Authenticity

(Starting today I am moving to publishing twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays).

I spent some time reading Satya’s annual letter to shareholders this weekend.  You can get to it directly on the Microsoft Investor Relations site along with the rest of the annual report or on Linkedin.

I like the LinkedIn post because Satya titles it “Relevance and Reinvention,” which are the great themes of Satya’s tenure.  I reflected on Microsoft’s focus on relevance several weeks ago; the company has made itself newly relevant to nearly every customer segment.  To do so, Satya has focused the company on constant learning, reflection, and renewal.   These changes in the company culture are paying off; I give the company and Satya an A+ for this work.  It is a company that I would want to work at. 

This title and the tone of the opening paragraphs seem authentic and strong. And there is so much great work referenced in Satya’s letter — significant results and releases from all parts of the business — data centers, custom silicon, models, dev tools, low code, security, PCs, gaming, and so much more.   The company has developed a broad portfolio that has something for everyone.

Once you get past that first paragraph, though, the letter turns into corporate technobabble.   We learn about the 3 priorities — fundamentals and security, AI, and cost structure.  The 4 enduring commitments — expanding opportunity, earning trust, protecting fundamental rights, advancing sustainability.  The 3 elements of the culture — growth mindset, DEI, and giving.   And the 3 ambitions — reinventing productivity and business proceses, building the intelligent cloud and intelligent edge, creating more personal computing.   It reads like several groups argued about the framework for the letter, and so they just included all the frameworks.  It is unclear which of these take priority.  It is repetitive of detail in the annual report, where the information is presented more completely.

And it makes me wonder, just what is the purpose of the CEO’s letter?  I reread several of Warren Buffet’s letters, which are engaging and insightful.  And I conclude that the purpose is not just to repeat a bunch of information in the annual report but to convey what the CEO finds most important and insightful — the real levers of the business, the critical trends in the industry.  DEI and giving initiatives and sustainability aren’t it — every company has those.  It’s not the lines of business — I can read those in the report.  

In the closing paragraphs, Satya relates a personal story about an Indian farmer using Chatgpt to complete some forms.  These paragraphs read as if they come right from Satya:

A frontier model developed on the West Coast of the US just months earlier was being used to directly improve the lives of rural farmers on the other side of the globe. That rate of diffusion was unlike anything I had seen in my career. And the pace has only increased. 

You get the sense of how the AI wave has personally hit Satya, how excited he is about it, how it ties together his birth country and career, how broadly impactful the technology is, and how the pace of change is incredible.  It is personal and authentic.   And the authenticity makes it uplifting and relatable, and it is that authenticity and insight that really make this letter worth reading.