納德拉：微軟需要打造“數據文化”

????微軟（Microsoft）新任首席執行官薩提亞?納德拉最近很忙。上周二，他在舊金山主持了一場發布會，這是他三周以來第三次公開亮相。跟上次曝光度極高的發布會不同，本次會議鮮有媒體報道，原因恐怕與討論的主題是企業級軟件有關。要知道，在上次會議上，發布的可是萬眾期待的iPad版Office。

????誠然，納德拉這次并沒有帶來多少新鮮信息。路透社（Reuters ）和彭博社（Bloomberg ）的報道已經涵蓋了基本內容：微軟將更新數據庫及其輔助產品。

????不過內行看門道，令我感到震驚的是納德拉和其余高管對微軟愿景的描述，尤其是他們字里行間無處不充斥著“數據”一詞。大數據毫無疑問是當下最熱門的話題，誰都可以暢談一二。但納德拉及其團隊用清晰明了的方式對大數據進行了闡述，令我有撥云見日的感覺。畢竟，這可是納德拉的老本行，而且也是微軟目前最危險的業務。

????按照納德拉的觀點，由微軟軟件產生、存儲和加工的數據才是公司的未來。他表示微軟需要形成“這樣一種數據文化，即每個工程師每天要審視使用數據、從中學習、思考我們的產品還能增加哪些新功能，同時著手進行改進。這是微軟活力的源泉?！奔{德拉還談到了“數據垃圾”，例如服務器日志、社交流媒體信息和事務數據。它們看起來好像毫無用處，但可以轉換為“數據燃料”供給所謂的“環境智能”使用。如果能做到了這一切，那么微軟用戶將能獲得“數據紅利”。

????納德拉并不是在空口說白話。微軟高管們向用戶展示了如何利用Office產品新功能打擊計算機犯罪、改善建筑物能耗以及規劃市場營銷費用。

????當然，紙上得來終覺淺。納德拉鼓勵大家“善于利用Office挖掘數據”。我深以為然。眼下許多熱門產品和服務都與微軟的生態系統搭不上半點干系。我至今仍耿耿于懷，微軟為什么沒有基于Outlook郵件系統開發出LikedIn。要知道，微軟在這方面可是有巨大的先天優勢。多年來，我常常向朋友們群發非正式郵件，分享我的文章的鏈接。對我而言，Outlook中的群組功能除了發郵件，幾乎一無是處。我最終時髦了一把，用Mailchimp取而代之。后者的數據分析功能棒極了，微軟應該提供這樣的功能，而不是讓Mailchimp這個名字滑稽的新創企業占了先機。

????不過，豪言壯語是個開始。微軟首席運營官凱文?特納在談到如何與用戶打交道時，至少兩次用到了“謙遜”這個詞。而納德拉也還有話要說。微軟表示，從4月24日開始，納德拉將負責主持公司的季度營收電話會議，這與史蒂夫?鮑爾默時代的做法截然不同。投資者們希望直接聆聽首席執行官的聲音，尤其是，假如首席執行官的豪言壯語真的能轉化成公司實實在在的營收的話。（財富中文網）

????譯者：項航

????Microsoft's (MSFT) neophyte CEO SatyaNadella held an event in San Francisco Tuesday, his third public appearance in three weeks. Unlike his last outing, to unveil Microsoft's Office app for the iPad, the daylong affair didn't get much attention, most likely because it was focused on enterprise software.

????It's true that Nadella didn't say much that was new. Reuters and Bloomberg covered the basics, which included updates on Microsoft's database and ancillary products.

????Yet I was struck by the words Nadella and other executives used to describe Microsoft's goals, primarily the many ways they dressed up and accessorized the word "data." Big data is the theme of the era, and no one can ignore it. But Nadella and his team have hit on clever ways to explain it, which strikes me as a positive development. After all, this is the part of the business Nadella ran before his elevation to chief executive, and it's also the part of Microsoft's business that is least vulnerable to competition.

????In Nadella's world view, data generated by, living on, and enhanced by Microsoft's software is the company's future. He said the company needs a "data culture where every engineer, every day, is looking at the usage data, learning from that usage data, questioning what new things to test out with our products, and being on that improvement cycle which is the lifeblood of Microsoft." He talked about "data exhaust," such as server logs, social-media streams, and transaction data that is meaningless unless it can be turned into "data fuel" for something he called "ambient intelligence." Getting this right will lead to a "data dividend" for Microsoft's customers.

????Such fluffy language included examples too. Microsoft executives showed how users can exploit new features of Microsoft's Office productivity software to catch cybercriminals, improve energy utilization in buildings, and target marketing expenditures.

????Words have limitations, of course. Nadella encouraged users to "think of Office as the scaffolding from which you can access the data." I like that. Yet too often others have erected their products far from Microsoft's building site. To this day I'm annoyed that Microsoft didn't build LinkedIn from its Outlook email program, a veritable birthright for Microsoft. For years now I've distributed an informal email to a group of friends, linking to my articles. That group function in Outlook did next to nothing for me other than send an email. I finally got modern and am using Mailchimp now instead. The analytics are gorgeous, and Microsoft should be giving them to me, not some startup with a funny name.

????Still, words are a start. Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, used the word "humility" at least twice in communicating the company's attitude toward its customers. And Nadella isn't done using his words. Microsoft said that the CEO will begin hosting the company's quarterly earnings calls on April 24, a departure from Steve Ballmer's routine. Investors love to hear from the CEO directly -- especially if he can tell them his words are translating into the kinds of numbers they want to hear.