Books Recommended by Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella is an American business executive who, in 2018, was CEO and Director of Microsoft Corporation.
Born in India, Nadella traveled to the US in ‘88 to study for a Master’s Degree in computer science at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Prior to joining Microsoft in 1992, Satya was a technology staff member of Sun Microsystems (later acquired by Oracle Corporation).
In 2014, Satya’s position changed from Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, to CEO and Director of Microsoft Corporation, following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
In 2017, Satya joined the board of directors of Starbucks Corp.
In the same year, he published the book Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft’s Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone, picturing the inside story of Microsoft’s successful transformation, how it rediscovered its soul and culture, together with his vision regarding how technology will shape the future and the hard challenges we’ll have to face. He’s also telling his own story, from his India childhood to leading Microsoft.
Books recommended and/or written by Satya Nadella:
Books by Satya Nadella
11 books recommended by Satya Nadella
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Written by a Stanford psychology professor, this book offers advice on retaining an appreciation for the things you don’t yet know and first resonated with Nadella as a father. As Microsoft’s new CEO, he aspired to steer the company toward “a culture that allowed us… Read the full quote
Written by a Stanford psychology professor, this book offers advice on retaining an appreciation for the things you don’t yet know and first resonated with Nadella as a father. As Microsoft’s new CEO, he aspired to steer the company toward “a culture that allowed us to constantly refresh and renew,” and incorporated Dweck’s perspective into his blueprint for change. “Now three years into it, I recognize its power a lot more than I did,” he says.
AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order
by Kai-Fu Lee
Kai-Fu Lee's smart analysis on human-AI coexistence is clear-eyed and a must-read. We must look deep within ourselves for the values and wisdom to guide AI's development.
Leonardo da Vinci
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has plunged into what must be an advance copy of Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson, who has written biographies of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein and Ben Franklin. Isaacson’s biography is based on the Renaissance master’s personal notebooks, so you know we’re going to be taken into the creative mind of the genius.
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics
Nadella calls this tale with a local Seattle connection—it involves an underdog University of Washington crew team and the 1936 Berlin Olympics—”A wonderful illustration of the importance of teamwork, which was a core part of my focus out of the gate as CEO.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Nadella is using this season to learn more in a variety of subjects. By the looks of it, he is interested in, among other things, virtual reality, the refugee crisis, and housing for the urban poor.
Deep Learning
by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, Aaron Courville
Elon Musk and Facebook AI chief Yann LeCun have praised this textbook on one of software’s most promising frontiers. After its publication, Microsoft signed up coauthor Bengio, a pioneer in machine learning, as an adviser
The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living since the Civil War
Covering everything from the combustion engine to the flush toilet—and judging recent breakthroughs with a skeptical eye—this work of economic history “concludes that innovation is the ultimate source of dramatic improvements in the human condition,” says Nadella.
Nonviolent Communication
Upon becoming CEO, Nadella confronted Microsoft’s legendarily combative culture by urging his new reports to read this book, which preaches the power of empathy, self-awareness, and authenticity in collaboration in the workplace, at home, and beyond. Like many of his favorites, it was first recommended… Read the full quote
Upon becoming CEO, Nadella confronted Microsoft’s legendarily combative culture by urging his new reports to read this book, which preaches the power of empathy, self-awareness, and authenticity in collaboration in the workplace, at home, and beyond. Like many of his favorites, it was first recommended to him by his wife, Anu: “I’m heavily influenced by the books she reads more than the books I read
Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality
by Jaron Lanier
Nadella is using this season to learn more in a variety of subjects. By the looks of it, he is interested in, among other things, virtual reality, the refugee crisis, and housing for the urban poor.
The Great Convergence
In this look at how telepresence and telerobotics will increasingly let people cross international borders from the comfort of their own homes, Nadella sees analogies to Microsoft’s HoloLens headset, especially as the technology matures and its cost comes down.
The Great Transformation
by Karl Polanyi
"My father recommended this book long ago,” says Nadella of the 1944 classic by a Hungarian-American writer who chronicles the development of England’s market economy and argues that society should drive economic change.
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