Merely celebrating consumption of technology will not suffice: Nadella

For Satya Nadella, the Hyderabad-born CEO of Microsoft, India has always been close to the heart. The inspiration from playing cricket and experiences studying in different parts of the country have helped Nadella in charting out one of the biggest transformations in the history of Microsoft.

In an interview with BusinessLine , Nadella said that India continues to be a source of learning. “India is a very important source of learning. I measure myself in terms of the progress we make in India by enabling small businesses to be more productive, and the public sector to be more efficient.

“For example, we have announced a partnership with Ola where they can use our technology to not only be competitive in India but also globally. I measure our success in the ability to create success around us in India and it is tremendous to see it happening.”

Nadella also said that it is not enough for countries like India to celebrate diffusion of technology; indeed, they need to ensure that technology is used for better productivity.

“Whether it’s in India or elsewhere, it should not be about diffusion of technology alone. It’s not just enough to be, for example, a smartphone nation.

“The question is what are you doing with technology to have an impact on things like education, healthcare, the supply chains. Merely celebrating consumption of some technologies alone will not suffice,” Nadella said.

On dealing with failures, he said that in the technology sector, failures are a part of life. “Sometimes concepts do not work out but the capabilities get reborn in different ways. I don’t think of technology failures as things to get emotional about,” he said.

Full interview: p7

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