新CEO上任 好人緣的微軟新掌門人

Talk to almost anyone who knows Satya Nadella, the new boss of Microsoft, and sooner or later they will come up with the same observation: he is the anti-Steve Ballmer.

跟幾乎熟悉薩蒂亞•納德拉(Satya Nadella)的任何人聊，早晚都會得到同一個看法：他是和史蒂夫•鮑爾默(Steve Ballmer)完全相反的一類人。

The man who has stepped aside after 14 years as head of the world’s biggest software company has always exuded an overabundance of energy, running the gamut from ebullience (jumping sweatily around a stage to inspire an audience) to temper tantrum (throwing a chair across the room when a lieutenant quits).

在執掌世界最大的軟件公司14年後，業已卸任的鮑爾默總是顯露出過剩的精力：從沸騰的激情（爲了振奮觀衆在臺上滿頭大汗地狂跳）到火爆的脾氣（一名高管離職時，他氣得抓起一把椅子扔到房間另一頭），在他身上都表露無遺。

The thoughtful, Indian-born engineer who has filled his shoes is from a different mould. “In personal style, he’s the opposite,” says Reed Hastings, the chief executive of Netflix and a former Microsoft director. “Steve is boisterous.

接替他的工程師生於印度、喜歡安靜思考，有着不一樣的性格。Netflix首席執行官、微軟(Microsoft)前董事裏德•赫斯廷斯(Reed Hastings)說：“就個人風格來講，他是史蒂夫的反面。史蒂夫屬於狂暴的那種，薩蒂亞則很沉穩。”但光用“沉穩”這個詞來形容納德拉還不夠。常常沉浸於深度思考的他眼神鋒利，可臉上略帶狐疑的微笑又軟化了這種鋒利。如果說鮑爾默是一位精力旺盛的營銷領袖，那麼納德拉就是一個典型的計算機工程師。

Satya is steady.” Steady hardly does it justice. Intellectually intense, he has a piercing gaze softened by a faint, slightly quizzical smile. If Mr Ballmer was the effervescent marketing dynamo, Mr Nadella is the quintessential engineer.

“他是個理智的人，不屬於那種拍桌子的類型，”微軟前任高管約翰•康納斯(John Connors)說。但他補充道，納德拉除了冷靜，也是“爲數不多的”懂生意的人，擁有“很高的情商”。

“He’s a cerebral guy, he’s not a pound-the-table kind of guy,” says John Connors, a former senior Microsoft executive. But along with the cool, he adds, Mr Nadella is “one of these rare guys” who is also business savvy with “a strong emotional IQ”.

至於這是否足以使微軟奪回技術界霸主地位，則是另外一個問題。微軟仍在依靠龐大的Windows和Office業務盈利意味着，鮑爾默把帶領公司突破傳統PC業務的任務留給了繼任者。

Whether that will be enough to put Microsoft back on top in the technology world is another question. While milking its giant Windows and Office businesses for cash, Mr Ballmer has left it to his successor to drag the company out of its PC past.

康納斯表示，由於產品種類多，經營微軟如今也成爲了一項“複雜得讓人抓狂的”任務。加上整個公司的重組剛進行一半，任務看起來十分艱鉅。數週內，納德拉也會繼承鮑爾默遺留工作中最棘手的部分：收購諾基亞(Nokia)掙扎中的手機業務及其3.5萬名提心吊膽的僱員。

Running Microsoft has also become “insanely complicated” because of its wide range of products, says Mr Connors. Top that off with a company-wide reorganisation that is halfway to completion, and the task looks daunting. Within weeks, Mr Nadella will also inherit one of the thorniest parts of the Ballmer legacy: the acquisition of the struggling Nokia handset business and its 35,000 nervous employees.

現年46歲的微軟新掌門是第一個坐上美國技術業最高位置的生於印度的高管，儘管印度一直在向美國科技行業輸送人才（近年來，在美國西海岸初創企業的創始人中，印度工程師的身影十分搶眼）。

At 46, the new Microsoft chief is one of the first Indian-born executives to make it to the top of the US tech industry – though engineers from the subcontinent have long supplied much of the brain power, figuring prominently in recent years among the founders of West Coast start-ups.

納德拉生於印度IT業中心海得拉巴(Hyderabad)，赴美前獲得了門格洛爾大學(Mangalore University)電子工程學位。來美后，他繼續深造，取得計算機科學碩士和MBA學位。

Born in Hyderabad, a centre of the Indian IT industry, Mr Nadella took a degree in electrical engineering at Mangalore University before moving to the US, where he went on to complete a masters in computer science and an MBA.

在一份精心打磨的官方簡歷和給員工的介紹郵件裏，納德拉着重談了自己對板球運動的癡迷（他曾是一名右手型的旋轉投球手）和對家庭的熱愛。他談及自己與Anupama Priyadarshini長達22年的婚姻（相當於他在微軟工作的時間），他們的3個孩子，以及他所說的“學習的渴望”。

In a carefully airbrushed official biography and an introductory email to staff[THIS WEEK?], he made much of his cricket obsession (he was once a right-handed off-spin bowler) and devotion to family. He wrote about his marriage to Anupama Priyadarshini – at 22 years, as long as his attachment to Microsoft – and three children, as well as what he called a “thirst for learning”.

當你剛剛就任一把手時，幾乎每個人都有理由說你的好話。西雅圖的風險資本家馬特•麥基爾韋恩(Matt McIlwain)說，納德拉的人緣特別好，他得到了公司內部“普遍的喜愛和尊敬”。的確，有人擔心他的友善儒雅會讓他難以做出棘手的決定。華爾街的投資者已經在敦促微軟削減成本，並分拆Xbox視頻遊戲機等業務。在微軟物色新CEO的5個多月裏，許多投資者呼籲引進外部人才，以便在做出艱難選擇時，不受個人忠誠的阻礙。

When you have just got to the top, just about everyone has a good reason to talk well of you. But Mr Nadella, in particular, is “universally liked and respected” inside the company, says Matt McIlwain, a Seattle-based venture capitalist. Indeed, some are worried that he is too nice for the tough decisions ahead. Wall Street has pushed for cost-cutting and the spin-off of businesses such as the Xbox video games console. For much of the five months it took to find a new chief executive, many investors called for an outsider who would not be prevented by personal loyalties from making hard choices.

麥基爾韋恩說，人緣好或許意味着他在升遷之路上一直避免作出棘手決定——尤其是在性格衝突往往導致高層出現緊張局面的微軟。納德拉能夠在不樹敵的情況下獲得升遷，使他在合適的時機成爲合適的CEO候選人。

Popularity could be a sign that he ducked tough decisions on the way up, Mr McIlwain says – particularly at Microsoft, where clashing personalities have led to tensions at the top. Mr Nadella’s ability to rise without apparently making enemies along the way has left him in the right place at the right time.

但與納德拉共過事的人說，他並不會爲了避免衝突而放軟身段。康納斯說：“他會以凝聚共識的方式提出大量要求。”正如麥基爾韋恩所承認的，面對即將到來的職責與孤立，納德拉的這種特質能否經受考驗是個未知數。

People who have worked with him say this is not because he takes the soft option to avoid conflict. “He will demand a lot but do it in a very consensual way,” says Mr Connors. As Mr McIlwain concedes there is no way of telling whether this quality will survive the responsibilities and isolation that are about to hit him.

作爲一名資深技術工程師，納德拉時刻關注着企業數據中心的動態，他與重塑軟件世界的最灼熱趨勢——雲計算——有着緊密的聯繫。哈斯廷斯說：“如果你喜歡雲計算，你就會喜歡薩蒂亞•納德拉。”他指出，納德拉的第一份工作是在太陽微系統公司(Sun Microsystems)，該公司是這一理念的早期擁護者。

A deeply technical engineer with an eye for what is going on in corporate data centres, Mr Nadella is closely associated with the hottest trend reshaping the software world: the cloud. “If you love the cloud, you’ll love Satya Nadella,” says Mr Hastings, who points out that his first job was at Sun Microsystems, an early champion of the idea.

在微軟，納德拉還因挑戰技術教條而受人稱讚。他的成績包括將Linux系統（這款開源軟件曾被視作微軟的致命威脅）引入微軟雲平臺Azure。而且有跡象顯示，這位新老闆想要進一步結束僵化局面——曾與他共過事的人說，納德拉對科技行業冒出的初創企業和新創意都有濃厚興趣。

He is also credited with attacking technology orthodoxies at Microsoft. Those have included bringing Linux – the open-source software once seen as a mortal threat to the business – to Azure, its cloud platform. And, in a sign that the new boss wants to go further in ending insularity, people who have worked with him say he has an insatiable interest in the start-ups and new ideas bubbling up elsewhere in the tech industry.

不過，對於微軟未來最重要的領域——在移動計算領域反擊蘋果(Apple)和谷歌(Google)，他並沒有直接經驗。

He does not, however, have direct experience in the field most critical to Microsoft’s future: hitting back at Apple and Google in mobile computing.

納德拉眼下面臨的一個考驗是，他能否把握好比爾•蓋茨(Bill Gates)。這位微軟的聯合創始人上週卸下了董事長一職，但會作爲技術顧問扮演更加活躍的角色。與這二位都打過交道的人說，他們曾在重大技術項目上有過密切合作，比如在納德拉執掌必應(Bing)搜索引擎部門期間。哈斯廷斯說：“他在比爾面前完全能夠堅持自己的觀點。”

One immediate test will be whether he can keep Bill Gates in his place. The Microsoft co-founder this week gave up his position as chairman but will take on a more active role as a technical adviser. People who have worked with both men say they have been able to work closely on big technical initiatives – for instance, when Mr Nadella ran the Bing search engine. “He’s perfectly able to stand up to Bill,” says Mr Hastings.

納德拉的好人緣如果可以保持下去，或許將成爲他重建微軟自信的一大資本。當上周聽聞他被任命的新聞時，公司內部普遍感到欣慰。

If Mr Nadella can hang on to the likeability, meanwhile, it could be one of his main assets in rebuilding Microsoft’s battered self-confidence. There was widespread relief at the company at the news of his appointment this week.

“他們現在需要這種鼓舞。”麥基爾韋恩說，“他們置身於不確定狀態已經太久，感覺有點受打擊和忽視。”單憑重建自信或許不足以讓微軟回到正軌，使其再度成爲科技行業舉足輕重的創新者，但這至少是個開始。