Recently Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about his professional journey, leadership and Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI among other things when he was at Axel Springer's Berlin headquarters for an interview after receiving an award.
The Times of India reported that during the course of the interview, Satya Nadella recounted how he was told that he would be the CEO of Microsoft and what his reaction was.
"Having grown up at Microsoft, first during Bill (Gates)'s tenure, and then Steve (Ballmer)'s tenure, I don't think I ever got up in the morning and thought that someday Microsoft would have neither Bill nor Steve. And quite frankly, when Steve announced that he was going to leave, it was a real shock to me," the 56-year-old Nadella said.
The report cited Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella as saying, "I remember quite distinctly one of the board members asking me, 'Do you want to be the CEO?' And I replied, 'Only if you want me to be the CEO.' I told this to Steve because the board members were like, 'You know, if you want to be the CEO, you really need to want to be the CEO.' I said, 'God, I've not thought about it, I don't know.' Steve was very interesting. He said, "It's too late to change, so just be yourself and see what happens'."
The report also mentioned that apart from Nadella, there were three other contenders for the CEO's post -- Ford CEO Alan Mulally, former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, and former Skype president Tony Bates.
When Bill Gates made the announcement of the new CEO, he said, "During this time of transformation, there is no better person to lead Microsoft than Satya Nadella."
Satya Nadella is the only third person after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer to lead Microsoft since its inception in 1975.
