Satya Nadella’s first email to the entire Server and Tools team

Just moments ago we brought you the news that Satya Nadella would be taking over as president of Microsoft’s Server and Tools Business division. His first missive to the team at large has now gone out, and we have the text from the note.

Nadella replaced the ousted Bob Muglia. The Server and Tools Business division is a $15 billion a year powerhouse. Without further ado, Mr. Nadella:

From: Satya Nadella
Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
To: STB FTE Worldwide
Subject: RE: Organizational Changes
Hello Team:

I am thrilled to get the opportunity to work with you all as part of STB.

My early career at Microsoft was in servers. Since then I have watched in admiration as you have built a great team and a great business, and in the process have fundamentally transformed the application development and backend server infrastructure landscape.

We are on a path to change the world again with our next generation application development and cloud platform, and I feel fortunate to be part of this transformation. Our core capability as a division – our computing infrastructure and platforms – is the key driver of computing going forward. Today we are seeing our existing customers move to the cloud to address issues of cost and complexity; tomorrow, our work as leaders in innovation will result in new scenarios and workloads (some of them unimagined!) enabled in the cloud.

Our application development and tools teams and products are one of Microsoft’s great assets that support all our businesses. We will continue to drive our roadmap in alignment with our sister divisions within Microsoft.
I like to have my head in the clouds and feet on the ground (something I learned from Qi). I want us to be principle driven. What I value most is coming together around a singular mission and working this mission with great teamwork, guided by our principles, authentic communication and impeccable coordination. Individual agendas cannot bog us down – we will make decisions and move on as a team. As teams and as individuals we need to continuously strive to improve ourselves and those around us. These to me are the keys to moving fast with least friction to deliver superior value to our customers, and to win in the marketplace.

I have tremendous admiration and respect for the leaders in STB. I have worked for Bob and worked with many others in the leadership team in the past, and I am looking forward to partnering with all of them – and all of you – to ensure a smooth transition and continued momentum.

As you also know from Steve’s mail, as part of this transition Amitabh Srivastava has decided to pursue other opportunities. The Server and Cloud team has achieved significant progress under Amitabh’s leadership and I am sad to see him leave the company. His legacy is a very strong team executing on a compelling vision – one I’m very excited about and believe in deeply. I have asked Bill Laing to step in as interim leader for this team.

We have a great opportunity ahead of us and my first priority will be to work with my leadership team to ensure we don’t slow down in seizing this opportunity. Let’s keep driving forward and increase our momentum together!

Looking forward to getting to know you and contributing to our joint success,

– Satya