From left: Chairman John Thompson, CEO Satya Nadella, Founder & Technology Advisor Bill Gates, Former CEO Steve Ballmer
Leadership got decided by clothing style. Think about it!
This is a serious piece I'm writing today about the very recent changes in Microsoft's senior leadership team. From left to right, let me share some thoughts about the significant personalities in this interesting photo.
First, we have the first ever black chairman in Microsoft's rich history, John Thompson. Put it another way, he is the second chairman in Microsoft's rich history--the first one being Mr. Bad Sweater (more on this later). Talk about a quick profile, let's move on to the next character.
(Alright, fine. This is not a totally serious piece I'm writing today. But keep reading and it will all make sense. Promise.)
Naming John Thompson as Chairman is a move that won't get much attention apart from the fact that he just replaced the one person we can rightfully credit to have put a PC in every home, Bill Gates. Basically, John was the committee head that went on in search of the leader that succeeds Ballmer. Well, I'll be candid in saying that I've never heard of him until recently. But it doesn't matter and here's why.
Naming Thompson chairman follows the right framework about how companies should be ran. The post "Chairman and CEO" belonging to one person should be avoided as much as possible to divide the role of leading the business towards the right future (Mr. CEO) from ensuring longterm shareholder value (Mr. Chairman). It also means that the chairman rightfully fades into obscurity to give full control to a CEO that can be scolded, suspended, replaced, and ultimately, fired. Bottom line, a chairman cannot fire himself as CEO. (Not that Ballmer was also chairman but the fact that he and Gates go way back is, well, let's just get to that later.) Anyone know who Apple's chairman of the board is? Exactly. It doesn't matter as much as knowing its CEO, Tim Cook. (For the record though, it's Arthur Levinson.)
The second guy in the photo is none other than the person selected to lead Microsoft for many years (hopefully) to come, Satya Nadella. He is youngest among the four gentlemen on the shot and in my understanding the only person not born in the United States. Does that matter? Absolutely not--leadership is not identified by age, by race, by gender, by sexual orientation, or by anything that's still normally discriminated against in corporate America.
But we can identify one thing that must be true about Nadella being picked as new CEO. And as the subject of this blog suggests, it's because of, well, those pair of jeans. Satya wears jeans!
Let me explain.
Bill Gates (the third guy) has a distinct fascination about a particular clothing item: sweaters. See for yourself.
As you can see, Mr. Gates loves wearing sweaters. He even wore one on his last day (our subject image above). Plain and simple, Bill uses those darn things on any occasion, wether or not it works (which in most cases, doesn't--IMHO). But wait, here's another guy who did the same much throughout his public life.
Hmmm that's not Steve Jobs. Here he is in traditional black and--for the first time ever--pearly white.
My point, ladies and gentlemen, is that clothes matter. The geeks of old--for the love of God--loved sweaters. The geeks of this age have chosen affection over jeans. Anyone who wears a full suit to work on a regular basis has got to be something else.
Wearing a suit is tradition. And if there's something I'm liking with Nadella is what he had to say about that.
"Our industry does not respect tradition - it only respects innovation."
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
Does that make sense? Hey, feel free to disagree. But I won't stop wearing jeans and Chuck Taylors either!
Here's Nadella's first interview as Microsoft CEO. For more information about the man, Microsoft was generous enough to build a page in glorious detail.
Did we forget anyone in the photo? Sorry I'm not going to talk about Ballmer today.
:)
