Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is in study hall mode.<\/p>\n
Speaking with Mathias D\u00f6pfner, CEO of Axel Springer \u2014 Business Insider’s parent company \u2014 Nadella said he’s spending his weekends studying how startups build products.<\/a> The reason, he said, is simple: Microsoft’s vast size<\/a> has become “a massive disadvantage” in the race to build AI at startup speed.<\/p>\n “This entire weekend, I spent all the time trying to get myself to understand how new companies are building products,” Nadella said in an interview<\/a> on the “MD MEETS” podcast, hosted by D\u00f6pfner and that aired on Saturday.<\/p>\n At young companies, he said, everyone involved in product development \u2014 from scientists to engineers to infrastructure teams \u2014 is “all sitting in one little table.” It means they’re able to make decisions on product, science, and infrastructure, and iterate instantly.<\/p>\n At Microsoft, he has “three divisional heads who manage those three things.”<\/p>\n Nadella’s comments come as many major tech companies \u2014 from Meta to Google to Amazon \u2014 are aggressively trimming middle layers <\/a>of management in the name of speed.<\/p>\n It reflects a broader shift in Silicon Valley, where thick hierarchies are increasingly viewed as impediments to swift product decisions and AI experimentation.<\/p>\n Unlearning success to stay relevant<\/p>\n Nadella told D\u00f6pfner that thriving in the AI era requires unlearning habits that once made companies successful.<\/p>\n Big organizations and their leaders need to abandon the “know-it-all” mindset and adopt a “learn-it-all” approach, he said.<\/p>\n “The most important skill set for long-term relevance is \u2014 how do you be a learn-it-all and not a know-it-all,” Nadella said.<\/p>\n The challenge, he added, is that “you have to unlearn the things that made you successful to learn something new.” He also emphasized that empathy and emotional intelligence<\/a> have become increasingly important in the AI era.<\/p>\n Internally, Nadella has already been pushing this cultural shift.<\/p>\n