Nadella had spent 22 years pulling himself up the ranks with his smarts and drive. And his likability. The latter trait was a rarity at the company. Nadella knew its culture intimately, and he knew he had to change it. … But Nadella wrote a 10-page memo arguing that Microsoft’s revival would come from a growth mentality. As he later put it, he wanted to change the corporate personality from “know-it-all” to “learn-it-all”.
Microsoft was the leading applications provider internationally; in the U.S. its products were behind word processors and spreadsheets lost to history, like Wordstar and Lotus 1-2-3.
I didn’t realize MSFT found success internationally before taking over the States. My earliest computer memories are of a Windows 3.1 beige box, I went through all the 95, 98, ME, XP upgrades along the way before switching to Apple in college.
Here I am 30 years later still tinkering. There’s a WIRED article that’s a much deeper dive on the history of MSFT https://www.wired.com/story/at-age-50-microsoft-is-an-ai-giant-an-open-source-lover-and-bad-as-it-ever-was/
