Nadella's Microsoft: Enter the Renaissance Man

When we heard product announcements from Microsoft's two previous CEOs, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates, it was usually in the stadium-like settings of vast conference halls. News wasn't so much announced as shouted. Ballmer in particular seemed to like to pace around a large stage, leveling a hard stare at his audience like a tiger in a cage

Even when a Microsoft product was launched in a somewhat smaller setting, such as the Los Angeles gallery where Ballmer introduced the ill-fated Surface RT tablet in 2012, there was always this sense that the company was trying too hard to impress. That gallery was drenched in purple lighting and drowned in dubstep. It was a cringeworthy moment: the dad of the tech world, eager to show he's still hip. Read more...