Tech

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talks about the most valuable thing in life

Read in app
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella  Microsoft

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is very aware of how he spends his time. He even uses a software dashboard to track how much time he devotes to a given activity.

That's because, as Nadella told Bloomberg, he views "time" as the most valuable thing we all have.

"I felt that one of the things that we should make sure we do for ourselves is to give people a sense for how are they spending their time so that they can then be more in control," he said. "The thing that I most love to see is the amount of time I spend with people outside Microsoft versus inside. The other thing that I love looking at is how much time am I spending in meetings versus what I would call 'focused time.' You absolutely need to be in meetings, because, after all, you don’t do a CEO’s job by locking yourself in your room. But at the same time, there’s got to be a right balance."

And he also said that as Microsoft's CEO, he has to be a bit careful with the ideas he throws around, lest people drop everything and try to make them a reality.

"As a CEO, you have to be very, very careful of making sure that you just don’t opine without thinking through things," he said. "Because the last thing you want to do is say something and then—you know, people will take it seriously and make it happen."

Read the full interview at Bloomberg.

 

Read next

User Profile Image
Nathan McAlone
Nathan is the media and advertising editor for Business Insider and was previously the entertainment editor, as well as an editor and reporter for the tech section.He runs BI's media business team, which primarily covers the creator economy and the business of social media, the evolution of streaming, and the future of advertising.He edits the  CMO Insider newsletter, which features exclusive reporting on marketing and the creator space.He has overseen several award-winning projects at BI.He coedited Jason Guerrasio's feature on the rise and fall of MoviePass, which won a New York Press Club Award and a National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award from the Los Angeles Press Club.BI's reporting on MoviePass served as the basis for the HBO documentary "MoviePass MovieCrash." Nathan is interviewed in the documentary and was a consultant during production.He's worked on other stories that have won or been finalists for NAEJ Awards from the LA Press Club.They include:He mainly edits the work of reporters Lucia Moses, Lara O'Reilly, Dan Whateley, Sydney Bradley, and James Faris.Nathan graduated from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications with a master's degree in journalism in 2015, and from Columbia University in 2011.