Hit Refresh … Oops! 404 error!
Satya Nadella’s new book, ‘Hit Refresh’ offers an interesting take on how organizations need to update their cultural software time and again to stay relevant. As a marketer, the title’s pun on Microsoft’s second-most popular shortcut key, F5 (after Ctrl+Alt+Del) is not lost … even if it comes across as a cheeky branding thrill. However, just as often as you hit a ‘404 page not found’ snag on hitting the refresh key, the book loses its company-insider plot that I truly paid for. ‘Hit Refresh’ eventually reloads its content with a humanized-futuristic view of AI, mixed reality and quantum computing.
Casting the average ratings and reviews for the book aside, you cannot help but admire how inconspicuously used (and abused) the F5 key is in our lives. From professional missteps to personal lapses, we have all hit refresh on more than one occasion. And as Microsoft (and Murphy’s law) taught us, sometimes that does not work either. But to Microsoft’s credit (and the IT team’s years of experience), there is always a way out … including the oldest trick in the book – a PC reboot, if you are still wondering!
Just as clearing the browser’s cache memory loads updated content on the web-page, so does acquiring new skills or meeting different people bring a new perspective. It also helps to try the same url from another search engine … you get the drift!
I followed some tremendous people and organizations refreshing themselves, sometimes because they hit a snag, and at times despite it. Here are my favorites:
- Samsung … rising literally from the ashes of Galaxy Note 7 fires to record profitability
- Nandan Nilekani … arguably a career chameleon - Infosys founder, a public service (UIDAI) Chairman, author, philanthropist and back to Infosys
- Physical retail … surviving the online disruption through engaging mall experience
- The renewables industry … from depending on public subsidies, to holding its own in a competitive market
- India … from west-inspired products and business models, to pride in local ingenuity and startups
- … and Superman … back from the dead, to trying to kill the Justice League, to eventually working alongside
- … of course, my son … adapting to the European way of life, including the unfortunate restlessness on watching a miniaturized four hour version of Cricket
Would love to hear of your favorite refreshers. As also views on the book itself. And if you are still perplexed at the non-fictional 404 error page, here are some tips to refresh - https://bit.ly/404errortips