Author: Satya Nadella
# of Pages: 273 (hardcover)
Genre: Nonfiction, Technology, Biography
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Synopsis: As told by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Hit Refresh is the story of corporate change and reinvention as well as the story of Nadella’s personal journey, one that is taking place today inside a storied technology company, and one that is coming in all of our lives as intelligent machines become more ambient and more ubiquitous. It’s about how people, organizations and societies can and must hit refresh—transform—in their persistent quest for new energy, new ideas, relevance and renewal. At the core, it’s about us humans and our unique qualities, like empathy, which will become ever more valuable in a world where the torrent of technology will disrupt like never before. As much a humanist as a technologist, Nadella defines his mission and that of the company he leads as empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Review: Many people say this book is only meant for Microsoft employees.
This is false; Nadella most likely wanted to reach a broader audience as show by his various interviews to promote his book. However, the audience he reaches the best would be those in the tech industry (especially Microsoft employees) and bigwigs.
Hit Refresh reads very much like an essay; Nadella uses words from other credible authors/speakers throughout his book to illustrate ideas he agrees with and ends with a huge call to action for the reader. However, these two aspects combined overshadows Nadella's narrative about himself; although he begins his book with personal anecdotes, the focus slowly slips to the tech industry, including analysis of the FBI-Apple encryption issue and the Sony Picture hack. While these different components of the book may be interesting to some, not all of them have to (nor should be) put into the same book.
An essay may be what some people are looking for, but it did not satisfy my casual reading craving. That being said, I knew going into this book that it was not going to be an enthralling read; however I expected to feel more like I was having a conversation with Nadella rather than reading a formal speech. Although this was not a hard read, it something that only needs to be read once, at most. If you don't fall in the audience I described above, I would recommend you look elsewhere for a book to read in your free time.
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