The Drucker Institute has its own ideas of what makes for a successful organization and it has concluded that 2021’s best-managed company is Microsoft. Here are three things that contributed to Satya Nadella’s success and how business leaders can use them to benefit their organizations.
Create a culture of customer value creation
Nadella changed Microsoft from a company that pushed its products on customers without regard for whether they were best for the customer to one that put customers first.
- He created a new culture which he dubbed the “growth mindset.”
- The new culture encouraged “learning, trying and even failing.”
Innovate by fostering employee learning
Business leaders must alert employees to a fundamental truth — success can breed failure unless they are always fighting complacency
- The way to do that is through perpetual learning with a mindset of intellectual humility
- Nadella fostered innovation by encouraging people to adopt a new approach to product development
Hold people accountable for results
When you change your company’s culture and approach to innovation, your top executives will complain because you are forcing them to adjust how they think and act
- Nadella issues an ultimatum to his 150 top executives: “Once you become a vice president, a partner in this endeavor, the whining is over”
