Referencing some books, Satya Nadella said they encapsulate how a company can find a positive purpose. Speaking about Prosperity by Colin Mayer, Nadella says the book points corporations towards becoming profitable by solving problems facing people. While books on capitalism are common, he says “Prosperity” best summed up what the goal of a company should be. “The key word is ‘profitable,’ because we do know that capitalism does have the ability to allocate resources in the most efficient way. But the other key word is ‘the challenges of people and the planet.’ It’s not about creating more challenges to people and the planet but to have real solutions to the problems. I like that.”
Other Books
Mindset by Carol Dweck was also discussed during the interview. Satya Nadella said the book can help with the power of the mindset, something the Microsoft CEO believes in heavily. “I would say that whatever change we’ve been able to achieve is because the cultural meme we picked was inspired by Carol Dweck and her work around growth mindset,” Nadella said. The practice of being “vulnerable enough to say ‘I’m not perfect, I’ll never be perfect, but I can learn’—that’s a good posture to have, to have a living culture that is constantly keeping up with our own aspirations.” Below are the other books Nadella talked about, including his own.
Prosperity: By Colin Mayer, Oxford University Press, November 2018 The Narrow Corridor: By Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Penguin Random House, September 2019 Hit Refresh: By Satya Nadella, HarperCollins, September 2017 Shaping the Future of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: By Klaus Schwab and Nicholas Davis, Penguin Random House, November 2018 Mindset: By Carol Dweck, Penguin Random House, February 2006
