came in and rekindled that early success and more. Talk a bit about what he got right, particularly in the framework that you’ve created.ADI IGNATIUS:ANDREW MCAFEE:
One of the brilliant things he did was say, “Look, you cannot own a digital resource inside Microsoft. You cannot own the data. You cannot own the code.” Now, the company is not your therapy group. However, a successful company needs to be a place where it’s okay to be wrong, to fail, to not have the answer, to show that you’re uncertain. Nadella helped get Microsoft down that path, and it was an absolutely fundamental thing to do.
But the point is that this obsession with winning and being on top and being right and being dominant, that has to go away.I want to get to audience questions. One came from Shabana in Pakistan. What kinds of organizational design, organizational structures, do you need to foster this sort of geek culture?I don’t think org structure is the key because the companies that I surveyed have very, very different org charts. They also have very different formal practices.
If you can work on these norms of science, argue about evidence, of ownership, push authority and decision-making down to an uncomfortable degree, speed, iterate, don’t plan, don’t analyze, build stuff, get feedback, learn from reality and then openness. Don’t be defensive. Be willing to pivot. Be willing to admit that you’re wrong. They show a little vulnerability. Those are the norms that are critical for the geek way.
For my whole career, I have been trying to pattern match and figure out what the deep differences are between the two. Is it the foosball tables? Is it the hoodies? Is it bringing your dog to work? No, obviously not.