MICROSOFT CEO SATYA NADELLA - “Empathy is a very important business skill” | Axel Springer Award

“I don’t think empathy is a soft skill. In fact, it is the hardest skill we learn, to relate to the world, to relate to the people that matter the most to us. In fact, innovation is about meeting the unmet, unarticulated needs of customers. What’s the source of that? Some would say design thinking. But design thinking is empathy. - I would say it's actually a very important buisiness skill.” Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella made this statement during an exclusive interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner.

“He rewrote the code for a new era” – Satya Nadella honored with Axel Springer Award

The first AI laudatory speech ever held at an Axel Springer Award praised Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella as “the wizard behind the digital curtain”, “the coding conjurer at the helm of Microsoft”, and “the ultimate boss in binary”, who “rewrote the code for a new era”. This year’s award ceremony center-staged the life and achievements of the visionary entrepreneur who, in not even ten years as a CEO, has increased the revenue of Microsoft tenfold.   

A multimedia show staged in the new Axel Springer building literally highlighted the different stages of Satya Nadella’s life. From his childhood days in India to his position as CEO and Chairman of Microsoft. From his first passion, Cricket, to everything he took away from his love for the game in his career. In his conversation with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner, Satya Nadella stressed that “team sports have a huge bearing on who we become as citizens and leaders”.

Surprise guest and former cricketer Zaheer Khan said: “Cricket is a symphony, and every player is a note in that composition. (…) Leadership in cricket is about being a guiding light and source of inspiration. In cricket we lead not with arrogance but with humility. In the journey of Satya Nadella, we see a reflection of these principles in the corporate world.”

Mathias Döpfner stressed that while Satya Nadella did not found Microsoft, he certainly reinvented it, and “changed the culture in no time very radically”. The conversation on stage underlined the importance of empathy for Satya Nadella: “I don’t think empathy is a soft skill. In fact, it is the hardest skill we learn, to relate to the world, to relate to the people that matter the most to us. In fact, innovation is about meeting the unmet, unarticulated needs of customers. What’s the source of that? Some would say design thinking. But design thinking is empathy.”

Volker Wissing, Federal Minister for Digital and Transport, said in his laudatory speech: “I understand everybody who is concerned about the future in the light of the current global situation. This is why evenings and events like this are all the more important. They show that there are great leaders and visionaries among us who symbolize the future, optimism, and success – and at the same time empathy and humanity. After all, there is no doubt that progress needs role models.”

The Axel Springer Award ceremony was attended by high-ranking participants from politics and business, including Mario Federico (Chairman of McDonald’s Deutschland LLC), Marianne Janik (CEO Microsoft Germany), Philipp Justus (Country Manager Google Germany GmbH & VP Central Europe), Christian Klein (CEO SAP), Alice Mascia (CEO DAZN), Verena Pausder (Entrepreneur), Konstantin Sixt (Co-CEO Sixt SE), and Hildegard Wortmann (Board Member of AUDI AG).

About the Axel Springer Award

The Axel Springer Award honors outstanding personalities who are innovative in an extraordinary way, who create and change markets and who shape culture while at the same time shouldering their social responsibility. The award recognizes accomplishments so far and encourages further steps. At the same time, the award winners should be role models for others to bring their own ideas to fruition.

Past awardees include the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the BioNTech founders Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, among others, the economist and author Shoshana Zuboff, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta.

The format of the award ceremony is always tailored to the individual honoree. The Axel Springer Award is a prestige award without prize money. Further information about the Axel Springer Award is available at https://www.axelspringer.com/en/axel-springer-award

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