is the core of my career and I'm excited with what came from this year at Ignite. In the following days my colleagues and I have debated about the emergence of self for Microsoft during this years conference. This book lends a looking glass into just how that has happened. Mr. Nadella's has revitalized Microsoft's veracity to compete and push technology, while also being able to be comfortable with who they are and what they do. I anticipate this sense of identity and culture that Mr. Nadella's has inspired will continue to do wonders for Microsoft in the coming years and beyond.
Cheers to Mr. Nadella's and his team at Microsoft. I look forward continually using your tools in the growth of my career.

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Broad interests and broadly interesting

I found the writing engaging and the subject matter so broad that I think almost anyone will find at least a couple of large portions of the book fascinating. The political impact of technology and the explanation of the potential of quantum computing were the most interesting parts to me (I actually went on Netflix and rented The Interview as I read chapter 7) As a current employee of Microsoft it was interesting to get such a candid peek inside the mind of our CEO. Reading Ashlee Vance's biography of Elon Musk made me want to work at SpaceX, Hit Refresh made me proud to work at Microsoft.

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Nice book with good insights

Very sincere leadership lessons for the new age of smart machines. A new social contract is needed to make the best use of the new opportunities afforded by the emerging technologies of Cloud, AI, and quantum computing.

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Wishing for more

I found that what I found most valuable in the book was the final chapters, which left me feeling that the book wasted a lot of time at the beginning with history, bio, etc. and missed a great opportunity to expand on the real story, which is where Microsoft is headed and why.

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A Little Too Much Empathy For Me

The book had some good points that I truly enjoyed. What I was disappointed about is a good majority of the story is taken up by the culture of Microsoft and how he wants to change it. Apparently, Nadella feels everyone at Microsoft should feel the way he does about personal feelings.

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boring, pointless

I did not walk away with many good ideas on how to refresh a company but rather a Chronicle of Microsoft from when he became CEO. it was a rather superficial theme of empathy that was attached.

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