Over the past three years, Microsoft has gone through a massive turnaround while re-emerging as a key player in the world of Cloud and AI technology. In 2017, both share prices and product sales of the company have achieved remarkable results.
A key factor in the success of the technology giant has recently been brought to light – an increasing number of female executives have been placed in decision-making roles based on efforts of CEO Satya Nadella. This is an impressive finding, especially when females have traditionally been underrepresented in the tech industry.
A prominent example of Nadella’s strategic hiring of female executives was when he welcomed aboard Peggy Johnson, a former Qualcomm executive. Since Johnson took on the role as executive vice-president of business development, she has led successful multibillion dollar acquisitions and mergers.
According to Johnson, she was given the wrong advice in her previous workplace; she was asked to change her personality to become someone more aggressive before she could successfully climb up the career ladder. However, she soon learned that by relaxing and simply being herself, her career hit new heights. In her opinion, a successful team is one that has the right skills and a range of different personalities, where gender does not come into the equation. She also added that Nadella leads the company together with a leadership team, where all team members embrace a “growth mindset”.
Another famous female executive in Microsoft is Julia White, the company’s corporate vice president of cloud and security. White is the employee who stood on stage with Nadella during the launch for Windows for iPad, which was the CEO’s first ever public launch in Microsoft. This was a clear demonstration of the shift in internal culture which Nadella wants to achieve for the company. White is now often seen on Microsoft billboards and is also responsible for addressing audiences at many of the company’s customer conferences.
Despite the positive limelight Nadella has recently received, he has not always been given the thumbs-up regarding gender equality throughout his CEO journey. Many may still remember his previous blunder during a conference where he attracted widespread criticism for some of his remarks. In a nutshell, when questioned on his opinions about the issue of female employees asking for a pay rise, Nadella suggested that they may be better off keeping quiet rather than raising the issue to their superiors. He later admitted in a company email to being “totally wrong” and explained that female employees are entitled to equal pay as their male counterparts.
However, the proven success of Microsoft's hiring policy under the leadership of Nadella has more than made up for his small mistake in the past.
Microsoft is not only working hard to secure its position in the AI and Cloud industries, but is also committed to tackling pressing social issues in the technology world.Over the past three years, Microsoft has gone through a massive turnaround while re-emerging as a key player in the world of Cloud and AI technology. In 2017, both share prices and product sales of the company have achieved remarkable results.
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