Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs
It would be hard to imagine three personalities more different than those of Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella, the three people who have served as Microsoft CEO in the company’s 50 years of existence.
But apart from their shared history in the role, they have something else in common: curiosity.
That’s the take from Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice chair and president, who has worked closely with Gates, Ballmer, and Nadella at different points in his 32 years at the company.
SPECIAL COVERAGEGeekWire’s Microsoft@50 series
“All three of them embody a common attribute that I have found to be present in most truly great leaders in multiple fields, and that’s curiosity,” Smith said when I asked him to compare and contrast the three Thursday night during GeekWire’s Microsoft@50 event in Seattle.
He explained that they are “curious in different ways.”
Gates is known for devouring books and learning through reading, as he details in his new memoir, Source Code, which focuses on his early years.
Ballmer can “read a spreadsheet like no other human being on the planet” and finds insights through talking and numbers, as Smith observed.
Nadella, meanwhile, has an extraordinary range of interests. Smith remembered when Nadella, on a trip to Finland, asking a local executive deep questions about poetry, politics, and real estate.
“If you ask me these questions about Seattle, I would be like, I give up,” Smith said.
Nadella sounded a similar theme in a recent interview on the Minus One podcast from South Park Commons, when asked to give advice for future generations in the age of artificial intelligence. In this emerging world, he said, it’s possible that there will be a bigger premium on curiosity than on expertise.
Watch the video of Smith’s comments above, and listen to the full conversation with him from the Microsoft@50 event on this week’s GeekWire Podcast.
PREVIOUSLY: The surprising way Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella uses AI to consume podcasts on his commute
