Earlier quoted context omitted.
It may be unfair to Nadella's abilities, but his 3000 word essay reads like typical techno fluff. This can be a red flag because other innovative CEO's write in a much more straightforward manner instead of corporate doublespeak: Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, Reed Hastings, Elon Musk. I read a book[1] about corporate speak and it opened my eyes to the fact that it's actually the lingua franca of middle manag…
I think that practitioners of corporate-speak are surrounded by so many other people who corporate-speak that they don't realize how idiotic it sounds to everyone else. To them, they're normal words that actually mean real things – because they are normal words that actually mean real things. I think the real issue it people who use them as buzzwords. They say 'synergize our corporate efficiencies to maximize our val…
Why is it so hard for people to boil down their message? Is it fear? Is it ignorance? Is it lying?
It must be some combination of these for if presented with a life and death situation I doubt corporate psycho babble would spew forth.
In general, in the words of the late/great Mr. George Carlin, "People tend to use extra words when they want something to sounds more important than it really is."
I would encourage everyone at M$, and frankly anyone that hasn't seen it, to watch George Carlin's bit about the boarding process of airlines. A couple gems worth note (that could easily be translated to corporate speak):
1. Please look around your immediate seating area SEAT! 2. Items you may have brought on board. Well, I may have brought my tiddly-winks collection, but I didn't, so I'm not going to look for it!
If I worked at M$, and could roll into work anytime I wanted, take off early without anyone noticing, two hour lunch breaks, and so on and so forth - I'd be scared. Layoffs are the next step after letters like these, and you're the fat.
To sum it up nicely in a way only George could do: "More shit from the bogus captain!"