Microsoft’s Nadella on time, productivity & empowerment

As I hear Satya Nadella in his keynote speech at the Microsoft #FutureUnleash event yesterday in Mumbai, I reflect on Microsoft’s new mission and how well it is crafted - “Empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more.”

This is exciting for two reasons: on the one hand, it shows Microsoft’s commitment to India, considering this is Nadella’s 2nd visit since he took over from Steve Ballmer last year; and that this is the biggest event Microsoft has conducted in India in the last 25 years of its operations in the country.

One the other hand, his speech and the new mission resonated strongly to the HR professional in me. This is an HR mission in so many ways, empowering people to achieve more looks like a mission that an HR team could surely have.

As the event unveils, it is clear that Microsoft seems to have figured out how the workplace of the future is going to be and the tools, apps, technologies that individuals, people leaders and HR would want to use. Nadella himself took the audience through an array of Microsoft tools he uses, and even showed them on an iphone to really showcase how all of them are platform agnostic. So cool.

I keep talking about how exciting our space in HR is and the more global giants get into workplace productivity and engagement, it reinforces that thought in my mind. People empowerment, productivity of individuals and teams, enabling collaboration and building products to facilitate that is happening.

Microsoft revealed a series of new products yesterday at #Futureunleash and some exciting ones in HR too. Data analytics and the fingertips, with incredible visualization and a way to integrate disperse data all in one searchable place (they said you can even sync in data saved in just excel sheets). From collaboration, recognition and communication platforms like Yammer, to using tools that we had used before in an integrated and social way – like OneNote and Sharepoint. HCL, Tata Motors and other organizations also presented how they are using these products in their companies to add predictability to attrition and performance, to build engagement across the company and to document and share information across teams and individuals.

The changes around us have a huge implication on the way we work and our workplace. Nadella reflects that today we live in a world of constant tension between infinite devices and data and finite time and attention. What is most scarce? Time is, he argues. It is time for organizations to enable individuals and teams to manage their time and attention the best possible way by leveraging access to best-in-class technology.

What are you planning to do in the next 12 months to give your talent the best tools and support there is to do their best work?

Blog first published in People Matters https://www.peoplematters.in/blog/2015/11/05/technology/microsofts-nadella-time-productivity-empowerment/12423