On Wednesday, October 12, Microsoft held its fall conference to introduce its new Surface computers and tablets. A presentation organized by Panos Panay to show the power of home devices and the strength of Windows 11. In recent years, the company has regained the fur of the beast and no longer hides its ambitions. He’s no longer ashamed of it either, one would be tempted to say, as he’s often played humility overflow in the past.
However, the health crisis has benefited him with increased screen time and home working, the need to re-equip himself and have the tools to work and play. But don’t tell him it was beneficial.
Adapt, the key to success
Adaptation has always been Microsoft’s keyword, he says. software company initially (the Smooth of soft mic, the first name)elle a su évoluer pour proposer aujourd’hui des applications, des systèmes d’exploitation, des serveurs puissants, mais aussi des ordinateurs portables ou tout-en-un, des tactile tablets capable of becoming des PC, et même des écouteurs et accessoires miscellaneous .
“I think it’s great that we have such an open ecosystem and that Windows can run on a variety of hardware,” says Chris Capossela, also referring to the multiple vendor partners. “It is a constant challenge to make sure this is possible. I love that anyone can design the computer they want, with the parts they want, and everything works to design their own experience. You just can’t do it with a Mac, iPad or iPhone.”
Even more so when the two tenors find common ground so that the applications of one (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) pass to the other and vice versa (iCloud Photos, Apple TV and Apple Music arrive at the Microsoft store).
From the speeches of Bill Gates to the empathy of Satya Nadella
He has been walking the halls of the Redmond campus for 31 years. In three decades, Chris Capossela has experienced changes, evolutions, setbacks, both internally and in the external technological world. For him, it is also the corporate culture that has evolved the most from its beginnings with Bill Gates to the era of Satya Nadella, the current CEO. “We have become a much more customer-focused company than we used to be,” the 50-year-old acknowledges.
And he worked very closely with both to attest to that. “Shortly after I arrived, I found myself writing speeches for Bill Gates. I traveled the world by his side and rubbed shoulders with him up close.
If men are true leaders according to him, they did it in different ways. “There was a corporate culture before, but Satya’s influence is felt here. He emphasized the culture of curiosity and the desire to solve real user problems. Bill became less focused on people and more focused on moving Microsoft forward in the world, on innovation. Satya brought a really special sense of empathy and a culture of teamwork. He leads like that and it’s pretty unique for a CEO.”
For him, this is undoubtedly what has made Microsoft grow the most in recent years: the leadership of his boss has influenced all departments of the company and fostered “cross-functional collaboration” between teams. “Empathy, customer orientation, teamwork: these are his three most important values,” he adds with great admiration, which he believes is not the only one he dedicates to Satya Nadella.
Accessibility and inclusion
And that empathy that Nadella carries, that concern for putting the user at the center of everything, is felt in the design of both Windows and the products, but also in the values. Thus, it made accessibility a central word in people’s minds. Each innovation has its own set of functions, accessories and other manipulations that should be possible for the greatest number of people. This is how the company deploys throughout the year mice, keyboards, labels or joysticks compatible with its devices and those of its partners.
“Bill Gates was already insisting that the graphical style of the Windows user interface should work for blind people,” recalls Chris Capossela. “We worked very early to make it work. But Satya has put accessibility and inclusion first by calling for every person, every business on the planet to be empowered to achieve more.” Live subtitles even in video calls, visual enhancements, an Xbox adaptive controller for all disabilities or the ability to easily grip your devices: Microsoft is at the forefront of accessibility and its advances are welcomed by all.
A Microsoft mainstay that started… on the Mac
And to think that, fresh out of Harvard University, Chris Capossela got his first job at Microsoft, when he was a… Mac user. “I used a Mac in college, I had a Mac,” he smiles. “When I joined Microsoft, there was something called Windows 3.0 and no one knew about it yet. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s different!’ I bought this for my father for the family restaurant, there was no interface at the time, it was just DOS, typed character”. Since then, Windows has also evolved a lot, he acknowledges. To the point of becoming essential for more than a billion users people in the world.
The new face more open, more in line with the times, of Microsoft, intends to see the contours outlined for a few more years. “It’s weird spending your entire career at the same company,” he tells us. “But when it goes well, it’s ultimately quite logical.” He says that he is proud of the progress also in terms of environment and sustainable development driven by the company, AI, with the good of the user always at the center of focus.
And what does it matter if we lend Microsoft, like any giant, only commercial wills. “It doesn’t bother us. The important thing is to be faithful to our principles and to be very transparent about our commitments and our results”, summarizes Chris Capossela. And quoting Apple “heavily criticized for removing chargers from its iPhone boxes.” , not praised for putting fewer plugs into circulation in the world “.” If someone criticizes what we do because he thinks it’s just to clear his conscience and that we don’t believe in it, too bad for him! But that won’t stop us from sleeping at Microsoft, because we know why we do it,” he concludes.
Source: BFM TV
