Review: Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone

Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone by Satya Nadella
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found myself enjoying the first half of Nadella’s book more than the second, which is not what I would have expected given the topics. The first half covers Nadella’s rise through the ranks at Microsoft, his family life, and his work philosophy. The second half focuses more on the direction that Nadella is leading Microsoft toward, in terms of technology but also in terms of an organization. I found the history more interesting than I expected and the futures less interesting. That’s not normal for me, especially when I have some skin in the game with the company, holding a few shares in a retirement account.

In the first section, I enjoyed Nadella’s story of his rise within Microsoft. I also appreciated his mention of two books that I have always considered the cornerstones of my own career in technology – “Soul of a New Machine” by Tracy Kidder and “Young Men and Fire” by Norman Mclean. Nadella only mentioned a few other books as being instrumental in his career, so I found this coincidence personally fulfilling (at least someone took the learnings from these books and turned them into a megabucks career!). Nadella also introduces his family, including two special needs children. His experiences with his children color much of the direction and the interaction he has within Microsoft, so it was interesting learning of this. There were some points that were a bit below him – the discussion of his negative vote on buying out Nokia proved mostly correct given the failed buyout and subsequent large layoffs, but it comes across as Nadella saying “I told you so”. For this first part of the book, I thought I learned quite a bit that I could use in my career and investments, and in working with people.

The last part of the book was more about Nadella leading Microsoft. I was surprised that it was focused mostly on changing the culture of the organization. This would be a good read for organizational behavior and change classes, as well as HR. HR at Microsoft gets a lot of credit throughout. The technology future was more broadly brushed, and I didn’t get much out of this.

Overall, good as a business biography of Nadella and Microsoft during his career there. Not as good for those looking for tech futures.


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