Satya Nadella on Time Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential People list

Love him or hate him, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been very effective at the helm of the Seattle software giant, and under his leadership, the company has gone from strength to strength, if not always in the direction its fans would prefer.

In recognition of his achievements, Nadella has been honoured with a position on Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People list.

His bio for the article was written by Walter Isaacson, ex-managing editor for Time Magazine and famously the author of Steve Jobs’s authorized biography.

Writing about Nadella, he notes:

Growing up in India, Satya Nadella fell in love with cricket, a sport whose grace comes from melding stars into a cohesive and harmonic team. “One brilliant character who does not put team first can destroy the entire team,” he wrote in his recent book, Hit Refresh.

Since becoming CEO of Microsoft in 2014, Nadella has used those principles to restore the company’s spirit of innovation. Consider its new product strategy, which emphasizes cloud computing and allowing people to collaborate across platforms. Nadella also preaches the importance of empathy and making products that work reliably, traits that deepened in him when his first child was born with brain damage and his son’s life depended on linked machines running Microsoft systems.

The result is that in the four years since he inherited a sticky wicket, Microsoft’s market value has increased 130%. More important, the company is now making products that feel more user-friendly, empathetic and collaborative.

There are elements in Isaacson’s brief biography which I believe are arguable, but it is certainly difficult to argue with the recognition the company received from the stock market.

Do our readers think Satya Nadella deserves his position? Let us know below.