Hit Refresh: The Quest to Rediscover Microsoft's Soul and Imagine a Better Future for Everyone
Written by Satya Nadella and Greg Shaw
Narrated by Satya Nadella and Shridhar Solanki
4/5
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About this audiobook
Foreword by Bill Gates
Microsoft’s CEO tells the inside story of the company’s continuing transformation, tracing his own personal journey from a childhood in India to leading some of the most significant technological changes in the digital era. As much a humanist as engineer and executive, Nadella concludes with his vision for the coming wave of intelligent technologies and a distinct call to action for leaders everywhere.
Hit Refresh is about individual change, about the transformation happening inside of Microsoft and the technology that will soon impact all of our lives—the arrival of the most exciting and disruptive wave of technology humankind has experienced: artificial intelligence, mixed reality, and quantum computing.
It’s about how people, organizations, and societies can and must transform "hit refresh" in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, and continued relevance and renewal. At its core, it’s about us humans and how our one unique quality—empathy—will become ever more valuable in a world where technological advancement will disrupt the status quo as never before.
Satya Nadella explores a fascinating childhood before immigrating to the U.S. and how he learned to lead along the way. He then shares his meditations as sitting CEO—one who is mostly unknown following the brainy Bill Gates and energetic Steve Ballmer. He tells the inside story of how a company rediscovered its soul—transforming everything from culture to their fiercely competitive landscape and industry partnerships. Nadella concludes with his vision for the coming wave of technology and by exploring the potential impact to society and delivering call to action for world leaders.
"Ideas excite me," Nadella explains. "Empathy grounds and centers me." Hit Refresh is a reflection, meditations, and series of recommendations presented as algorithms from a principled, deliberative leader searching for improvement—for himself, for a storied company, and for society.
Satya Nadella
Satya Nadella is Chairman and CEO of Microsoft. Before being named CEO in February 2014, Nadella held leadership roles in both enterprise and consumer businesses across the company. Joining Microsoft in 1992, he quickly became known as a leader who could span a breadth of technologies and businesses to transform some of Microsoft’s biggest product offerings. Most recently, Nadella was executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group. In this role he led the transformation to the cloud infrastructure and services business, which outperformed the market and took share from competition. Previously, Nadella led R&D for the Online Services Division and was vice president of the Microsoft Business Division. Before joining Microsoft, Nadella was a member of the technology staff at Sun Microsystems. Originally from Hyderabad, India, Nadella lives in Bellevue, Washington. He earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Mangalore University, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago. Nadella serves on the board of his alma mater the University of Chicago, as well as the Starbucks board of directors. He is married and has three children.
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Reviews for Hit Refresh
222 ratings27 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Read the book when it was published back then and wanted to listen to the audiobook as well. As a person who knows Microsoft very well, I thoroughly believe that Satya brought a new life and truly Hit Refreshed to the company's direction and soul. Enjoyed the journey and lot to take to our personal lives as well.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very inspirational..
will make us better citizens of the world - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wise words by a true leader on future and technology
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good to see a snippet of how the mind of Satya Nadella works.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A book for anyone who wants to understand the future of technology and the world.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Guess it was okay, it had some interesting facts and bits, but it is was like a Microsoft infomercial at times
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Outstanding, thoughtful, futuristic and humanistic. Great reference for leaders of organizations.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The first part is OK, where Satya talks about his experiences bringing MSFT on track.
The second part is a lot of fluff on the future of tech, AI, equitable growth and so on. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extremely eye opening and reflective. I truly enjoyed Satya's view of the American dream and what his hopes for the future of technology and large corporations are.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Insights into future and how refreshing a commitment is important for business and life. Why it’s important to rethink priorities every now and then.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I liked a lot, very instructing and inspiring. I liked the historical issues about how microsft have changed
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Very long & boring book. One story after another. Only Story that I liked was that their family’s transformation. I couldn’t finish this book.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5easy read, good thoughts on technology. I learned what'scoming soon, and how I can best prepare for the future.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outrageously needed. Thank you for sharing about your journey Satya, your thought process and encouraging world or innovation balanced with empathy and responsibility - as culture seeds. I like to know more about the Cloud - the real cloud and computing to drive innovation in real time, changing the world one value at a time. All the best in your tenure as CEO of Microsoft. To your success.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gave insight into the future — computing and how humans will innovate.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insightful book about empathy and technology. I recommend every tech worker to read it.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great insites from a visionary leader. Wishing satya all the best for his future at microsoft.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My best book this year, it was really eye opening
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very insightful. Bravo for seeing the larger picture. I liked how he talked about his mistakes. So many CEO's are absolutely inlove with themselves. This guy seems down to earth at least for a CEO.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Very insightful book for any leader to read and digest
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I did not just love it. It's his perspective that Multinationals are responsible for creating more opportunities across the globe.
Very beautifully intertwined, his personal story with love of Microsoft.☺️☺️☺️
Then there were those bits he read himself. Cute. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Recommend this book for anyone working in technology, with clear futuristic mindset
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wonderful book. In hindsight, it explains a lot why Microsoft is where it is today.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Really good book about vision and leadership. Like Satya's approach of growing together and empowering people. MSFT seems to have a much more better culture now. Hope it keeps up with the culture focused on purpose and effectiveness.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I was curious about how Satya Nadella (the CEO of Microsoft) thinks about technology and Microsoft, so I asked for this book as a Christmas gift. I was quite surprised.
While he has formal education in electrical engineering and business (so he understands "technology" and tech businesses), I'd describe him as a humanist. To me, that explains a lot of why he has been such an inspiring and successful CEO.
He has thought deeply about why Microsoft exists, i.e. its mission. Why were Bill Gates and Paul Allen creating software back in the mid-1970s? Was it really just about getting a computer on every desktop (running Microsoft software)? He dug deeper and realized that the underlying goal was to give the power of computing to everyone, i.e. to _empower_ everyone, not just rich people or smart people. Then he translated that realization into a succinct one-page mission document for all of Microsoft's 100,000 employees.
The book might be summarized as, "Here's where I come from and how I think, so you can understand me." That makes it useful as a guide for Microsoft employees, partners and customers.
I'm not sure I'd want to work for the Bill Gates of the 1990s, or for Steve Ballmer. They seem too driven and too focused on winning at all costs. But Satya Nadella, I can totally understand why people would want to join his team. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well written and interesting perspective from the inside of the technology industry. The chapters on security/privacy and AI are particularly relevant at the beginning of 2018 when I read this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/53 Stars for the book + 0.5 Stars for the extra scribbles and highlights in the Employee EditionFull disclosure – I didn’t read everything.This is definitely a book about Microsoft first and foremost (well, duh!). If you’re not interested, move along. What makes this book ‘worth picking-up’ is due to 1) Satya’s immigrant background, and 2) that his earnestness is on full display, notably having included his sizeable mistake during his 2014 Grace Hopper interview. Skipping that would have been a deal-breaker. He spoke candidly of different technology business segments and his perspective of inclusiveness in the organization. It’s his personal mission statement for the world to see. On the tech and business side, he is pushing the agenda he envisioned. On the organization side, the proof is still in the pudding. The best parts to read are his scribbles found only in the employee edition – more personal, more to the point of his expectations within the company.