The Empathy Code

Through an exclusive interaction with Satya Nadella, Reader’s Digest follows the inspiring journey of a young man from south India who rose to be CEO of Microsoft and is leading its revival with a human touch

- Sanghamitra Chakraborty

When young Satya Nadella was being considered for his first role in Microsoft in 1992, his hiring manager Richard Tait gave him a problem to solve. “Imagine you see a baby lying in the street. The baby is crying. What do you do?”“You call 911,” Nadella responded.

“You need some empathy, man. Just pick up the baby,” Tait gently put his arm around Nadella and said. Little did young Satya know he was to learn empathy in “a deeply personal way”. His only son Zain, now 21, was born with severe cerebral palsy and one of his two daughters also has special needs.

This incident has remained with him to this day, defined him in many ways and features in the opening chapter of his new book, Hit Refresh. Of course, Nadella got the job, being “incredibly smart” and the rest is history. Today, empathy is shaping the culture within Microsoft and ushering in a revival of the global tech giant with a current market value of $593.15 billion.

Nadella took over as CEO in February 2014 at a critical time in Microsoft’s 39-year-old history. Bill Gates and Paul Allen’s company drove the PC revolution, but after years of success, it had fallen into decline. The world had changed—smartphones had arrived along with new operating systems and other tech majors—Google, Facebook, Amazon and Apple—had overtaken Microsoft. Nadella inherited a great legacy that was also beset with bureaucracy, internal politics and low employee morale.